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Battle Tree Discussion and Records
- Thread starter Eisenherz
- Start date
In game, in Festival Plaza, inside the castle, there's a computer that you access and input the code, and it plays for you there.
Hi everyone my name is Silvernickel, writing my first post here about how i reached Streak 70 at Super Multi today with my best friend Danny(Human Partner) who lived near my house.
It was already late so we decided to stop for the day and continue again at a later day.
Quick backstory on the team, this is actually the exact same team i used to beat Super Doubles, currently sitting at Streak 67 and will probably continue the streak and see how far this team will go.
The relatively good success and potential of the team lead me to call my friend and ask him to come over and try to beat Super Multi together. Lend him my Mimikyu and Xurkitree, and me with my Tapu Fini and Kartana.
So the basic idea of this team is to abuse Mimikyu's Disguise ability, which is awesome, but its not necessarily a free sub and AIs tend to use status moves on it. Lum Berry was the initial solution however someone mentioned in the forums how Wide Lens was crucial for Play Rough and that person is right. So then i thought who can be the medic/support to Mimikyu.
Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain was the perfect solution, Misty Terrain + Disguise combo is self explanatory, Free Substitute.
The strategy is relatively forward, Mimikyu will most of the time go for a Swords Dance once or twice while Tapu Fini decides which one of the opponent will be a threat to Kartana or Xurkitree. Sometimes its better to do half damage to the target and let Tapu Fini go down and let Kartana to finish it off and get a free boost.
In the event that the AIs focused on Mimikyu, try to Shadow sneak once and go down, again let Xurkitree get the kill for the boost.
As for Kartana, i decide to carry Protect because more often than not it saved me countless of times, Protecting itself from fire moves while my partner kills it for Kartana. There are times where a Night slash would have been better but trust me everything wants to burn this paper cutter. Fire mons gets baited, proceed with Protect. Perfect strategy 101
I always thought everyone must carry Protect except Choice Scarf holders, mimikyu is kinda special, i let it carry Leech life over protect/shadow claw as the coverage and hp drain saved me too many situations where i would have lost.
Threats...oh my there are a plenty.
Common threats to lookout for are Fire types and Earthquake users, basically anything that can take out Kartana or Xurkitree.
Mega Charizard Y is the bane of this team, reducing the damage of Fini's Scald and doing massive damage with Solar Beam. Make Sure Xurkitree does not go down before Charizard appears as only Mimikyu and Xurkitree are your best solution on taking this monster down.
Beware of Infernape! This bastard carries Fake Out and that one move that gave me close calls one time and another time that actually made me lost at Streak 46, that troll move is called "ENCORE". DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SWORDS DANCE TWICE, this monkey will praise you so much that you'll waste 3 more turns dancing like an ididot. One time i made my Kartana use Protect against Infernape's Fake Out, the next turn it Encore'd Kartana. What a troll...
At one time, opponent uses Serperior and Gyarados and i was like, pfft what can these guys do, Serperior probably use Leaf Tornado and Gyarados DD again, so i switched to Kartana. To my horror Gyarados used Bulldoze and Serperior got free boost from contrary, alas i still won the battle, but i was not prepared for that.
Be mindful of Pokemons with potential Evasion boosting sets. Such as Double Team Regigigas and Zapdos. Xurkitree needs to be alive for its 100% accuracy Z-Move
Be careful of Zapdos, setting up screens and Kartana cant do much damage to it. And if it starts Double team-ing, either kill its partner first, or ensure Xurkitree comes at full health and finish it off with Gigavolt Havoc
If you see Garchomp, do everyone a favour and Ice beam it, if it turns out to be an Earthquaker and holds Choice Scarf, its not going to be pretty.
Wraith (Mimikyu) (M) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Play Rough
- Leech life
- Swords Dance
Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Grass Knot
Xurkitree @ Electrium-Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Energy Ball
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Protect
Here is battle video showing how this team works, the battle was hard too
8EAG-WWWW-WWW6-LZZT
All in all, even though this team isn't perfect, its still a nice team to carry you to Streak 50. You can probably Improvise here and there, like bringing Pelipper to counter Charizard, but in any case, i'm glad to made it this far with this team. Feel free to copy this team, i hope it helped you all the way it helped me.
Quick brief history about me, i played all the pokemon games since Red, even all the Mystery dungeons, also battling towers since Emerald, getting all trophies in Heartgold, XY, ORAS, and i have been so amazed by the pros here. I hope i can join the SMOGON family ^^
It was already late so we decided to stop for the day and continue again at a later day.
Quick backstory on the team, this is actually the exact same team i used to beat Super Doubles, currently sitting at Streak 67 and will probably continue the streak and see how far this team will go.
The relatively good success and potential of the team lead me to call my friend and ask him to come over and try to beat Super Multi together. Lend him my Mimikyu and Xurkitree, and me with my Tapu Fini and Kartana.
So the basic idea of this team is to abuse Mimikyu's Disguise ability, which is awesome, but its not necessarily a free sub and AIs tend to use status moves on it. Lum Berry was the initial solution however someone mentioned in the forums how Wide Lens was crucial for Play Rough and that person is right. So then i thought who can be the medic/support to Mimikyu.
Tapu Fini's Misty Terrain was the perfect solution, Misty Terrain + Disguise combo is self explanatory, Free Substitute.
The strategy is relatively forward, Mimikyu will most of the time go for a Swords Dance once or twice while Tapu Fini decides which one of the opponent will be a threat to Kartana or Xurkitree. Sometimes its better to do half damage to the target and let Tapu Fini go down and let Kartana to finish it off and get a free boost.
In the event that the AIs focused on Mimikyu, try to Shadow sneak once and go down, again let Xurkitree get the kill for the boost.
As for Kartana, i decide to carry Protect because more often than not it saved me countless of times, Protecting itself from fire moves while my partner kills it for Kartana. There are times where a Night slash would have been better but trust me everything wants to burn this paper cutter. Fire mons gets baited, proceed with Protect. Perfect strategy 101
I always thought everyone must carry Protect except Choice Scarf holders, mimikyu is kinda special, i let it carry Leech life over protect/shadow claw as the coverage and hp drain saved me too many situations where i would have lost.
Threats...oh my there are a plenty.
Common threats to lookout for are Fire types and Earthquake users, basically anything that can take out Kartana or Xurkitree.
Mega Charizard Y is the bane of this team, reducing the damage of Fini's Scald and doing massive damage with Solar Beam. Make Sure Xurkitree does not go down before Charizard appears as only Mimikyu and Xurkitree are your best solution on taking this monster down.
Beware of Infernape! This bastard carries Fake Out and that one move that gave me close calls one time and another time that actually made me lost at Streak 46, that troll move is called "ENCORE". DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SWORDS DANCE TWICE, this monkey will praise you so much that you'll waste 3 more turns dancing like an ididot. One time i made my Kartana use Protect against Infernape's Fake Out, the next turn it Encore'd Kartana. What a troll...
At one time, opponent uses Serperior and Gyarados and i was like, pfft what can these guys do, Serperior probably use Leaf Tornado and Gyarados DD again, so i switched to Kartana. To my horror Gyarados used Bulldoze and Serperior got free boost from contrary, alas i still won the battle, but i was not prepared for that.
Be mindful of Pokemons with potential Evasion boosting sets. Such as Double Team Regigigas and Zapdos. Xurkitree needs to be alive for its 100% accuracy Z-Move
Be careful of Zapdos, setting up screens and Kartana cant do much damage to it. And if it starts Double team-ing, either kill its partner first, or ensure Xurkitree comes at full health and finish it off with Gigavolt Havoc
If you see Garchomp, do everyone a favour and Ice beam it, if it turns out to be an Earthquaker and holds Choice Scarf, its not going to be pretty.
Wraith (Mimikyu) (M) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Play Rough
- Leech life
- Swords Dance
Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast
- Grass Knot
Xurkitree @ Electrium-Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Hidden Power (Ice)
- Energy Ball
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Protect
Here is battle video showing how this team works, the battle was hard too
8EAG-WWWW-WWW6-LZZT
All in all, even though this team isn't perfect, its still a nice team to carry you to Streak 50. You can probably Improvise here and there, like bringing Pelipper to counter Charizard, but in any case, i'm glad to made it this far with this team. Feel free to copy this team, i hope it helped you all the way it helped me.
Quick brief history about me, i played all the pokemon games since Red, even all the Mystery dungeons, also battling towers since Emerald, getting all trophies in Heartgold, XY, ORAS, and i have been so amazed by the pros here. I hope i can join the SMOGON family ^^
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While it's not relevant to this thread, and it's probably been so long since you played, I'd love to hear about your experiences in Frontier (both of them) and Maison, always helpful to those of us who go back and slog through those.
Also, I'm confused: you mention Swords Dance in your writeup but don't have it on your Mimikyu set. I take it should be where Protect is?
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Whoops, i apologize for that mistake, i fixed it just now, should have double checked
NoCheese edit: For reference, even though it's just a few posts up, the original writeup is here.
An update on the run, sadly the streak ended at Streak 77. Lost against Janitor Sika and Veteran Placido with their Entei + Alolan-Muk and Landorus + Starmie-4
How the battle went;
Turn 1) Mimikyu used SD, Fini used Scald on Entei, Entei used Flamethrower on Mimikyu, Alolan-Muk used Crunch and critical hit on Mimikyu (3 hp left)
Turn 2) Fini used Scald on Entei and it went down, Mimikyu Pay Rough on Muk and Mimikyu goes down after another Crunch
Turn 3) Landorus comes out and OHKO Xurkitree with Earth power, Fini Scald and OHKO Landorus, Muk used Crunch on Fini.
Turn 4) Fini hits Starmie with Scald taking out 1/4 of its hp, Starmie used Thunderbolt on Fini
Turn 5) Scald 1 more time, Fini went down
Turn 6) Ice Beam to Kartana and Kartana Flinched!
Turn 7) Kartana went down.
Its a shame but alas this is how it ended, RNG wasn't in my favour this time. If this were in Double battles i could have brought out Kartana instead of Xurk to prevent that Earth Power OHKO.
Added another threat to the list, Ninetales Drought + Heatran.
Last edited by a moderator:
Reporting a streak of 463 wins in Super Doubles
*Warning: long post alert*
It has been quite a while for me playing serious in the battle facilities, but about 2 months ago I decided to really try to go for a big streak, and I got further than I have ever gotten. However, I am really not yet satisfied as I feel that the team I used is capable of reaching the thousands. I will first give a bit of backstory to the time, but if you are not interested in that or you think it’s tl;dr, here is the team I used:
When looking for a team to try out, I stumbled upon a team from Turskain which he used in the battle maison. It was the team he reached a 1467 streak with, using Raikou, Greninja, Salamence and Aegislash. I replaced Raikou with Tapu Koko as it was simply superior in speed and power (it has however, a little bit less bulk). I changed the item of Aegislash to Ghostium Z as it seemed like a better choice than Leftovers. So I played with this team and got to a bit above 100, before losing to Gogoat and Jolteon among other things, mostly because I misplayed, put partly because I lost a bit of interest in the team as I felt the team wasn’t very strong. I found Greninja with Mat Block not good enough, as it was still outsped by quite a few Pokémon in the tree, for which Mat Block didn’t work, especially Choice Scarf holders. Salamence also hardly ever had time to Dragon Dance and Aegislash was not really pulling its weight. However, I also noticed Choice Specs Tapu Koko was very good when given a free turn.
For these reasons, I decided I wanted to change a few things. The first thing I thought of changing was replacing Greninja with Weavile. It would still give Tapu Koko a free turn in the form of Fake Out and it has about the same coverage as Greninja, but replaced the not needed water coverage with Fighting coverage. This coverage was needed for all the bulky Normal and Steel types (especially Magnezone) which were a bit problematic for the team I used previously. Secondly, I decided to change Salamence to a mixed set with Hyper Voice, Double Edge, Flamethrower and Protect with a focus on Special Attack. With the previous Salamence, I often wanted Salamence to use a decently strong spread move as he often came in when the opponents were weakened. Luckily enough, Salamence has access to such a move in the form of Hyper Voice. I still wanted to give him Double Edge as I think Double-Edge is just simply too strong not to use, even without any Attack investment. Thirdly, I decided to swap Aegislash for Assault Vest Metagross as I felt the team had some trouble with Electric and Fairy types, which he could deal with by using Earthquake and Iron Head. He could also freely Earthquake next to Salamence, which was quite nice. Metagross also gave the team sort of an answer to Trick Room, by being pretty bulky and having priority in the form of Bullet Punch.
So with this, the team seemed way stronger to me and almost started to play the next streak. However, before I even got to try this team, Atsync posted his team, including Unburden Hawlucha. I was quite impressed by his run but I also remembered something. Wasn’t there a Pokémon with both Unburden and Fake Out? If you checked out the team at the beginning of my post, you know the answer to this question is yes. So I decided that instead of Weavile I was going to use Hitmonlee. With the Electric Seed it was even faster than Weavile, or anything else that you can possibly encounter in the Tree for that matter. The only thing I gave up was Ice type coverage, but this wasn’t needed too much as Fighting + Electric already gave the leading duo very good coverage. So to be exact, this was the team I started with:
Hitmonlee @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Protect
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Flamethrower
- Protect
Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch
With this team, I got to 212 wins before losing. Here is the battle video of the loss: GVXG-WWWW-WWW6-KB8R
It was a battle against 4 electric types including Rotom-H and Manectric, Alola Raichu and Jolteon, which is probably the hardest matchup this team can face. Rotom-H in particular is very hard for this team to hit, only having one neutral move against it in Close Combat from Hitmonlee, but that only does around 60%. In the end I lost because the AI got a Paralyzing Thunderbolt with the consecutive fully paralysed on the same turn. I felt this was pretty unlucky as even against such a bad matchup I still had a pretty good chance to win. Still, I decided that I needed something better to deal with those electric types, as throughout the run Electric types were always quite threatening. I looked around for potential candidates, and decided I would try Assault Vest Gastrodon first. I had a very good match up against Electric types and Grass types shouldn’t really be a problem with Salamence on the team. I had first played the streak bit with Metagross and chanced to Gastrodon at 59, only to lose on 61 because Gastrodon really didn’t pull its weight versus Florges. I noticed that by changing to Gastrodon, I had quite a difficult match up versus Fairy types. So I started to look for another replacement of Metagross, as I felt that Hitmonlee, Tapu Koko and Salamence all performed very well. Metagross, also performed pretty well, but I felt that it was the Pokémon that was the most expendable. Before trying out Gastrodon over Metagross, I was also considering Excadrill, which I came back for again as it both has an amazing match up versus Fairy types and electric types, including Rotom-H. I had a good conversation with my good friend Mr. Marc about what kind of Excadrill I was going to use as I was not really sure. I really wanted to use the Z-Crystal as I kinda wanted a team with both a Mega and a Z-move, but he convinced me it was not worth it. Turns out he was right, as using the Focus Sash has saved me multiple times throughout my run. Even though Excadrill is used in the back, I hardly ever switch it in, and if I do, it is mostly on Poison moves from Crobat and Mega Gengar targeted at Tapu Koko, so the Focus Sash is almost never broken on the switch. So at this point, I felt the team was even stronger than the previous version and I decided to hop back in the Tree and see how far I could go and if the team was really improved. When using the team, it felt already way stronger than its previous version as I noticed I didn’t really miss Ice Punch or Bullet Punch from Metagross and loved the fact that I could simply Earthquake Rotom-H. Here is the second and (and final) version of the team I used:
Hitmonlee @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Protect
As previously mentioned, Hitmonlee was inspired from the Hawlucha Atsync used. Funnily enough, Hitmonlee has already another big streak in another era, used by Peterko in his Subway and Tower teams consisting Latios, Hitmonlee, Metagross and Hydrygon (Subway) or Zapdos (Tower). However, his hitmonlee obviously didn’t have Electric seed and Unburden, but instead had Focus sash and Limber. It also focused more on priority using Mach Punch and Sucker Punch. However, when you have become the fastest Pokémon in the subway, priority is not needed, so instead I opted for Protect and Knock Off.
Fake Out was the obvious first move to use on Hitmonlee, as it was the reason to use it in the first place. Close Combat is its strongest STAB move, and it KOs a lot of Pokémon frail Pokémon such as Jolteon with it and deals overall just heavy damage. Knock off was also used quite a bit, especially against Psychic and Ghost Types which often take a big chunk from it, even KOing the less bulky ones such as normal Gengar and Espeon. It also has the added bonus of taking an Item which can be quite handy. For example, against the dreaded Walrein-4?, I often use Knock Off + Thunderbolt on it as Close Combat doesn’t KO it. If Knock off hits, I guarantee the KO for Tapu Koko, and if it doesn’t I still have a very good chance to hit it with Tapu Koko. It’s also used if I do not want to lower its defences with Close Combat when Hitmonlee cannot KO anything on the field or to remove Damaging or haxing items such as Choice Bands, Life Orbs, Quick Claws and Lax Incense/Bright Powder.
The EV spread is pretty basic. It has enough speed to outspeed everything in the Tree and everything else went into bulk. Giving it 68/4/4 in defences is a more optimal than just giving it 76 HP, and it also makes Garchomps Earthquake a definite 2HKO (whereas with 76 HP it has a small chance to OHKO).
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
Ah, Choice Specs Tapu Koko, the only Pokémon in the team that was in all alterations of the team, and it hasn’t changed one bit. Without other Tapu’s in the Tree, I always have the Electric Terrain up, which makes Koko very strong. For comparison, Thunderbolt from this Tapu Koko in Electric terrain hits a bit harder than Charizard-Y’ s Flamethrower in the sun. This means it KOs a lot of things with just Thunderbolt.
The moveset of Tapu Koko is very standard and is not up for debate. Volt Switch is a very good move for getting Koko out of danger and still dealing pretty significant damage. Dazzling Gleam is a decently strong spread move and mostly used when dealing with leads weak to it. It can also be used to break (potential) Focus Sashes and Sturdy from Pokémon which Hitmonlee can bring to 1HP (Heatran for example). Grass Knot is the least useful on the moveset, and it is hardly ever used. I never lock myself into it on turn one, as even things like Swampert and Gastrodon can often survive it. I think I only really needed it one time, and that one time it barely didn’t do enough (Spoilers).
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Hasty Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Flamethrower
- Protect
The first back up and often switched in when Tapu Koko uses Volt Switch or when it hard switches out of 2 Ground types, often taking no Damage on the Switch in. The synergy between Tapu Koko and Salamence is actually very good as Salamence cannot only freely switch in on Ground types, but also on Dragon Types and potential Thunder Wave users as Tapu Koko is immune for those. For this reason it is often very safe to switch in Salamence unharmed. Also, it’s offensive synergy with Hitmonlee is very good, with only Zapdos, Thundurus, Rotom-Fan and resisting their STAB moves. The Electric Flying types can hardly do a thing to Excadrill and are hit very hard by Koko. This makes for a very dynamic duo with these three already defeating almost every enemy in their path.
The moveset and EV spread is again pretty simple. Hyper Voice would be weak without Special Attack investment and Double-Edge hits very hard, even without investment, so choosing to invest fully into Special Attack made sense to me. Flamethrower is mostly a filler move and used against things like Scizor and Ferrothorn, even though they are not really a threat. It is probably the most replaceable move, but Dragon Pulse (the most logical alternative) is also not really needed on this team, as I have Koko for Dragon Types.
The choice of the nature might be a bit interesting. I often go for Naïve on Salamence and mixed attackers in general, but for this team Hasty made the most sense to me. It allows it to survive a few key special moves from Electric Pokémon in electric terrain such as Thunderbolt from Jolteon. It also takes less damage from threats such as Mega Alakazam. This has come into play a few times during this streak and I never felt like Naïve would have let me survive an extra attack so I am really happy with my choice for Hasty.
Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
31/31/31/X/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Tomb
- Protect
The last Pokémon of the team and also the last one I added. This one deals with everything my other 3 have trouble with, namely Fairy types and Electric types. One of the biggest threats to the team when I had Metagross was Rotom-Heat, but now it simply gets destroyed when I get Excadrill in safely. Having Mold Breaker also allows it to KO Pokémon through Sturdy (Magnezone) and KO Mimikyu through Disguise with Iron Head (even though the last one isn’t very common). The Focus Sash allows Excadrill to simply focus on its Attack and Speed stat without worrying about its bulk. Even though it’s in the back of the team, it hardly ever gets broken on the switch as I simply hardly switch it in except on Poison moves aimed at Koko or when one of my gets KOd. When it is in, I often try to have Salamence as its partner as they make for a very strong duo with Dual Spread moves with only Skarmory and the Electric Flyers sporting a resistance to Earthquake + Hyper Voice/Double-Edge, but those aren’t even a threat.
The moveset and EV spread is again pretty standard. The only weird move on it is Rock Tomb but that move is mostly because I didn’t really know what other move I should use in that slot. Other options I considered were Swords Dance, X-Scissor and Rock Slide. Swords Dance was too situational I felt, and would not be needed in this fast paced team. X-scissor could be used to cover Psychic Types and Grass types, but Earthquake and Iron Head come pretty close in matching it’s power. Rock Slide wasn’t used instead of Rock Tomb because it has worse accuracy and I felt that whenever I had to use a Rock move it would be for just one target. Rock Tomb also has the added bonus of dropping the speed of the target, which is quite nice. In the end, I don’t think it really matters what the third move is. I only used Rock Tomb a few times, most of the time when I did use it, it didn’t really matter what I did. I only recall one battle where I had to use it against a Talonflame, so it came in handy at least once.
I chose Adamant over Jolly Nature, as that’s what I found in my box. I also thought that the extra power would be more important than speed, because my team is already very fast. This proved to be correct as I cannot recall a single moment where Jolly Nature would have helped me in a battle.
Conclusion
Overall, I really liked this team (which you can probably tell by length of my write up lol). I think it’s probably the best team I have ever created, and it’s also the furthest I have ever gotten in any battle facility. However, I am not done with this team yet as I feel this team can reach much further than it did, so I am planning to do another run with this team on Moon soon. If you have read all this I have to congratulate you, as this was way longer than I expected it to be. As a reward for your persistance of reading through all of this, here is the QR code of the team if you want to try the team yourself: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-0917-4FDD
*Warning: long post alert*
It has been quite a while for me playing serious in the battle facilities, but about 2 months ago I decided to really try to go for a big streak, and I got further than I have ever gotten. However, I am really not yet satisfied as I feel that the team I used is capable of reaching the thousands. I will first give a bit of backstory to the time, but if you are not interested in that or you think it’s tl;dr, here is the team I used:
When looking for a team to try out, I stumbled upon a team from Turskain which he used in the battle maison. It was the team he reached a 1467 streak with, using Raikou, Greninja, Salamence and Aegislash. I replaced Raikou with Tapu Koko as it was simply superior in speed and power (it has however, a little bit less bulk). I changed the item of Aegislash to Ghostium Z as it seemed like a better choice than Leftovers. So I played with this team and got to a bit above 100, before losing to Gogoat and Jolteon among other things, mostly because I misplayed, put partly because I lost a bit of interest in the team as I felt the team wasn’t very strong. I found Greninja with Mat Block not good enough, as it was still outsped by quite a few Pokémon in the tree, for which Mat Block didn’t work, especially Choice Scarf holders. Salamence also hardly ever had time to Dragon Dance and Aegislash was not really pulling its weight. However, I also noticed Choice Specs Tapu Koko was very good when given a free turn.
For these reasons, I decided I wanted to change a few things. The first thing I thought of changing was replacing Greninja with Weavile. It would still give Tapu Koko a free turn in the form of Fake Out and it has about the same coverage as Greninja, but replaced the not needed water coverage with Fighting coverage. This coverage was needed for all the bulky Normal and Steel types (especially Magnezone) which were a bit problematic for the team I used previously. Secondly, I decided to change Salamence to a mixed set with Hyper Voice, Double Edge, Flamethrower and Protect with a focus on Special Attack. With the previous Salamence, I often wanted Salamence to use a decently strong spread move as he often came in when the opponents were weakened. Luckily enough, Salamence has access to such a move in the form of Hyper Voice. I still wanted to give him Double Edge as I think Double-Edge is just simply too strong not to use, even without any Attack investment. Thirdly, I decided to swap Aegislash for Assault Vest Metagross as I felt the team had some trouble with Electric and Fairy types, which he could deal with by using Earthquake and Iron Head. He could also freely Earthquake next to Salamence, which was quite nice. Metagross also gave the team sort of an answer to Trick Room, by being pretty bulky and having priority in the form of Bullet Punch.
So with this, the team seemed way stronger to me and almost started to play the next streak. However, before I even got to try this team, Atsync posted his team, including Unburden Hawlucha. I was quite impressed by his run but I also remembered something. Wasn’t there a Pokémon with both Unburden and Fake Out? If you checked out the team at the beginning of my post, you know the answer to this question is yes. So I decided that instead of Weavile I was going to use Hitmonlee. With the Electric Seed it was even faster than Weavile, or anything else that you can possibly encounter in the Tree for that matter. The only thing I gave up was Ice type coverage, but this wasn’t needed too much as Fighting + Electric already gave the leading duo very good coverage. So to be exact, this was the team I started with:
Hitmonlee @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Protect
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Flamethrower
- Protect
Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Bullet Punch
- Ice Punch
It was a battle against 4 electric types including Rotom-H and Manectric, Alola Raichu and Jolteon, which is probably the hardest matchup this team can face. Rotom-H in particular is very hard for this team to hit, only having one neutral move against it in Close Combat from Hitmonlee, but that only does around 60%. In the end I lost because the AI got a Paralyzing Thunderbolt with the consecutive fully paralysed on the same turn. I felt this was pretty unlucky as even against such a bad matchup I still had a pretty good chance to win. Still, I decided that I needed something better to deal with those electric types, as throughout the run Electric types were always quite threatening. I looked around for potential candidates, and decided I would try Assault Vest Gastrodon first. I had a very good match up against Electric types and Grass types shouldn’t really be a problem with Salamence on the team. I had first played the streak bit with Metagross and chanced to Gastrodon at 59, only to lose on 61 because Gastrodon really didn’t pull its weight versus Florges. I noticed that by changing to Gastrodon, I had quite a difficult match up versus Fairy types. So I started to look for another replacement of Metagross, as I felt that Hitmonlee, Tapu Koko and Salamence all performed very well. Metagross, also performed pretty well, but I felt that it was the Pokémon that was the most expendable. Before trying out Gastrodon over Metagross, I was also considering Excadrill, which I came back for again as it both has an amazing match up versus Fairy types and electric types, including Rotom-H. I had a good conversation with my good friend Mr. Marc about what kind of Excadrill I was going to use as I was not really sure. I really wanted to use the Z-Crystal as I kinda wanted a team with both a Mega and a Z-move, but he convinced me it was not worth it. Turns out he was right, as using the Focus Sash has saved me multiple times throughout my run. Even though Excadrill is used in the back, I hardly ever switch it in, and if I do, it is mostly on Poison moves from Crobat and Mega Gengar targeted at Tapu Koko, so the Focus Sash is almost never broken on the switch. So at this point, I felt the team was even stronger than the previous version and I decided to hop back in the Tree and see how far I could go and if the team was really improved. When using the team, it felt already way stronger than its previous version as I noticed I didn’t really miss Ice Punch or Bullet Punch from Metagross and loved the fact that I could simply Earthquake Rotom-H. Here is the second and (and final) version of the team I used:
Hitmonlee @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Level: 50
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Protect
As previously mentioned, Hitmonlee was inspired from the Hawlucha Atsync used. Funnily enough, Hitmonlee has already another big streak in another era, used by Peterko in his Subway and Tower teams consisting Latios, Hitmonlee, Metagross and Hydrygon (Subway) or Zapdos (Tower). However, his hitmonlee obviously didn’t have Electric seed and Unburden, but instead had Focus sash and Limber. It also focused more on priority using Mach Punch and Sucker Punch. However, when you have become the fastest Pokémon in the subway, priority is not needed, so instead I opted for Protect and Knock Off.
Fake Out was the obvious first move to use on Hitmonlee, as it was the reason to use it in the first place. Close Combat is its strongest STAB move, and it KOs a lot of Pokémon frail Pokémon such as Jolteon with it and deals overall just heavy damage. Knock off was also used quite a bit, especially against Psychic and Ghost Types which often take a big chunk from it, even KOing the less bulky ones such as normal Gengar and Espeon. It also has the added bonus of taking an Item which can be quite handy. For example, against the dreaded Walrein-4?, I often use Knock Off + Thunderbolt on it as Close Combat doesn’t KO it. If Knock off hits, I guarantee the KO for Tapu Koko, and if it doesn’t I still have a very good chance to hit it with Tapu Koko. It’s also used if I do not want to lower its defences with Close Combat when Hitmonlee cannot KO anything on the field or to remove Damaging or haxing items such as Choice Bands, Life Orbs, Quick Claws and Lax Incense/Bright Powder.
The EV spread is pretty basic. It has enough speed to outspeed everything in the Tree and everything else went into bulk. Giving it 68/4/4 in defences is a more optimal than just giving it 76 HP, and it also makes Garchomps Earthquake a definite 2HKO (whereas with 76 HP it has a small chance to OHKO).
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
Ah, Choice Specs Tapu Koko, the only Pokémon in the team that was in all alterations of the team, and it hasn’t changed one bit. Without other Tapu’s in the Tree, I always have the Electric Terrain up, which makes Koko very strong. For comparison, Thunderbolt from this Tapu Koko in Electric terrain hits a bit harder than Charizard-Y’ s Flamethrower in the sun. This means it KOs a lot of things with just Thunderbolt.
The moveset of Tapu Koko is very standard and is not up for debate. Volt Switch is a very good move for getting Koko out of danger and still dealing pretty significant damage. Dazzling Gleam is a decently strong spread move and mostly used when dealing with leads weak to it. It can also be used to break (potential) Focus Sashes and Sturdy from Pokémon which Hitmonlee can bring to 1HP (Heatran for example). Grass Knot is the least useful on the moveset, and it is hardly ever used. I never lock myself into it on turn one, as even things like Swampert and Gastrodon can often survive it. I think I only really needed it one time, and that one time it barely didn’t do enough (Spoilers).
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Hasty Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Flamethrower
- Protect
The first back up and often switched in when Tapu Koko uses Volt Switch or when it hard switches out of 2 Ground types, often taking no Damage on the Switch in. The synergy between Tapu Koko and Salamence is actually very good as Salamence cannot only freely switch in on Ground types, but also on Dragon Types and potential Thunder Wave users as Tapu Koko is immune for those. For this reason it is often very safe to switch in Salamence unharmed. Also, it’s offensive synergy with Hitmonlee is very good, with only Zapdos, Thundurus, Rotom-Fan and resisting their STAB moves. The Electric Flying types can hardly do a thing to Excadrill and are hit very hard by Koko. This makes for a very dynamic duo with these three already defeating almost every enemy in their path.
The moveset and EV spread is again pretty simple. Hyper Voice would be weak without Special Attack investment and Double-Edge hits very hard, even without investment, so choosing to invest fully into Special Attack made sense to me. Flamethrower is mostly a filler move and used against things like Scizor and Ferrothorn, even though they are not really a threat. It is probably the most replaceable move, but Dragon Pulse (the most logical alternative) is also not really needed on this team, as I have Koko for Dragon Types.
The choice of the nature might be a bit interesting. I often go for Naïve on Salamence and mixed attackers in general, but for this team Hasty made the most sense to me. It allows it to survive a few key special moves from Electric Pokémon in electric terrain such as Thunderbolt from Jolteon. It also takes less damage from threats such as Mega Alakazam. This has come into play a few times during this streak and I never felt like Naïve would have let me survive an extra attack so I am really happy with my choice for Hasty.
Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
31/31/31/X/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Tomb
- Protect
The last Pokémon of the team and also the last one I added. This one deals with everything my other 3 have trouble with, namely Fairy types and Electric types. One of the biggest threats to the team when I had Metagross was Rotom-Heat, but now it simply gets destroyed when I get Excadrill in safely. Having Mold Breaker also allows it to KO Pokémon through Sturdy (Magnezone) and KO Mimikyu through Disguise with Iron Head (even though the last one isn’t very common). The Focus Sash allows Excadrill to simply focus on its Attack and Speed stat without worrying about its bulk. Even though it’s in the back of the team, it hardly ever gets broken on the switch as I simply hardly switch it in except on Poison moves aimed at Koko or when one of my gets KOd. When it is in, I often try to have Salamence as its partner as they make for a very strong duo with Dual Spread moves with only Skarmory and the Electric Flyers sporting a resistance to Earthquake + Hyper Voice/Double-Edge, but those aren’t even a threat.
The moveset and EV spread is again pretty standard. The only weird move on it is Rock Tomb but that move is mostly because I didn’t really know what other move I should use in that slot. Other options I considered were Swords Dance, X-Scissor and Rock Slide. Swords Dance was too situational I felt, and would not be needed in this fast paced team. X-scissor could be used to cover Psychic Types and Grass types, but Earthquake and Iron Head come pretty close in matching it’s power. Rock Slide wasn’t used instead of Rock Tomb because it has worse accuracy and I felt that whenever I had to use a Rock move it would be for just one target. Rock Tomb also has the added bonus of dropping the speed of the target, which is quite nice. In the end, I don’t think it really matters what the third move is. I only used Rock Tomb a few times, most of the time when I did use it, it didn’t really matter what I did. I only recall one battle where I had to use it against a Talonflame, so it came in handy at least once.
I chose Adamant over Jolly Nature, as that’s what I found in my box. I also thought that the extra power would be more important than speed, because my team is already very fast. This proved to be correct as I cannot recall a single moment where Jolly Nature would have helped me in a battle.
So this team is pretty offensive. Most of the time, you simply Fake Out something and either Volt Switch to Salamence or lock into Thunderbolt/Dazzling Gleam and go from there. As I already said, the synergy of the team, both offensively and defensively, is very strong. Switching from Tapu Koko to Salamence is often very easy to do, and against threatening Poison types such as Crobat and Mega Genger, a switch to Excadrill is often also very safe. Switching Hitmonlee out hardly ever happens as he mostly relies on his speed, so it’s not most of the time not worth it to switch. It can sometimes still be done though, especially when Trick Room gets up.
The offensive synergy in this team is also very good. The Pokémon almost exclusively use STAB moves (8/16 moves and 8/13 attacking moves) and they synergize very well together. I think that this is the reason this team works so well. The non-STAB moves are all hardly ever used, only in specific situations, except Knock Off and Fake Out from Hitmonlee but those are more utility attacking moves than just damaging moves. Overall I think this team has literally everything, except maybe a good priority move, but with the amount of speed in this team, I don’t think I have had the need of a priority move even once.
The offensive synergy in this team is also very good. The Pokémon almost exclusively use STAB moves (8/16 moves and 8/13 attacking moves) and they synergize very well together. I think that this is the reason this team works so well. The non-STAB moves are all hardly ever used, only in specific situations, except Knock Off and Fake Out from Hitmonlee but those are more utility attacking moves than just damaging moves. Overall I think this team has literally everything, except maybe a good priority move, but with the amount of speed in this team, I don’t think I have had the need of a priority move even once.
Crobat: Probably the most annoying Pokémon to face for my leads as it can KO (Koko with a Crit Cross poison, which it got twice in the streak I think), speedties with Tapu Koko and is immune for Fake Out. I Fake Out the partner with Hitmonlee and simply hope that Tapu Koko Outspeeds, or that at least that it doesn’t target Tapu Koko and gets the Critical Hit Cross Poison. Even if it does, the back can usually deal with it, but it’s a pretty annoying Pokémon to deal with.
Mega Gengar: Just as Crobat, it is immune for Fake Out, speedties with Tapu Koko and can KO Koko with a Sludge Bomb. However, it is a bit easier to deal with as it will always target Koko with the Sludge Bomb so that’s a free switch to Excadrill on the turn it Mega Evolves. Hitmonlee can 2HKO it in the meantime with Knock Off (and if it’s non-Mega, it simply gets KOd). Still a very potent threat especially when it has a dangerous partner that threatens Hitmonlee.
Alolan-Raichu: Annoying as it is the only Pokémon in the Tree that outspeeds Hitmonlee. It can also KO Hitmonlee with Psychic and doesn’t take much damage from Tapu Koko. I try to get not focus on it with my leads (often protecting Hitmonlee, so Koko can get a free Attack of) and try to get in Excadrill whenever I feel safe to do so. The annoying thing is that Alolan Raichu 2 (the most common one), also holds a Focus Sash, making it even more of problem sometimes. If I think it’s possible, I will try to Dazzling Gleam with Tapu Koko, so I can break it’s Sash.
Lightning Rod: Obviously, whenever using Tapu Koko, Lightning Rod is annoying. Here are the most common users and what I do against them.
Trainers: I have to say, I hardly ever look up trainer data, but I probably should do it more to avoid situations that might not look dangerous, but actually are. However, there are a 2 trainers that I know are very dangerous for my team: Sina and Plumeria. Plumeria because she has a bunch of dangerous Poison Pokémon, most importantly Crobat and Mega Gengar. This can make lead situations very annoying, but luckily here other Pokémon aren’t as much of a threat, so I can most of the time easily deal with her. Sina on the other hand, is probably the biggest threat to this team, and maybe even for every doubles team. Seriously though, who though it was a good idea at Gamefreak to give her (Mega)Abomasnow, Glaceon 3 (Focus Sash) AND 4 (Bright Powder + Detect, which is extra fun when the other Glaceon has a Sash), Alolan Sandslash2, Drampa3 (Quick Claw), and Oranguru3/4 which could potentially set up Trick Room, which I have to Double Target (can’t Fake Out because of Inner Focus) which means the partner gets a free shot at me (meaning Glaceon/Abomasnow can freely Blizzard). In short, this chick has all kinds of potential danger in her arsenal and you simply don’t want to face her. I had 2 very close battles with her on 220 and 230 (you can find 230 below), when she brought 4 of those 5 and I could have lost if I had a bit more bad luck than I already had. As you can see, both these trainers are Sun exclusive. For this very reason, I have played through Moon last week, which I already had since the release date, but I never got around playing through it. I much rather have to play Dexio, Mallow and Guzma, which together do not have even as many threating Pokémon as Sina.
Mega Gengar: Just as Crobat, it is immune for Fake Out, speedties with Tapu Koko and can KO Koko with a Sludge Bomb. However, it is a bit easier to deal with as it will always target Koko with the Sludge Bomb so that’s a free switch to Excadrill on the turn it Mega Evolves. Hitmonlee can 2HKO it in the meantime with Knock Off (and if it’s non-Mega, it simply gets KOd). Still a very potent threat especially when it has a dangerous partner that threatens Hitmonlee.
Alolan-Raichu: Annoying as it is the only Pokémon in the Tree that outspeeds Hitmonlee. It can also KO Hitmonlee with Psychic and doesn’t take much damage from Tapu Koko. I try to get not focus on it with my leads (often protecting Hitmonlee, so Koko can get a free Attack of) and try to get in Excadrill whenever I feel safe to do so. The annoying thing is that Alolan Raichu 2 (the most common one), also holds a Focus Sash, making it even more of problem sometimes. If I think it’s possible, I will try to Dazzling Gleam with Tapu Koko, so I can break it’s Sash.
Lightning Rod: Obviously, whenever using Tapu Koko, Lightning Rod is annoying. Here are the most common users and what I do against them.
- Rhyperior: Can be annoying as it is able to use Protect but there is also the variant with a Focus Sash and Metal Burst. Depending on the partner I can either Fake Out the Rhyperior + Dazzling Gleam or simply switch to Salamence and do something with Hitmonlee.
- (Mega) Manectric: Probably the most annoying one as it can either be the Mega or a Choice Scarf variant, both outspeeding Tapu Koko. It also has Flamethrower/Overheat for Excadrill, so switching him in is also not very safe. Luckily, Close Combat KOs the Non-Mega variant and Close Combat + Dazzling Gleam KOs the Mega. Still can be very annoying with the right partner.
- (Alolan-) Marowak: Probably the least threatening. Using Knock Off on it will greatly reduce its damage output and also deals a significant chunk of damage to Alolan Marowak. Switching to Salamence is also pretty safe in most situations.
- Raichu: Also pretty annoying as it can also have Static so attacking it with Hitmonlee is not very safe, but often is the best solution as it simply OHKOs it.
- Togedemaru: Can be pretty annoying for the lead, but mostly because it can use Spiky Shield to negate a turn. Otherwise not much of a problem as 3/4 of my team hits it Super Effectively.
- Mega-Sceptile: Not really a threat, but you simply have to remember it is capable of Mega-Evolving and acquiring Lightning Rod as a result.
Trainers: I have to say, I hardly ever look up trainer data, but I probably should do it more to avoid situations that might not look dangerous, but actually are. However, there are a 2 trainers that I know are very dangerous for my team: Sina and Plumeria. Plumeria because she has a bunch of dangerous Poison Pokémon, most importantly Crobat and Mega Gengar. This can make lead situations very annoying, but luckily here other Pokémon aren’t as much of a threat, so I can most of the time easily deal with her. Sina on the other hand, is probably the biggest threat to this team, and maybe even for every doubles team. Seriously though, who though it was a good idea at Gamefreak to give her (Mega)Abomasnow, Glaceon 3 (Focus Sash) AND 4 (Bright Powder + Detect, which is extra fun when the other Glaceon has a Sash), Alolan Sandslash2, Drampa3 (Quick Claw), and Oranguru3/4 which could potentially set up Trick Room, which I have to Double Target (can’t Fake Out because of Inner Focus) which means the partner gets a free shot at me (meaning Glaceon/Abomasnow can freely Blizzard). In short, this chick has all kinds of potential danger in her arsenal and you simply don’t want to face her. I had 2 very close battles with her on 220 and 230 (you can find 230 below), when she brought 4 of those 5 and I could have lost if I had a bit more bad luck than I already had. As you can see, both these trainers are Sun exclusive. For this very reason, I have played through Moon last week, which I already had since the release date, but I never got around playing through it. I much rather have to play Dexio, Mallow and Guzma, which together do not have even as many threating Pokémon as Sina.
Battle 464: GJVG-WWWW-WWW6-KB5B (Steelix, Gigalith, Hippowdon, Pallosand)
This was the battle I lost. First turn I should have Doubled the Gigalith with Close Combat and Volt Switch instead of Faking out the Steelix. Next turn I should have Protected Salamence from the obvious rock moves that were going to target it (including from Custap Gigalith). A few turns later, I should have used Protect with Excadrill and used Knock Off on the Pallosand so on the last turn I could have double targeted the Hippowdown with Grass Knot and Iron head, making sure that either Excadrill would survive with its Sash intact or having both Tapu Koko and Excadrill to KO the Pallosand. Even with all these mistakes, both Pallosand and Hippowdon had a very good chance to be KOd by both attacks, which is pretty unfortunate. However, if you play this sloppy, you can expect to lose.
FP9G-WWWW-WWW6-KB5S (Salazzle, Raikou, Greninja, Serperior)
Battle 300: CABG-WWWW-WWW6-KB6M (Lucario, Milotic, Togekiss, Garchomp)
Battle 234: SD9G-WWWW-WWW6-KB7X (Electrode, Weavile, Jolteon, Talonflame)
Battle 230: Alolan Sandslash, Abomasnow, Glaceon, Oranguru
Unfortunately I can’t upload this battle for some reason, but I really want to show why Sina is a threat, so here is a short recap. First turn, Sandslash avoids Thunderbolt (Snow Cloak) and sets up Aurora Veil while Hitmonlee hits into a protecting Mega Abomasnow. This means Close Combat can’t KO Mega Abomasnow, and Thunderbolt can’t KO Sandslash, so I hit Sandslash with Thunderbolt and protect Hitmonlee, losing Koko in the process. Next turn I get the double KO with Hyper Voice and CC on the Abomasnow. Oranguru and Glaceon come and I made the misplay of using Hyper Voice + Knock Off onto Oranguru (Should have Double-Edged to KO it) and Glaceon Blizzards to KO both my Pokemon. Excadrill uses Earthquake to KO Oranguru and do a sizeable chunk to Glaceon, and barely survives the Blizzard. Hail luckily runs out this turn, so Excadrill survives this turn and Iron Heads Glaceon for the KO.
Battle 203: E8XW-WWWW-WWW6-KB88 (Kommo-o, Uxie, Articuno, Cresselia)
Battle 106: J4CG-WWWW-WWW6-KB8J (Rotom-H, Manectric, Jolteon, Thundurus)
Excadrill got hit on the switch with Overheat, making it pretty much useless. Salamence and Hitmonlee had to solo their way through a whole bunch of Electrics and somehow made it through. From this battle forward, I would never switch Excadrill in on Electric types ever again, but just wait for something to faint, so I can freely switch him in.
This was the battle I lost. First turn I should have Doubled the Gigalith with Close Combat and Volt Switch instead of Faking out the Steelix. Next turn I should have Protected Salamence from the obvious rock moves that were going to target it (including from Custap Gigalith). A few turns later, I should have used Protect with Excadrill and used Knock Off on the Pallosand so on the last turn I could have double targeted the Hippowdown with Grass Knot and Iron head, making sure that either Excadrill would survive with its Sash intact or having both Tapu Koko and Excadrill to KO the Pallosand. Even with all these mistakes, both Pallosand and Hippowdon had a very good chance to be KOd by both attacks, which is pretty unfortunate. However, if you play this sloppy, you can expect to lose.
FP9G-WWWW-WWW6-KB5S (Salazzle, Raikou, Greninja, Serperior)
Battle 300: CABG-WWWW-WWW6-KB6M (Lucario, Milotic, Togekiss, Garchomp)
Battle 234: SD9G-WWWW-WWW6-KB7X (Electrode, Weavile, Jolteon, Talonflame)
Battle 230: Alolan Sandslash, Abomasnow, Glaceon, Oranguru
Unfortunately I can’t upload this battle for some reason, but I really want to show why Sina is a threat, so here is a short recap. First turn, Sandslash avoids Thunderbolt (Snow Cloak) and sets up Aurora Veil while Hitmonlee hits into a protecting Mega Abomasnow. This means Close Combat can’t KO Mega Abomasnow, and Thunderbolt can’t KO Sandslash, so I hit Sandslash with Thunderbolt and protect Hitmonlee, losing Koko in the process. Next turn I get the double KO with Hyper Voice and CC on the Abomasnow. Oranguru and Glaceon come and I made the misplay of using Hyper Voice + Knock Off onto Oranguru (Should have Double-Edged to KO it) and Glaceon Blizzards to KO both my Pokemon. Excadrill uses Earthquake to KO Oranguru and do a sizeable chunk to Glaceon, and barely survives the Blizzard. Hail luckily runs out this turn, so Excadrill survives this turn and Iron Heads Glaceon for the KO.
Battle 203: E8XW-WWWW-WWW6-KB88 (Kommo-o, Uxie, Articuno, Cresselia)
Battle 106: J4CG-WWWW-WWW6-KB8J (Rotom-H, Manectric, Jolteon, Thundurus)
Excadrill got hit on the switch with Overheat, making it pretty much useless. Salamence and Hitmonlee had to solo their way through a whole bunch of Electrics and somehow made it through. From this battle forward, I would never switch Excadrill in on Electric types ever again, but just wait for something to faint, so I can freely switch him in.
Conclusion
Overall, I really liked this team (which you can probably tell by length of my write up lol). I think it’s probably the best team I have ever created, and it’s also the furthest I have ever gotten in any battle facility. However, I am not done with this team yet as I feel this team can reach much further than it did, so I am planning to do another run with this team on Moon soon. If you have read all this I have to congratulate you, as this was way longer than I expected it to be. As a reward for your persistance of reading through all of this, here is the QR code of the team if you want to try the team yourself: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-0917-4FDD
Posting a streak of 77 (lost at #78) for Super Double (rental team, QR link here)
My team: Garchomp / Mega-Charizard-Y / Kartana / Tapu Koko
Garchomp @ Life Orb (left lead)
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
- Protect
Charizard @ Charizardite Y (right lead)
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power
- Protect
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Detect
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect
Tapu Koko can be replaced with another Tapu, I'm writing the details here 'cause they are included in the QR-Code team and someone might want to try them (as i did, before my streak) :
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Dazzling Gleam
Losing battle #78 vs: Articuno-4 / Latios-4 / Moltres-? / Azelf-?
Battle video: KEZW-WWWW-WWW6-MRG2
I've just lost in the first turn with that awful match-up. I'm not disappointed, there was nothing I could've done after the first turn and I'm ok with that. S&M doubles are done for me.
This team is pretty solid and is definitely capable of reaching triple digits.
I chose it for Chary-Y. I wanted to reach at least 90 and the leaderboard with him but got bored on S&M and completely dropped the game for reasons.
QR rental teams are awesome, I love them, being able to try something before/without breeding and everything.
I'll be back on S&M AND on the leaderboard once trollfreak will release my sweet Houndoom's mega Stone, for Super Multi with my rl friend, wait for it! Same team as in X & Y: M-Houndoom as my lead, M-Chary-Y as my friend's lead (the team is mine, I lend him the pokes).
My team: Garchomp / Mega-Charizard-Y / Kartana / Tapu Koko
Garchomp @ Life Orb (left lead)
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
- Protect
Charizard @ Charizardite Y (right lead)
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Ancient Power
- Protect
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Detect
Tapu Koko @ Fairium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect
Tapu Koko can be replaced with another Tapu, I'm writing the details here 'cause they are included in the QR-Code team and someone might want to try them (as i did, before my streak) :
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Ice Beam
- Dazzling Gleam
Losing battle #78 vs: Articuno-4 / Latios-4 / Moltres-? / Azelf-?
Battle video: KEZW-WWWW-WWW6-MRG2
I've just lost in the first turn with that awful match-up. I'm not disappointed, there was nothing I could've done after the first turn and I'm ok with that. S&M doubles are done for me.
Turn 1: Chomp/Chary vs Articuno/Latios
- Chomp has to Protect, since both Articuno and Latios can OHKO him and Latios is faster. Gotta scout the set (Scarf? Mega?) to plan around next turn.
- Charizard mega-evo. What to do? I chose to hit Articuno, since it was the biggest treat in my eyes. Chomp can switch-out for Koko next turn and kill Latios right after. So I went for Ancient Power on Articuno hoping to get that sweet sweet all-stats-boost and outspeed Latios. Bad, bad choice.
- Latios mega-evo, Dragon Dance. "Oh, this is bad"
- Articuno use Tail Wind. "Sh*t, f**k, hell no please..."
Turn 2+:
- Articuno use Blizzard, Latios use DD one more time.
- tried to stall out that tail wind but failed.
With Flamethrower, OHKO Articuno on Turn1 I win. (I was not confident to OHKO him with it, otherwise I would've done it)
If Articuno didn't go for Tail Wind, I win. (Re-battling this team, Articuno doesn't always go for TW)
If that was another Articuno, no Tail Wind, I win.
If that was Latios3 (scarf), I could've easily stalled the Tail Wind with Latios locked on something.
I really don't like playing with the wiki/damage calc/spreadsheet, just my game. I like to check them, but not during the battle, it is too much time-consuming and it feels like I'm not the one fighting anymore with my knowledge and my team.
I was hoping to OHKO Articuno with Ancient Power (I mean, it is weak 4x to rock...) but it can't. 60 base power is just too weak. If only there was some special 85+ BP rock-tipe move for Chary :'(
252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Articuno in Sun: 186-218 (112.7 - 132.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Ancient Power vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Articuno: 112-132 (67.8 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
- Chomp has to Protect, since both Articuno and Latios can OHKO him and Latios is faster. Gotta scout the set (Scarf? Mega?) to plan around next turn.
- Charizard mega-evo. What to do? I chose to hit Articuno, since it was the biggest treat in my eyes. Chomp can switch-out for Koko next turn and kill Latios right after. So I went for Ancient Power on Articuno hoping to get that sweet sweet all-stats-boost and outspeed Latios. Bad, bad choice.
- Latios mega-evo, Dragon Dance. "Oh, this is bad"
- Articuno use Tail Wind. "Sh*t, f**k, hell no please..."
Turn 2+:
- Articuno use Blizzard, Latios use DD one more time.
- tried to stall out that tail wind but failed.
With Flamethrower, OHKO Articuno on Turn1 I win. (I was not confident to OHKO him with it, otherwise I would've done it)
If Articuno didn't go for Tail Wind, I win. (Re-battling this team, Articuno doesn't always go for TW)
If that was another Articuno, no Tail Wind, I win.
If that was Latios3 (scarf), I could've easily stalled the Tail Wind with Latios locked on something.
I really don't like playing with the wiki/damage calc/spreadsheet, just my game. I like to check them, but not during the battle, it is too much time-consuming and it feels like I'm not the one fighting anymore with my knowledge and my team.
I was hoping to OHKO Articuno with Ancient Power (I mean, it is weak 4x to rock...) but it can't. 60 base power is just too weak. If only there was some special 85+ BP rock-tipe move for Chary :'(
252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Articuno in Sun: 186-218 (112.7 - 132.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Mega Charizard Y Ancient Power vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Articuno: 112-132 (67.8 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
This team is pretty solid and is definitely capable of reaching triple digits.
I chose it for Chary-Y. I wanted to reach at least 90 and the leaderboard with him but got bored on S&M and completely dropped the game for reasons.
QR rental teams are awesome, I love them, being able to try something before/without breeding and everything.
I'll be back on S&M AND on the leaderboard once trollfreak will release my sweet Houndoom's mega Stone, for Super Multi with my rl friend, wait for it! Same team as in X & Y: M-Houndoom as my lead, M-Chary-Y as my friend's lead (the team is mine, I lend him the pokes).
Hey everyone, I'm asking for the community-at-large's help on something to add to the OP.
I am in the process of requesting an official thread banner in The Workshop, but am in need of ideas for the banner design. If any of you have thoughts as to what sort of picture/logo would embody what this thread is all about, you can respond here, VM or PM me, & get in touch with me on the Tree Discord channel. Hopefully, with your input I can submit a request that is worthy of gaining some traction.
I am in the process of requesting an official thread banner in The Workshop, but am in need of ideas for the banner design. If any of you have thoughts as to what sort of picture/logo would embody what this thread is all about, you can respond here, VM or PM me, & get in touch with me on the Tree Discord channel. Hopefully, with your input I can submit a request that is worthy of gaining some traction.
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Hey guys! Loving the battle tree so far. It is far more challenging with Z-moves and the opponent using Megas of their own, as well as the "boss" battles every 10th opponent. Z moves bring a lot more strategy when selecting mons to bring in, and I really like how they can't miss which has saved me a few times against evasion boosting mons, for example. The Tapus and Ultra beasts also bring so much to the table with their unique terrain and beast boost abilities, respectively. My only complaint so far is the lack of triple battle which from what I've read would have pushed the 3DS to be super laggy. But as someone who achieved a 250 streak in Super triples in ORAS using a Rain team, I could only imagine the fun of using a Tapu Koko + rain triples team to take advantage of the perfect accurate Thunder with an electric terrain boost. Ah well. Yes, this is still possible in the other formats but you don't have as much room to choose mons and there so many thing you want which is why the 6 slots in triples was great. You obviously need a rain setter, an abuser, Tapu Koko with the terrain, preferably a steel type and/or grass. You get the point lol. Anyway that was my little rant so far but overall Battle Tree is great. I have achieved all three trophies or passport stamps, but now I really want that 200 win streak, and was looking for a little bit of advice for my doubles team.
So my original doubles team achieved a 102 win streak. the team consisted of:
Pheromosa mixed with Ice beam has been very clutch. Went with Choice Scarf + Timid Lele to outspeed my own Pheromosa so Lele can go a big chunk to bulkier mons that Pheromosa can clean up so she can get the Boost. I can pretty much always garuntee a kill on at least one mon first turn thanks to the combination on two super speed mons under terrain which eliminates priority, plus the focus sash on Pheromosa allowing her to eat an attack. This puts me in a greta position right off the bat. My mega of choice was Metagross as he is fast, has great coverage, great bulk and can even take advantage of psychic terrain with a STAB, tough claws boosted Zen Headbutt. I went with Iron Head over Meteor Mash for the consistency, and both Elemental punches for the excellent coverage and tough claws boost. The opponent loves to use Fairies and Flying types as leads against Pheromosa so Metagross was a perfect compliment to my two leads.
***My last member was a bit harder to choose and I'm here to ask for other suggestions. Basically I went with a Dragon to round out the Fairy/Steel/Dragon combo. I love the Multiscale ability allowing me to almost always tank atleast one hit, the fire coverage since Tapu Lele is locked in to Psychic 99% of the time and Moonblast the other 1%, and having a mon on the team who is able to set up on its own (obviously besides beast boost). Extremespeed might seem like a silly choice since Psychic terrain eliminates it, but if I do send out Dragonite it's usually last and terrain is (almost) gone, and has even saved me in situation where the opponent had a choice scarfer I wasn't prepared or priority of their own (think Weavile with Ice Shard who just knocked out my Metagross with Night Slash the prior turn, this actually happened). However, Dragonite is relatively weak and pretty damn slow without a Boost, especially since I run Dragon Claw over Outrage for the situations I need to hit a specific slot (which is most of the time).
So after the 102 streak ended, I replaced Dragonite with Garchomp that has a Groundium Z, Jolly nature and runs Swords Dance, Earthquake, Dragon Claw and Protect. I was originally hesitant to add a mon that knows Earthquake in the back since Metagross and Lele don't run protect, but I switched Zen Headbutt to Protect on Metagross. There's also the fact that If I do run in to a situation where I have Lele and Garchomp out at the same time, I can use the Groundium Z to just target one mon. So far it's gone pretty well, I climbed back up to 60 wins quick where I currently am now, but I still feel like Garchomp is kinda the weakest link and one who does the least.
Any suggestions on a solid fourth of just on the team in general would be much appreciated! Thanks to those who took the time to read all of this as well :)
So my original doubles team achieved a 102 win streak. the team consisted of:
Pheromosa @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Naughty Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
- Lunge
- Low Kick
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Fire
Mega Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws (Clear Body)
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- ThunderPunch
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Extremespeed
- Fire Punch
Ability: Beast Boost
Naughty Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
- Lunge
- Low Kick
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Timid Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power Fire
Mega Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws (Clear Body)
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
- ThunderPunch
Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Extremespeed
- Fire Punch
***My last member was a bit harder to choose and I'm here to ask for other suggestions. Basically I went with a Dragon to round out the Fairy/Steel/Dragon combo. I love the Multiscale ability allowing me to almost always tank atleast one hit, the fire coverage since Tapu Lele is locked in to Psychic 99% of the time and Moonblast the other 1%, and having a mon on the team who is able to set up on its own (obviously besides beast boost). Extremespeed might seem like a silly choice since Psychic terrain eliminates it, but if I do send out Dragonite it's usually last and terrain is (almost) gone, and has even saved me in situation where the opponent had a choice scarfer I wasn't prepared or priority of their own (think Weavile with Ice Shard who just knocked out my Metagross with Night Slash the prior turn, this actually happened). However, Dragonite is relatively weak and pretty damn slow without a Boost, especially since I run Dragon Claw over Outrage for the situations I need to hit a specific slot (which is most of the time).
So after the 102 streak ended, I replaced Dragonite with Garchomp that has a Groundium Z, Jolly nature and runs Swords Dance, Earthquake, Dragon Claw and Protect. I was originally hesitant to add a mon that knows Earthquake in the back since Metagross and Lele don't run protect, but I switched Zen Headbutt to Protect on Metagross. There's also the fact that If I do run in to a situation where I have Lele and Garchomp out at the same time, I can use the Groundium Z to just target one mon. So far it's gone pretty well, I climbed back up to 60 wins quick where I currently am now, but I still feel like Garchomp is kinda the weakest link and one who does the least.
Any suggestions on a solid fourth of just on the team in general would be much appreciated! Thanks to those who took the time to read all of this as well :)
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Posting an ongoing winning streak of 102 wins, bringing forth the RAIN
Team Rain Disaster
Team Details:
Team Idea:
Honest Thoughts:
Truthfully, I was very surprised that a team of all special attackers brought me thus far, and doesn't look like stopping soon. The EVs spread shows my laziness in EV training to be honest, couldn't really be bothered to manually calculate the different amount.
Pelipper:
Pelipper is a stable in Gen 7 Rain Teams. Has Hurricane and Scald for STAB Moves, Tailwind for the setup for itself and M-Blastoise to wreck havoc. I used Protect in my original team, but I have seen little use of it when Ludicolo could Fake Out or Hydro Vortex the threat, thus switching to Rain Dance for the weather wars, particularly against the common Sun/Hail Teams.
Ludicolo:
Kingdra is my favourite Pokemon but Ludicolo had so much better utility that I had to dropped the King for the Joker. This guy mostly stays throughout the whole battle due to a very unique typing unless facing up against faster birds (e.g. Talonflame with Brave Bird). Hydro Vortex for a much higher chance to OHKO any threats to Pelipper's Tailwind, this in my opinion is paramount to the success of the team, its supposed to deal with Trick Room setters and whatnot. I tend to double up on the Trick Room setters just in case Hydro Vortex doesn't kill, they are mostly slower than Pelipper anyway.
M-Blastoise:
The MVP of the Team Rain Disaster. I guess it pretty much works like the typical Torkoal with Eruption under the Sun and Trick Room, except mine is a Blastoise with Water Spout under Rain and Tailwind, and M-Blastoise has a much higher Sp Atk stat (135 vs 85). Aura Sphere for coverage on the Steels and Dark Pulse mainly for when Blastoise doesn't have full hp. I tried breeding and using Magicxgame team which is shown on page 1 (sorry don't really know how to link), played with a few things here and there, like using Talonflame instead of Whimsicott for a stronger Tailwind user, (then I realize the psychic terrain doesn't affect Talon and all the prio hit him, i thought it was a bug lol). So I decided instead to boost the M-Blastoise Water Spout which so far has been doing me wonders evidently.
Tapu Koko:
Thunder/Lightning mostly comes after the Rain yeah? (mostly). 8 turns of Rain plus my hyper offense play generally means Tapu Koko comes in with 1 or 2 turns of rain to use Thunder, boosted by electric terrain as well. Doesn't really need the Tailwind support, has Dazzling Gleam and Discharge for spread moves. I only use Discharge if Tapu is in with Blastoise though, or if I can afford to sacrifice Ludicolo or Pelipper.
Closing:
Being dedicated to a weather has its pros and cons but I am very much enjoying this team. However I would to ask for any opinions that can further improve this team, or highlight any threats that might end the streak. Thanks for reading this much writeup for a modest 100 win team, love yall for this great community!
Team Rain Disaster
Team Details:
Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- Rain Dance
Ludicolo @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Mega Launcher
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Hurricane
- Tailwind
- Rain Dance
Ludicolo @ Waterium Z
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Fake Out
- Ice Beam
Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Mega Launcher
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Water Spout
- Aura Sphere
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- Discharge
- Protect
Team Idea:
The team idea stems from my persistence on using Rain, thus Pelipper/Politoed has to be involved somewhere. I chose Pelipper as its easier to obtain.
I would like to credit Magicxgame for the idea of using Mega Blastoise as I was struggling to find a mega to fit into the team.
I was using Kingdra as my rain abuser for quite a while as shown in my previous writeup but I wanted something more viable when I reached the 50s onwards, thus I went to seek out a Ludicolo on the GTS, it does everything I want from a Kingdra, plus Fake Out support and Giga Drain to OHKO Swampert/Gastrodon.
Tapu Koko acts like a triumph card against the Dragons, Waters, pretty much anything else that resists my starting rain assault.
The name of the team sums up how I play the team, Hurricane, Water Spout (looks like heavy downpour), and Thunder. Ludicolo feels like that Joker that laughs at you somewhere out there when you faced these calamities.
I would like to credit Magicxgame for the idea of using Mega Blastoise as I was struggling to find a mega to fit into the team.
I was using Kingdra as my rain abuser for quite a while as shown in my previous writeup but I wanted something more viable when I reached the 50s onwards, thus I went to seek out a Ludicolo on the GTS, it does everything I want from a Kingdra, plus Fake Out support and Giga Drain to OHKO Swampert/Gastrodon.
Tapu Koko acts like a triumph card against the Dragons, Waters, pretty much anything else that resists my starting rain assault.
The name of the team sums up how I play the team, Hurricane, Water Spout (looks like heavy downpour), and Thunder. Ludicolo feels like that Joker that laughs at you somewhere out there when you faced these calamities.
Honest Thoughts:
Truthfully, I was very surprised that a team of all special attackers brought me thus far, and doesn't look like stopping soon. The EVs spread shows my laziness in EV training to be honest, couldn't really be bothered to manually calculate the different amount.
Pelipper:
Pelipper is a stable in Gen 7 Rain Teams. Has Hurricane and Scald for STAB Moves, Tailwind for the setup for itself and M-Blastoise to wreck havoc. I used Protect in my original team, but I have seen little use of it when Ludicolo could Fake Out or Hydro Vortex the threat, thus switching to Rain Dance for the weather wars, particularly against the common Sun/Hail Teams.
Ludicolo:
Kingdra is my favourite Pokemon but Ludicolo had so much better utility that I had to dropped the King for the Joker. This guy mostly stays throughout the whole battle due to a very unique typing unless facing up against faster birds (e.g. Talonflame with Brave Bird). Hydro Vortex for a much higher chance to OHKO any threats to Pelipper's Tailwind, this in my opinion is paramount to the success of the team, its supposed to deal with Trick Room setters and whatnot. I tend to double up on the Trick Room setters just in case Hydro Vortex doesn't kill, they are mostly slower than Pelipper anyway.
M-Blastoise:
The MVP of the Team Rain Disaster. I guess it pretty much works like the typical Torkoal with Eruption under the Sun and Trick Room, except mine is a Blastoise with Water Spout under Rain and Tailwind, and M-Blastoise has a much higher Sp Atk stat (135 vs 85). Aura Sphere for coverage on the Steels and Dark Pulse mainly for when Blastoise doesn't have full hp. I tried breeding and using Magicxgame team which is shown on page 1 (sorry don't really know how to link), played with a few things here and there, like using Talonflame instead of Whimsicott for a stronger Tailwind user, (then I realize the psychic terrain doesn't affect Talon and all the prio hit him, i thought it was a bug lol). So I decided instead to boost the M-Blastoise Water Spout which so far has been doing me wonders evidently.
Tapu Koko:
Thunder/Lightning mostly comes after the Rain yeah? (mostly). 8 turns of Rain plus my hyper offense play generally means Tapu Koko comes in with 1 or 2 turns of rain to use Thunder, boosted by electric terrain as well. Doesn't really need the Tailwind support, has Dazzling Gleam and Discharge for spread moves. I only use Discharge if Tapu is in with Blastoise though, or if I can afford to sacrifice Ludicolo or Pelipper.
Closing:
Being dedicated to a weather has its pros and cons but I am very much enjoying this team. However I would to ask for any opinions that can further improve this team, or highlight any threats that might end the streak. Thanks for reading this much writeup for a modest 100 win team, love yall for this great community!
So am I the first to beat Super Singles without using any old mons, UBs, or Tapus? Sorry if I missed one earlier.
Red battle: XT2W-WWWW-WWW3-7VZH
I did get insanely lucky after the unexpected Dragon Rush KO, and the rest is hilarity. If I was smarter I'd bring Haze to the fight, maybe chunk Zard with Power Gem first, but it worked out anyway.
Sadly I can't upload my Toxapex stalling a Dragonite and Megamence to death, too many turns I guess? Here are a couple of others
4LYG-WWWW-WWW3-7VTB - Power of Minior
YTRG-WWWW-WWW3-7VTP - Vet battle withPP stall(correction, regular stall)
Team:
Minior @ White Herb
Ability: Shields Down
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash - Acrobatics - Power Gem - Earthquake
Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
Bold Nature
- Scald - Toxic - Recover - Baneful Bunker
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz - Shadow Bone - Earthquake - Flame Charge
Several battles came down to PP stalling enemy Earthquakes and electric moves with switching, as you can see in the Red battle. Toxapex regenerates the neutral damage while teammates absorb the attacks.
Minior's EV spread is modified from GMars' build, which runs 188/236/84. I opted for full attack. As he discusses in the Minior thread, even with no special investment and negative nature, Power Gem nets many of the same KOs as Stone Edge or Rock Slide, on top of perfect accuracy and hitting physical tanks harder.
The extra HP helps it survive its setup.
With 84 in speed, shield form outspeeds neutral nature base 70 at +0, and +nature base 145 at +2. Core form outspeeds +nature 85 at +0, and scarfed +nature 130 at +2.
The rest is pretty straightforward.
So, if I'm looking for the strongest Alolan non-legends, what comes to mind? Toxapex of course.
It's a stall monster as you'd expect, and outstalls many of the tree's bullshit builds. Physical bulk seemed to handle more threats. 252 HP gives odd health at level 50. I would switch Bunker to Haze if only for the Red fight. Regenerator PP stalling is really tedious but it's sometimes the only way to win with a handicap.
There is probably a more optimal spread for Marowak, but I didn't really do any calcs. Flame Charge started as a filler move, since I didn't want to rely on Will-O-Miss, but ended up really useful even with no speed investment, often leading to sweeps. This thing also deals with a lot of notorious tree threats, and the endless Twave spam.
Most of you guys probably noticed that the tree's AI doesn't register abilities like the Maison did, so it will often spam status on shielded Minior, electric on Marowak, etc. This team often relies on abusing the AI like that when it can't just straight up kill it. You'll also want to find setup opportunities when you can; even if your current mon can net a kill, setting up may secure your next enemy.
I tried several different builds, including Mimikyu, A-Persian, Golisopod, Primarina, Turtonator, but this is the one that pulled through, probably by using Toxapex and allowing me to lame out its weaknesses with PP stall.
It was actually pretty tedious and I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm happy to prove you can beat the tree using only regular Alola mons.
DOUBLES COMPLETE
ALOLAN NON-LEGENDS ONLY
FINAL DESTINATION
XTPG-WWWW-WWW3-QCA5
TEAM
REPLAYS:
ZZ4G-WWWW-WWW3-QCBN Veteran battle
9YEW-WWWW-WWW3-QCCW Oranguru turn 1 death
FHDG-WWWW-WWW3-QCFM vs Plumeria
FJBW-WWWW-WWW3-PDDP Repost, strange regular trainer at battle 30, usual win scenario
Drampa @ Life Orb
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
Quiet Nature
- Hyper Voice - Flamethrower - Energy Ball - Protect
Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 4 SpA / 12 SpD
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
Sassy Nature
- Psychic - Instruct - Trick Room - Protect
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/0
Brave Nature
- Flare Blitz - Shadow Bone - Bonemerang - Protect
Mimikyu @ Fairium-Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/0
Brave Nature
- Shadow Sneak - Play Rough - Trick Room - Protect
If you're slightly confused I don't blame you.
I eschewed boltbeam and dragon STAB so I could handle Ice/Steel/Rock/dual Water more easily. It might seem redundant with A-Marowak but it works, especially since Hyper Voice handles boltbeam targets anyway whereas Steel and Rock resist it.
Unfortunately, I quickly learned that Berserk does not trigger from indirect damage such as Life Orb recoil. Odd HP generally gives me an extra attack.
"What the fuck are these apeshit EVs" you might be asking. 130 Defense guarantees a 2HKO from Bisharp 3's crit Night Slash. That's the benchmark. I wanted more all around tankiness than just special, as most of tree's heavy hitters seem physical. In case you're wondering, a Relaxed 252/148/108 build, which gets 130 Def, actually results in 1 less SpD.
16 SpD is redundant so 4 free points in SpA. Though Foul Play is an option I guess, but Psychic is nice for Fighting and Poison types.
You might be tempted to use Telepathy meme builds, but Inner Focus + Mental Herb gets Trick Room up much more reliably, and reliability is really the key to battle facilities I think. Not to mention the tree's love of flinch hax.
Marowak is pretty straightforward.
Mimikyu is probably the most confusing. I wanted a second Trick Room setter, another switch-in on Drampa's weaknesses, and something to KO pesky dark types. I debated a fast build in case of TR failure, but figured I'll try minimum speed, which ties with 31 IV neutral nature base 70 (outslowing Mega TTar by 1 point). Of course Disguise makes setting easier too, and Shadow Sneak allows for some tricky plays coupled with Instruct.
I strongly considered Comfey here, with its disregard for speed, fast TR setting, healing Drampa and Marowak's recoil, maybe even stacking Berserks or triggering them with priority Draining Kiss. But I was hesitant to have two supports, and Z-Play Rough did clinch it a few times.
Sadly my choice of Alolan TR setters is limited.
Unlike my singles win, I know for a fact I'm not the first to win Doubles with this handicap. I saw a team of Oranguru/Primarina/A-Marowak/A-Exeggutor, which honestly is probably more reliable than this one. I tried to make something different for its own sake, and I'm glad it worked out. Nice to know that even within these limits there is some variety.
Doing Multi next and I don't think my AI partner will be Alolan only, but as long as I am that's good enough for me.
MULTIS COMPLETE
BATTLE TREE COMPLETE
ALOLAN NON-LEGENDS ONLY
@ 
Salazzle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Corrosion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower - Sludge Bomb - Fake Out - Protect
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz - Shadow Bone - Bonemerang - Protect
Janitor Jairo with Blastoise-2 and Gogoat-2
Can't view old replays. Can't upload new replays without removing old ones. Can't remove old replays without deleting them. Thanks Gamefreak.
I tried so many damn setups. I just couldn't cover enough matchups or retarded partner AI. My instincts told me that the Alslowa meme was holding me back. Finally I caved and painfully bred a Salazzle (I tried uh... "freebie" mons in ORAS, but it just wasn't as satisfying). I had a feeling it would work because it was basically the same strat I used in ORAS: fast focus sash fake out lead (Weavile) and safe switch backup (Chandelure), with bulky all-out attacker AI (Steven). You get lots of control, waste opponent turns with sash, protect and switches, murder grass and fairy types (which tend to wall mega launcher) and Marowak switches in on pesky thunder waves. Naturally the key here is to provide Blastoise with tactical support while it goes Rambo. Just hope that your backup is better than Gogoat, who half the time kills me with Surf.
Looking at all three formats, A-Marowak was clearly the backBONE of this whole operation. Just too good at dealing with the tree's BS, and synergizes with so many teams. I don't think I'm gonna go for 200 with this challenge, and I guess I had to fudge it with a non-Alolan partner AI. Still, I'm satisfied.
Is there a way to upload new replays without outright deleting old ones?
Lurked since mid-Gen 6, finally bothered to build up a decent streak of 342 wins in Super Singles. The loss video can't be uploaded, so here are some bad-quality pictures instead.
Team
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Garchomp @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
I originally put this team together myself to win a Starf Berry in the Maison (making some changes for Gen 7 like the Z-Crystal), but it turns out that this isn't particularly new, seeing as there are two Maison teams and one Tree team on the leaderboards with the same 3 Pokémon. There are some differences in the sets though.
Gyarados leads to get free Dragon Dances off of Intimidate, good bulk (even uninvested), and its Mega Evolution type change messing with opponents (Psychic/Rock/Ice moves especially). It often gets one or two boosts off and proceeds to quickly sweep the opposing team, making many battles very short. Besides obligatory dual STABs, Earthquake helps against some of the bulkier Electric types (and Toxicroak) without having to lose boosts and switch to Garchomp. It also nicely hits Ground-weak Levitating Pokémon like the Rotom forms, Eelektross, and Weezing thanks to Mold Breaker. Like other teams with Intimidate, stacking Intimidates by repeated switching is helpful to neutralize Pokémon for free setup. If Gyarados doesn't manage to get a Dragon Dance off, it becomes probably the most disposable team member as it is rather slow without a boost.
Garchomp is a good switch-in for Electric moves that Gyarados can't deal with. Devastating Drake can be used as an immediate nuke, or in conjunction with Swords Dance to blow past bulky and/or evasive Pokémon. Sometimes it is also used to dispose of flying/levitating Pokémon without locking into Outrage. It used to have Fire Fang, but this was switched to Substitute after realizing that Fire Fang was rarely ever used. Substitute works wonders for getting free Swords Dances against Pokémon with status or set-up moves, or to fish for misses from OHKO moves. I also use it to avoid critical hits while setting up after switch-stalling Intimidate to -6 Attack with Gyarados/Aegislash. Combining Sub/SD/Z-move makes some of the more infamous evasion boosters into non-issues (looking at you Blissey/Regigigas).
Aegislash breaks the game, completely walling and disposing of a wide array of Pokémon all on its own. Most people go for a physical Aegislash with Swords Dance for battle facilities, but I went with a special Aegislash since I have two physical attackers already; this helps against physically defensive or defense-boosting Pokémon (and because I didn't feel like breeding for a physical one). Shadow Ball is the go-to STAB. Flash Cannon used to be Sacred Sword to deal with Dark and Normal types that Shadow Ball doesn't hit, but Flash Cannon turned out to be far more useful due to full Special Attack investment, and also hits Fairies super effectively. Shadow Sneak picks off Sturdy and other low-health Pokémon, which happens quite often since Aegislash's super effective coverage is bad and it gets a lot of neutral hits.
Threats
Unfortunately, the loss video cannot be uploaded (perhaps Alolan Pokémon cause this?). Ace Trainer Bette led with Gengar-4, I misplayed by staying with Gyarados and using Dragon Dance (even though Gengar-4 outspeeds +1), and promptly got paralyzed by Thunderbolt and down the next turn. I didn't expect Destiny Bond at full health, and lost Garchomp as well. Aegislash managed to take down the incoming Alolan Muk-2, but couldn't stand up to Emboar-3.
Some earlier streaks that were lost before obtaining the Starf Berry:
Curiously, I didn't encounter freeze throughout all three of these runs, despite semi-often tanking Ice Beam and Blizzard with Gyarados and Aegislash. I had a fair share of Thunderbolt paralysis and Flare Blitz/Flamethrower burns though. I have also yet to encounter Anabel, and am starting to doubt her existence.
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Garchomp @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield
I originally put this team together myself to win a Starf Berry in the Maison (making some changes for Gen 7 like the Z-Crystal), but it turns out that this isn't particularly new, seeing as there are two Maison teams and one Tree team on the leaderboards with the same 3 Pokémon. There are some differences in the sets though.
Gyarados leads to get free Dragon Dances off of Intimidate, good bulk (even uninvested), and its Mega Evolution type change messing with opponents (Psychic/Rock/Ice moves especially). It often gets one or two boosts off and proceeds to quickly sweep the opposing team, making many battles very short. Besides obligatory dual STABs, Earthquake helps against some of the bulkier Electric types (and Toxicroak) without having to lose boosts and switch to Garchomp. It also nicely hits Ground-weak Levitating Pokémon like the Rotom forms, Eelektross, and Weezing thanks to Mold Breaker. Like other teams with Intimidate, stacking Intimidates by repeated switching is helpful to neutralize Pokémon for free setup. If Gyarados doesn't manage to get a Dragon Dance off, it becomes probably the most disposable team member as it is rather slow without a boost.
Garchomp is a good switch-in for Electric moves that Gyarados can't deal with. Devastating Drake can be used as an immediate nuke, or in conjunction with Swords Dance to blow past bulky and/or evasive Pokémon. Sometimes it is also used to dispose of flying/levitating Pokémon without locking into Outrage. It used to have Fire Fang, but this was switched to Substitute after realizing that Fire Fang was rarely ever used. Substitute works wonders for getting free Swords Dances against Pokémon with status or set-up moves, or to fish for misses from OHKO moves. I also use it to avoid critical hits while setting up after switch-stalling Intimidate to -6 Attack with Gyarados/Aegislash. Combining Sub/SD/Z-move makes some of the more infamous evasion boosters into non-issues (looking at you Blissey/Regigigas).
Aegislash breaks the game, completely walling and disposing of a wide array of Pokémon all on its own. Most people go for a physical Aegislash with Swords Dance for battle facilities, but I went with a special Aegislash since I have two physical attackers already; this helps against physically defensive or defense-boosting Pokémon (and because I didn't feel like breeding for a physical one). Shadow Ball is the go-to STAB. Flash Cannon used to be Sacred Sword to deal with Dark and Normal types that Shadow Ball doesn't hit, but Flash Cannon turned out to be far more useful due to full Special Attack investment, and also hits Fairies super effectively. Shadow Sneak picks off Sturdy and other low-health Pokémon, which happens quite often since Aegislash's super effective coverage is bad and it gets a lot of neutral hits.
Threats
- Will-O-Wisp: None of these Pokémon appreciate a burn, and if Garchomp isn't already out to Substitute or if the active Pokémon can't outspeed/KO, someone's going to be taking the burn.
- Sheer Cold: This team has immunities to the other three OHKO moves, and can even use Substitute to fish for misses (e.g., Rhyperior-3 after pivoting to Garchomp from Aegislash). However, Articuno-2 is a killer, since unboosted Gyarados is a 3HKO and it has Ice Beam for Garchomp. I've not faced it often enough to know if it always goes for Mind Reader first, so I just attack it and hope. Walrein-4 is somewhat of a problem, although if I can get Garchomp in safely (sacking Gyarados if necessary), I can Sub until it misses, Swords Dance, and use Devastating Drake to bypass any chance of a Lax Incense miss.
- Gengar: The source of my loss. Gengar-4 outspeed +1 Gyarados since Gyarados is Adamant, and Garchomp isn't a definite switch into it because of Gengar-3 carrying Dazzling Gleam (can KO after a Shadow Ball). Gengar-4 also has Destiny Bond, which can easily KO any of my Pokémon since it moves first and uses it unpredictably. In hindsight, perhaps the best play would be to switch to Garchomp, and switch back to Gyarados if it reveals itself as Gengar-3.
- Mandibuzz-4: Swagger causes problems for both Gyarados and Aegislash, nothing can hit it very hard, it has Substitute to protect itself from Devastating Drake (forcing a normal Outrage), Punishment to break Garchomp's Sub after a boost, and Roost. I haven't found a definitive strategy for this and generally just attempt to maneuver into a situation where Garchomp can send a +2 or +4 Outrage into it.
- Whimsicott/Shiinotic-4: These things resist all of Gyarados's and Garchomp's moves and are defensively invested. Whimsicott has SubSeed/Swagger (set 3/4), while Shiinotic has a Weakness Policy, Spore, and a very low Speed to cause problems for Aegislash. Generally just attempt to smash them with enough Flash Cannons, and use Shadow Ball first on Shiinotic to put it KO range of Flash Cannon and avoid triggering the Weakness Policy.
- Gyarados-4: Ironically, Mega Gyarados-4 poses a potential problem for this team depending on its willingness to Dragon Dance. Aegislash basically can't touch it (aside from hoping for a Crunch into King's Shield), and Gyarados's best move is unSTABbed Earthquake. Luckily, it often goes for Stone Edge against Gyarados, which can switch into Garchomp to nuke it with Devastating Drake for most of its HP. If it already had a Dragon Dance up when Garchomp is out, a Waterfall flinch can spell trouble.
- Conkeldurr-3: I haven't run into this too much, instead finding the easily circumventable Conkeldurr-4 more often, but this may be a problem if it boosts too much with Bulk Up and heal back with Drain Punch. It also out-slows Aegislash and has Payback.
- Lilligant-3: Gyarados does poorly, and Aegislash can't break through after Leech Seed and Quiver Dance. Garchomp is the best bet by boosting enough to dispose of it, but it even has Protect to neuter Devastating Drake if used at the wrong time.
- Swampert-3: This shouldn't have been a massive problem, but I ran into this twice when rain was already set up and nearly lost. Hope that Waterfall and Rock Slide don't flinch Gyarados and Garchomp.
- Sableye-3: I never encountered this on the 342 run, but a subsequent encounter made this seem like a problem. It doesn't do that much to Gyarados, but it can burn it, has full physical defense investment, and can Recover to the point where chip damage might be enough to cause problems.
Unfortunately, the loss video cannot be uploaded (perhaps Alolan Pokémon cause this?). Ace Trainer Bette led with Gengar-4, I misplayed by staying with Gyarados and using Dragon Dance (even though Gengar-4 outspeeds +1), and promptly got paralyzed by Thunderbolt and down the next turn. I didn't expect Destiny Bond at full health, and lost Garchomp as well. Aegislash managed to take down the incoming Alolan Muk-2, but couldn't stand up to Emboar-3.
Some earlier streaks that were lost before obtaining the Starf Berry:
- NX5W-WWWW-WWW6-P5W6: Panicked after Mawile-3 set up Swords Dance, and attempted (failed) to get a free Sub against Sucker Punch. Apparently the AI doesn't recognize Sucker Punch as a priority move.
- C64W-WWWW-WWW6-P5W9: Articuno-2, followed by an embarrassing loss of Garchomp against the gimmicky Mesprit-2.
Curiously, I didn't encounter freeze throughout all three of these runs, despite semi-often tanking Ice Beam and Blizzard with Gyarados and Aegislash. I had a fair share of Thunderbolt paralysis and Flare Blitz/Flamethrower burns though. I have also yet to encounter Anabel, and am starting to doubt her existence.
Got to a 52 streak in Super Doubles wich is the highest I've ever got in the Battle Tree.
I used:
LEADS: I alltimes leaded with Tapu Koko and Alolan Raichu, then Alolan Raichu used almost every time Fake Out and Tapu Koko attacked the other, this was a fantastic combo a lot of times because it prevented one Pokémon from moving and most of the time getting the other Pokémon below half of his HP.
Closing Words: I liked the team, but having 4 Special Attackers was not fantastic, when the mega stone for Swampert gets released i will replace Ninetales and Tapu Lele with Pelipper or Politoed and Mega Swampert. I will try to get a higher streak and IF i reach a streak of 100 i will publish a QR code for the team.
I used:
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt
- Protect
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Taunt
- Protect
Raichu-Alola @ Aloraichium Z
Ability: Surge Surfer
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Thunder (I also had Pelipper in the team but didnt use it)
Ability: Surge Surfer
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fake Out
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Thunder (I also had Pelipper in the team but didnt use it)
Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Moonblast
- Aurora Veil
LEADS: I alltimes leaded with Tapu Koko and Alolan Raichu, then Alolan Raichu used almost every time Fake Out and Tapu Koko attacked the other, this was a fantastic combo a lot of times because it prevented one Pokémon from moving and most of the time getting the other Pokémon below half of his HP.
Closing Words: I liked the team, but having 4 Special Attackers was not fantastic, when the mega stone for Swampert gets released i will replace Ninetales and Tapu Lele with Pelipper or Politoed and Mega Swampert. I will try to get a higher streak and IF i reach a streak of 100 i will publish a QR code for the team.
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Posting a streak of 555 wins in Super Doubles.
Battle videos:
QR team: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-21CF-4E1E (not the exact same team as below - Double-Edge over Return, different IVs on Aegislash)
Team Brexit
This team is similar to the final Sharpedo team I used in the Maison (HERE), but with Assault Vest Golisopod replacing Sharpedo and Aegislash getting Ghostium-Z.
The rest of the write-up would be here but I've not written a single word yet. Leaving this post empty will force me to write it Soon™.
Battle videos:
QR team: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-21CF-4E1E (not the exact same team as below - Double-Edge over Return, different IVs on Aegislash)
Team Brexit
Nort-Ship Z (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
Brexit (Golisopod) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Sucker Punch
- Leech Life
Hammerhead (Landorus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
IVs: 31/2/30/31/31/31 (HT'd in Defense)
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
Repulsor (Aegislash) @ Ghostium-Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpA / 36 SpD
Level: 50
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
Brexit (Golisopod) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Sucker Punch
- Leech Life
Hammerhead (Landorus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
IVs: 31/2/30/31/31/31 (HT'd in Defense)
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
Repulsor (Aegislash) @ Ghostium-Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpA / 36 SpD
Level: 50
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
The immediate comparison point for this team is Mega Kangaskhan/Sharpedo/Landorus/Aegislash, so let's start with the changes.
Parental Bond got nerfed to the second hit having 25% power, and Sucker Punch's base power was nerfed to 70 as what seems like a targeted nerf towards the move's strongest user. It hurts - even with an Adamant nature, Kangaskhan is not what it used to be, and Sucker Punch has been hit the hardest, going from 120 effective BP to 87.5, a huge drop in the priority murder it could dish. Leading with two physical attackers was always suspectible to Intimidate, but old Kangaskhan used to still be pretty strong even at -1 - not so after the nerfs.
Sharpedo also got hit with Destiny Bond having Protect's property of failing if used in succession - essentially making the move unreliable, and nearly useless for Battle Tree purposes. Originally I had theorymon'd Golisopod for a more gimmicky team utilizing Choice Scarf Sawk, but patched it in Sharpedo's place instead after briefly trying it out.
Golisopod is opposite to Sharpedo in many ways despite filling the same slot - between 75/140/90 defensive stats and Assault Vest, it has more bulk than Mega Scizor and is the bulkiest non-TR lead I've ran on any Doubles or Triples team. I initially tried Life Orb, but found that it wasn't particularly good, and with Landorus carrying Life Orb I went with Assault Vest originally as a filler item, but it turned out to be a lot more effective than LO with the ability to run Leech Life as the 4th move, and use it effectively even if going slower without Emergency Exit activating prematurely and crashing the pound.
First Impression is a mix of Fake Out and Extreme Speed - usable only on the first turn, with 90 BP and +2 priority. Being Bug-type leaves its coverage very underwhelming, which Aqua Jet and Sucker Punch are for - but both are very weak in BP, and are mostly for setting up KOs for allies or finishing off weakened foes. After First Impression is used, Golisopod is a little passive and often prefers to get out with Emergency Exit activating or a switch to bank another First Impression and have more immediate power on the field from a back-up. On paper Golisopod's offense does seem underwhelming without a boosting item, and it sometimes hits like a wet noodle - but the bulky fire support ticking foes over is surprisingly usable in practice.
Between Mega Kangaskhan's nerfs, and using Return over Double-Edge, and Golisopod without a boosting item not hitting particularly hard, the front-line is surprisingly weak in immediate damage output for Doubles standards. I've not ran this kind of bulky offense lead duo before and it suffers against the likes of Rampardos, Volcarona, Walrein4, Mega Salamence - the kind of threats that you can't outlast, and need to remove from the field as soon as possible. I was positively surprised by the team's viability, and didn't expect to break 500 after losing at 202 on my first attempt with this team.
Landorus is virtually unchanged, with Hyper Training to add one more stat point to its EV spread and little else. The addition of faster Megas such as Mega Salamence and Mega Metagross does leave it more vulnerable but the damage output is still stellar when it gets to move.
Aegislash's Stance Change behaviour is different in SM, very useful when facing Confusion as it doesn't enter Blade Form prior to a possible confusion self-hit. Overall, I think the Confusion match-up improvement makes the new mechanic improve Aegislash's viability. Ghostium-Z is a big improvement for the shield, now it can OHKO most targets previously 2HKO'd as 160BP Never-Ending Nightmare being exactly twice as strong as 80BP Shadow Ball.
Parental Bond got nerfed to the second hit having 25% power, and Sucker Punch's base power was nerfed to 70 as what seems like a targeted nerf towards the move's strongest user. It hurts - even with an Adamant nature, Kangaskhan is not what it used to be, and Sucker Punch has been hit the hardest, going from 120 effective BP to 87.5, a huge drop in the priority murder it could dish. Leading with two physical attackers was always suspectible to Intimidate, but old Kangaskhan used to still be pretty strong even at -1 - not so after the nerfs.
Sharpedo also got hit with Destiny Bond having Protect's property of failing if used in succession - essentially making the move unreliable, and nearly useless for Battle Tree purposes. Originally I had theorymon'd Golisopod for a more gimmicky team utilizing Choice Scarf Sawk, but patched it in Sharpedo's place instead after briefly trying it out.
Golisopod is opposite to Sharpedo in many ways despite filling the same slot - between 75/140/90 defensive stats and Assault Vest, it has more bulk than Mega Scizor and is the bulkiest non-TR lead I've ran on any Doubles or Triples team. I initially tried Life Orb, but found that it wasn't particularly good, and with Landorus carrying Life Orb I went with Assault Vest originally as a filler item, but it turned out to be a lot more effective than LO with the ability to run Leech Life as the 4th move, and use it effectively even if going slower without Emergency Exit activating prematurely and crashing the pound.
First Impression is a mix of Fake Out and Extreme Speed - usable only on the first turn, with 90 BP and +2 priority. Being Bug-type leaves its coverage very underwhelming, which Aqua Jet and Sucker Punch are for - but both are very weak in BP, and are mostly for setting up KOs for allies or finishing off weakened foes. After First Impression is used, Golisopod is a little passive and often prefers to get out with Emergency Exit activating or a switch to bank another First Impression and have more immediate power on the field from a back-up. On paper Golisopod's offense does seem underwhelming without a boosting item, and it sometimes hits like a wet noodle - but the bulky fire support ticking foes over is surprisingly usable in practice.
Between Mega Kangaskhan's nerfs, and using Return over Double-Edge, and Golisopod without a boosting item not hitting particularly hard, the front-line is surprisingly weak in immediate damage output for Doubles standards. I've not ran this kind of bulky offense lead duo before and it suffers against the likes of Rampardos, Volcarona, Walrein4, Mega Salamence - the kind of threats that you can't outlast, and need to remove from the field as soon as possible. I was positively surprised by the team's viability, and didn't expect to break 500 after losing at 202 on my first attempt with this team.
Landorus is virtually unchanged, with Hyper Training to add one more stat point to its EV spread and little else. The addition of faster Megas such as Mega Salamence and Mega Metagross does leave it more vulnerable but the damage output is still stellar when it gets to move.
Aegislash's Stance Change behaviour is different in SM, very useful when facing Confusion as it doesn't enter Blade Form prior to a possible confusion self-hit. Overall, I think the Confusion match-up improvement makes the new mechanic improve Aegislash's viability. Ghostium-Z is a big improvement for the shield, now it can OHKO most targets previously 2HKO'd as 160BP Never-Ending Nightmare being exactly twice as strong as 80BP Shadow Ball.
The rest of the write-up would be here but I've not written a single word yet. Leaving this post empty will force me to write it Soon™.
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Curious- were there specific numbers for the Golisopod spread you used? Mine was also geared for an Assault Vest but went 236/196/76. I wouldn't have used such a spread without a reason but I can't be bothered to remember what it was lol. I'm pretty sure part of it was that the loss in offense didn't change anything I needed it for.Posting a streak of 555 wins in Super Doubles.
Battle videos:
Team Brexit
Nort-Ship Z (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Sucker Punch
- Drain Punch
- Fake Out
Brexit (Golisopod) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Emergency Exit
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 12 SpD
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Aqua Jet
- Sucker Punch
- Leech Life
Hammerhead (Landorus) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
IVs: 31/2/30/31/31/31 (HT'd in Defense)
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Psychic
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect
Repulsor (Aegislash) @ Ghostium-Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpA / 36 SpD
Level: 50
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's ShieldThis team is similar to the final Sharpedo team I used in the Maison (HERE), but with Assault Vest Golisopod replacing Sharpedo and Aegislash getting Ghostium-Z.The immediate comparison point for this team is Mega Kangaskhan/Sharpedo/Landorus/Aegislash, so let's start with the changes.
Parental Bond got nerfed to the second hit having 25% power, and Sucker Punch's base power was nerfed to 70 as what seems like a targeted nerf towards the move's strongest user. It hurts - even with an Adamant nature, Kangaskhan is not what it used to be, and Sucker Punch has been hit the hardest, going from 120 effective BP to 87.5, a huge drop in the priority murder it could dish. Leading with two physical attackers was always suspectible to Intimidate, but old Kangaskhan used to still be pretty strong even at -1 - not so after the nerfs.
Sharpedo also got hit with Destiny Bond having Protect's property of failing if used in succession - essentially making the move unreliable, and nearly useless for Battle Tree purposes. Originally I had theorymon'd Golisopod for a more gimmicky team utilizing Choice Scarf Sawk, but patched it in Sharpedo's place instead after briefly trying it out.
Golisopod is opposite to Sharpedo in many ways despite filling the same slot - between 75/140/90 defensive stats and Assault Vest, it has more bulk than Mega Scizor and is the bulkiest non-TR lead I've ran on any Doubles or Triples team. I initially tried Life Orb, but found that it wasn't particularly good, and with Landorus carrying Life Orb I went with Assault Vest originally as a filler item, but it turned out to be a lot more effective than LO with the ability to run Leech Life as the 4th move, and use it effectively even if going slower without Emergency Exit activating prematurely and crashing the pound.
First Impression is a mix of Fake Out and Extreme Speed - usable only on the first turn, with 90 BP and +2 priority. Being Bug-type leaves its coverage very underwhelming, which Aqua Jet and Sucker Punch are for - but both are very weak in BP, and are mostly for setting up KOs for allies or finishing off weakened foes. After First Impression is used, Golisopod is a little passive and often prefers to get out with Emergency Exit activating or a switch to bank another First Impression and have more immediate power on the field from a back-up. On paper Golisopod's offense does seem underwhelming without a boosting item, and it sometimes hits like a wet noodle - but the bulky fire support ticking foes over is surprisingly usable in practice.
Between Mega Kangaskhan's nerfs, and using Return over Double-Edge, and Golisopod without a boosting item not hitting particularly hard, the front-line is surprisingly weak in immediate damage output for Doubles standards. I've not ran this kind of bulky offense lead duo before and it suffers against the likes of Rampardos, Volcarona, Walrein4, Mega Salamence - the kind of threats that you can't outlast, and need to remove from the field as soon as possible. I was positively surprised by the team's viability, and didn't expect to break 500 after losing at 202 on my first attempt with this team.
Landorus is virtually unchanged, with Hyper Training to add one more stat point to its EV spread and little else. The addition of faster Megas such as Mega Salamence and Mega Metagross does leave it more vulnerable but the damage output is still stellar when it gets to move.
Aegislash's Stance Change behaviour is different in SM, very useful when facing Confusion as it doesn't enter Blade Form prior to a possible confusion self-hit. Overall, I think the Confusion match-up improvement makes the new mechanic improve Aegislash's viability. Ghostium-Z is a big improvement for the shield, now it can OHKO most targets previously 2HKO'd as 160BP Never-Ending Nightmare being exactly twice as strong as 80BP Shadow Ball.
The rest of the write-up would be here but I've not written a single word yet. Leaving this post empty will force me to write it Soon™.
I have mixed opinions on most of the new guys, Golisopod leaning more toward the positive side, actually. I mostly run packs of shitmons now, Smuckem style, just to validate wasting my time breeding them and trying to get the 50-milestone prizes once or twice a week. I typically forfeit on battle 51, though I was so amused by the most recent team (Oranguru, Vikavolt, Crabominable and Guzzlord) that they're still going at 76 or something. Guzzlord takes surprisingly little damage percentage-wise from STABless or neutral hits and Beast Boost snowballs quickly.
Golisopod was run on a mono-water team and did way more work than I thought it would, to the point that it and Slowbro were finishing most battles by themselves. I was extremely surprised as I had probably less faith in it than I did Crabominable. Liquidation and Rock Slide were its coverage moves.
Wishiwashi and Bewear were all right, I guess... sort of hard to kill and pretty hard hitting but nothing terribly impressive. Bewear tanked the Mega Luke CC it was engineered for, in the same battle I finally got Scarfchomp/Mega Luke scouted from Cynthia (FINALLY) so I guess there's that for a positive memory. Celesteela is annoyingly faster than Oranguru which makes it hard to abuse Instruct unless it's used as a lead, but it made an effective steamroller.
Overall I was most impressed with Vikavolt. It survived nearly all first turns that didn't involve SE hits and inflicted retarded amounts of damage. Holding a Life Orb, I have not yet found something it can't 2HKO with Instruct aside from Magnezone4, which I would simply leave for Crabby either way. Its speed was the subject of a lot of whining but its TR speed is perfect, outspeeding negative-natured 30s and easily killing the Slowthings. Coincidentally, a lot of its value came from having paralyzed Oranguru as an ally, which allowed Instruct to go first, OHKOing a target with a different move than it would use during its own turn. For a pure coincidence, this happened pretty often. I ignored this thing for months thinking it was a frail piece of shit with only passable coverage and I wish I'd tried it sooner.
I have a ton of replays for Smuckem to watch if he wants to.
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I just went with max Attack and used a defense EV calculator for a generic defensive split which suggested 244 HP / 12 SpD, and stuck with that after calcing against Thundurus2 to find tweaks towards Special Defense negligible. I had it EV'd to 228 HP / 252 Atk / 28 SpD before for LO damage (179 HP).
You noticed it too, right? I used Worldie's TR team for a bit and found Vikavolt to be the clear standout of the team, thing hits like a meteorite. Not sure why more folks aren't trying it out (or why I still haven't trained the Grubbin you gave me).
Do you even have to ask? The more stuff you put out there, the more ideas you give myself and others to try. Replays away!
And while I'm flattered by the "Smuckem-style" bit, I would like to make it clear to everyone that both this man and Call-Me-Charlie were doing the shitmons thing before I even registered into the forums. They were/are the trailblazers, I just took the shit and molded it into different shapes than theirs.
Greetings, this is my first post in the thread, and judging from previous posts from my perspective, this is quite a fun thread where we discuss a fantastic feature of Sun and Moon generation, which I refer to the Battle Tree.
To get my postings kicked off, I would like to post a screenshot of my highest peak in Battle Tree with my team:
Team :
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Stealth Rock
Garchomp is broken; in OU, in Battle Spot Singles, or any metagames that has OU banlist. It has excellent stat spread that lets it win majority of the 1v1 as a lead, and thanks to the mechanics of the Focus Sash, Garchomp can at least do something before it faints. First two moves are self-explanatory, and Rock Tomb is there due to better consistency compared to Stone Edge (which never hits, let's be honest), and lets Garchomp outspeed stuff like Alakazam or Gengar and hit first in the next turn. Stealth Rock is there for Garchomp to do something worthwhile, even if it has been afflicted with status conditions or has very bad match-up, and helps breaking potential Sturdy and Focus Sash which bother the rest of the team.
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
At this point I need something to deal with Garchomp's exploitable x4 weakness to Ice-types as well as revenge killer with an access to priority. Bisharp was the perfect for this, since its Sucker Punch with its high base Attack stat lets it hit like a truck even after the nurf of base power. Knock Off is first STAB that can sometimes imply the potential Z-crystal or Mega Stones, Sucker Punch is the revenge killing tool, which is why Bisharp is in this team. Swords Dance helps me break bulky teams and the pressure is immense with Life Orb. I was considering about the Adamant nature, but I decided to get one with Jolly nature because I noticed that Life Orb grants sufficient raw power while Jolly nature lets me outspeed other 'mons with base speed of 70's.
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flame Charge
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I knew Bisharp had x4 weakness to Fighting-types, but I decided not to get Air Slash because those who can be dispatched by Air Slash can also be removed by STAB + Drought Fire Blast. Flame Charge is quite a strange option, but when I am against something that is really passive or cannot stop this Charizard at all, helps me gain a bit much of a Speed, and outspeed Alakazam, Gengar, Weavile, Jolteon, or whatever that is faster and can revenge kill Charizard. I thought this was a crappy gimmick initially but it helped me a lot from 240th match of something if I remember it right. Solar Beam lets me deal with Grass / Water / Rock - types which is obviously troublesome for Charizard as a Fire-type, and HP Ice is there to give some surprise to Dragon-types such as Salamence which would otherwise resist all my moves and proceed to set up Dragon Dance.
So that's about it. Thanks for reading, and sorry if this long post sounded like an RMT, I just wanted to imitate how other people introduce their team in this thread out of the thought I won't make the first post in this thread a shitpost.
To get my postings kicked off, I would like to post a screenshot of my highest peak in Battle Tree with my team:
Team :
Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Stealth Rock
Garchomp is broken; in OU, in Battle Spot Singles, or any metagames that has OU banlist. It has excellent stat spread that lets it win majority of the 1v1 as a lead, and thanks to the mechanics of the Focus Sash, Garchomp can at least do something before it faints. First two moves are self-explanatory, and Rock Tomb is there due to better consistency compared to Stone Edge (which never hits, let's be honest), and lets Garchomp outspeed stuff like Alakazam or Gengar and hit first in the next turn. Stealth Rock is there for Garchomp to do something worthwhile, even if it has been afflicted with status conditions or has very bad match-up, and helps breaking potential Sturdy and Focus Sash which bother the rest of the team.
Bisharp @ Life Orb
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
At this point I need something to deal with Garchomp's exploitable x4 weakness to Ice-types as well as revenge killer with an access to priority. Bisharp was the perfect for this, since its Sucker Punch with its high base Attack stat lets it hit like a truck even after the nurf of base power. Knock Off is first STAB that can sometimes imply the potential Z-crystal or Mega Stones, Sucker Punch is the revenge killing tool, which is why Bisharp is in this team. Swords Dance helps me break bulky teams and the pressure is immense with Life Orb. I was considering about the Adamant nature, but I decided to get one with Jolly nature because I noticed that Life Orb grants sufficient raw power while Jolly nature lets me outspeed other 'mons with base speed of 70's.
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Flame Charge
- Solar Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
I knew Bisharp had x4 weakness to Fighting-types, but I decided not to get Air Slash because those who can be dispatched by Air Slash can also be removed by STAB + Drought Fire Blast. Flame Charge is quite a strange option, but when I am against something that is really passive or cannot stop this Charizard at all, helps me gain a bit much of a Speed, and outspeed Alakazam, Gengar, Weavile, Jolteon, or whatever that is faster and can revenge kill Charizard. I thought this was a crappy gimmick initially but it helped me a lot from 240th match of something if I remember it right. Solar Beam lets me deal with Grass / Water / Rock - types which is obviously troublesome for Charizard as a Fire-type, and HP Ice is there to give some surprise to Dragon-types such as Salamence which would otherwise resist all my moves and proceed to set up Dragon Dance.
So that's about it. Thanks for reading, and sorry if this long post sounded like an RMT, I just wanted to imitate how other people introduce their team in this thread out of the thought I won't make the first post in this thread a shitpost.
Submitting a streak of 248 in Super Doubles with an Extreme Evoboost team (I created a QR code for those who want to try it out!).
The team was inspired by Giovanni Costa's famous Eevee team that got him great results at multiple VGC events. I had no idea whether it could work out in the Tree, but thought it would be really fun to try in any case. I had 4 runs in total with the team, including this one - the first one got me to 86, the 2nd and 3rd ended very early. The common theme of these 3 first losses were that they could have easily been avoided by working on the EV spreads and being more careful with my play, so I kept faith in its potential, and I'm certainly glad I did!
The losing battle: G7TW-WWWW-WWW6-R8FQ vs. Young Athlete Thamina.
The team:
@ Eviolite
Sassy | Friend Guard
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
EVs: 228 HP / 172 Def / 108 SpDef
Follow Me / After You / Moonlight / Protect
Clefairy provides really good redirection support while Eevee boosts. Its bulk is not to be underestimated, and if it manages to hang around for long enough, Friend Guard support makes a huge difference in keeping Krookodile at high HP. Follow Me is for obvious redirection reasons, and that's the move it goes for almost all the time. I tried a ton of options for the other moveslots, because Clefairy gets access to many good support moves, but since it almost only gets to use Follow Me, picking the optimal ones took a lot of trials. The question is: if, by some miracle, Clefairy gets a free turn where it can afford to not go for Follow Me, what can help the most? For a while, I tried Gravity to help Krookodile sweep with Earthquake (it's especially nice against Zapdos) and Tapu Fini hit Muddy Water. I also had Heal Pulse over Moonlight for a long time, but since Follow Me is always used, as long as it's on the field, Clefairy tanks all the damage and its ally stays healthy, so if anyone actually needs healing on a free turn, it's Clefairy, not the ally. After You ended up being more helpful than Gravity (or Helping Hand), as the team is obviously weak to Trick Room. Clefairy is sure to be one of the slowest Pokémon on the field, so After You helps the team have a good matchup against Trick Room (though Clefairy must be preserved dearly against these teams). Protect helps when Krookodile wants to score double-KOs with Earthquake. I'm now fairly certain this is the optimal Clefairy moveset for this team. An argument could be made for Moonblast in order to not be bothered by Taunt, but Clefairy is bothered by Taunt no matter what, since it cannot do its job when taunted, so I prefer switching it out in these occasions. It's annoying, but not that big of a deal.
@ Eevium Z
Jolly | Adaptability
IVs: HT/HT/HT/HT/HT/HT
EVs: 196 HP / 4 Atk / 60 Def / 108 SpDef / 140 Spe
Quick Attack / Baton Pass / Helping Hand / Last Resort
Eevee's set is very straightforward for an Extreme Evoboost team. Last Resort and Baton Pass are mandatory, while having one attack is obviously important. Return would work for some good damage, but I prefer Quick Attack since the team doesn't have other priority moves, and it can take care of focus sashes. Helping Hand is used when things go south with the main plan and Eevee is forced to come back at the end of the battle to support either Fini or Krookodile. In a pinch, the additional damage is really important, as highlighted in some of the replays below. The given EV spread allows Eevee to tank an Explosion from Azelf1 before the boosts and outspeed a majority of Pokémon, with 204 in speed after the boosts.
@ Leftovers
Modest | Misty Surge
IVs: 31/20/31/30(HT)/31/30(HT)
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpAtk / 12 Spe
Psych Up / Moonblast / Scald / Protect
I experimented with a lot of sets for Tapu Fini. My original run of 86 had a Bold one instead, but I had just caught this Modest one and wanted to give it a try, so I did. I still don't know which I'd consider best, there are pros and cons to each nature and spread. In any case, there are many reasons why Tapu Fini is so good: its really good natural bulk, its amazing typing, but above all, Misty Surge. Quoting Hervee:
I looked into several Psych Up users that could be used over Fini, but ultimately, the Misty Surge support is just too important for the team to let go.
@ Sitrus Berry
Adamant | Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpDef / 20 Spe
Power Trip / Knock Off / Earthquake / Protect
The sweeper. After baton passing Eevee's boosts into Krookodile, it's pretty much over. Almost nothing in the Tree can take a boosted Power Trip, even Pokémon that resist it:
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Togekiss: 199-234 (103.6 - 121.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 168 HP / 168 Def Toxapex: 237-280 (162.3 - 191.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Steelix-Mega: 184-217 (101 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Carbink: 135-159 (108 - 127.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Umbreon: 176-207 (87.1 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
...the list goes on. Any Pokémon that doesn't get OHKOed is easily 2HKOed.
Very few Pokémon get access to Power Trip, and Krookodile is the only one that's truly viable for a long streak. It also has the advantage of a very good defensive synergy with Tapu Fini. Earthquake can score double-KOs when it's super effective, or when one of the opponents is already weakened. Knock Off is a failsafe move in case the Extreme Evoboost plan fails, since Power Trip is terribly weak without the boosts. Being able to get rid of items is also generally very useful. Protect can allow some nice positioning, as Tapu Fini can Psych Up the boosts through the Protect, so if both Pokémon on the opposing field threaten Krookodile and not Fini, using Protect+Psych Up enables a double-KO on the following turn. The given EV spread allows Krookodile to reach 230 speed with the boosts, outspeeding everything in the Tree except Terrakion2, Entei3, Garchomp3, Manectric4 and Aerodactyl1. Manectric isn't too much of a threat to Krookodile, and the rest is handled by Fini pretty easily (also, most of these are choice scarfed and can be played around). I did my first streak with Moxie as the ability, as a single Moxie boost is enough for Krookodile to OHKO absolutely anything that isn't sashed. But after giving Intimidate a try, I think it's way too important to give up, it's one of the best Doubles ability for a reason. When Clefairy gets KOed on turn 1, I can actually get 2 Intimidates in a single turn, and this can make such a big difference (see replays). I tried several items (Leftovers at first, then a 50% berry, even a Shell Bell), but Sitrus is just perfect for it, as boring and standard as it is.
All in all, I am really happy with this streak. As one-dimensional as the team appeared at first, I discovered over time that it was actually very flexible. 80% of the battles went exactly the same way: Follow Me + Extreme Evoboost on turn 1, Follow Me/Psych Up + Baton Pass on turn 2, sweep on the following turns. But learning to navigate around the different threats, learning to handle the other 20% of the battles, was a ton of fun and required some serious thought and prediction - as satisfying as OHKOing everything with Power Trip also was. I will say, though, that I've had my fair share of the Tree for a while, and won't visit it for some time now :P
The team was inspired by Giovanni Costa's famous Eevee team that got him great results at multiple VGC events. I had no idea whether it could work out in the Tree, but thought it would be really fun to try in any case. I had 4 runs in total with the team, including this one - the first one got me to 86, the 2nd and 3rd ended very early. The common theme of these 3 first losses were that they could have easily been avoided by working on the EV spreads and being more careful with my play, so I kept faith in its potential, and I'm certainly glad I did!
The losing battle: G7TW-WWWW-WWW6-R8FQ vs. Young Athlete Thamina.
The team:
Sassy | Friend Guard
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
EVs: 228 HP / 172 Def / 108 SpDef
Follow Me / After You / Moonlight / Protect
Clefairy provides really good redirection support while Eevee boosts. Its bulk is not to be underestimated, and if it manages to hang around for long enough, Friend Guard support makes a huge difference in keeping Krookodile at high HP. Follow Me is for obvious redirection reasons, and that's the move it goes for almost all the time. I tried a ton of options for the other moveslots, because Clefairy gets access to many good support moves, but since it almost only gets to use Follow Me, picking the optimal ones took a lot of trials. The question is: if, by some miracle, Clefairy gets a free turn where it can afford to not go for Follow Me, what can help the most? For a while, I tried Gravity to help Krookodile sweep with Earthquake (it's especially nice against Zapdos) and Tapu Fini hit Muddy Water. I also had Heal Pulse over Moonlight for a long time, but since Follow Me is always used, as long as it's on the field, Clefairy tanks all the damage and its ally stays healthy, so if anyone actually needs healing on a free turn, it's Clefairy, not the ally. After You ended up being more helpful than Gravity (or Helping Hand), as the team is obviously weak to Trick Room. Clefairy is sure to be one of the slowest Pokémon on the field, so After You helps the team have a good matchup against Trick Room (though Clefairy must be preserved dearly against these teams). Protect helps when Krookodile wants to score double-KOs with Earthquake. I'm now fairly certain this is the optimal Clefairy moveset for this team. An argument could be made for Moonblast in order to not be bothered by Taunt, but Clefairy is bothered by Taunt no matter what, since it cannot do its job when taunted, so I prefer switching it out in these occasions. It's annoying, but not that big of a deal.
Jolly | Adaptability
IVs: HT/HT/HT/HT/HT/HT
EVs: 196 HP / 4 Atk / 60 Def / 108 SpDef / 140 Spe
Quick Attack / Baton Pass / Helping Hand / Last Resort
Eevee's set is very straightforward for an Extreme Evoboost team. Last Resort and Baton Pass are mandatory, while having one attack is obviously important. Return would work for some good damage, but I prefer Quick Attack since the team doesn't have other priority moves, and it can take care of focus sashes. Helping Hand is used when things go south with the main plan and Eevee is forced to come back at the end of the battle to support either Fini or Krookodile. In a pinch, the additional damage is really important, as highlighted in some of the replays below. The given EV spread allows Eevee to tank an Explosion from Azelf1 before the boosts and outspeed a majority of Pokémon, with 204 in speed after the boosts.
Modest | Misty Surge
IVs: 31/20/31/30(HT)/31/30(HT)
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpAtk / 12 Spe
Psych Up / Moonblast / Scald / Protect
I experimented with a lot of sets for Tapu Fini. My original run of 86 had a Bold one instead, but I had just caught this Modest one and wanted to give it a try, so I did. I still don't know which I'd consider best, there are pros and cons to each nature and spread. In any case, there are many reasons why Tapu Fini is so good: its really good natural bulk, its amazing typing, but above all, Misty Surge. Quoting Hervee:
I wholeheartedly agree with this, and for Misty Surge alone, I think Fini is the best Psych Up user to go with the rest of the core. It shields the team against all Toxic stalling Pokémon, against sleep inducers, against Yawn phazers, and against Swagger/Confuse Ray shenanigans. As a matter of fact, with Fini by its side, Krookodile loves to receive a Swagger! Fini is also solid enough all by itself to give the team a chance whenever the main plan fails. For the longest time, I used Muddy Water over Scald, because at +2, a spread attack is so good to have, but I switched to Scald around battle 80, because I knew that eventually, a Muddy Water miss would be my downfall. Whenever the occasion is right, passing the boosts straight from Eevee to Tapu Fini is also viable, as one of the replays below highlights. Moonblast shouldn't need reasoning, it's Fini's best attack, both powerful and reliable. Protect allows Krookodile to Earthquake freely, provides free Leftovers recovery, and helps maneuver around sticky situations.
I looked into several Psych Up users that could be used over Fini, but ultimately, the Misty Surge support is just too important for the team to let go.
Adamant | Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpDef / 20 Spe
Power Trip / Knock Off / Earthquake / Protect
The sweeper. After baton passing Eevee's boosts into Krookodile, it's pretty much over. Almost nothing in the Tree can take a boosted Power Trip, even Pokémon that resist it:
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Togekiss: 199-234 (103.6 - 121.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 168 HP / 168 Def Toxapex: 237-280 (162.3 - 191.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Steelix-Mega: 184-217 (101 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Carbink: 135-159 (108 - 127.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Krookodile Power Trip (220 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Umbreon: 176-207 (87.1 - 102.4%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
...the list goes on. Any Pokémon that doesn't get OHKOed is easily 2HKOed.
Very few Pokémon get access to Power Trip, and Krookodile is the only one that's truly viable for a long streak. It also has the advantage of a very good defensive synergy with Tapu Fini. Earthquake can score double-KOs when it's super effective, or when one of the opponents is already weakened. Knock Off is a failsafe move in case the Extreme Evoboost plan fails, since Power Trip is terribly weak without the boosts. Being able to get rid of items is also generally very useful. Protect can allow some nice positioning, as Tapu Fini can Psych Up the boosts through the Protect, so if both Pokémon on the opposing field threaten Krookodile and not Fini, using Protect+Psych Up enables a double-KO on the following turn. The given EV spread allows Krookodile to reach 230 speed with the boosts, outspeeding everything in the Tree except Terrakion2, Entei3, Garchomp3, Manectric4 and Aerodactyl1. Manectric isn't too much of a threat to Krookodile, and the rest is handled by Fini pretty easily (also, most of these are choice scarfed and can be played around). I did my first streak with Moxie as the ability, as a single Moxie boost is enough for Krookodile to OHKO absolutely anything that isn't sashed. But after giving Intimidate a try, I think it's way too important to give up, it's one of the best Doubles ability for a reason. When Clefairy gets KOed on turn 1, I can actually get 2 Intimidates in a single turn, and this can make such a big difference (see replays). I tried several items (Leftovers at first, then a 50% berry, even a Shell Bell), but Sitrus is just perfect for it, as boring and standard as it is.
Obviously, there are several threats to a team that relies on setting up so heavily. At first, I thought critical hits were the biggest threat to the team and that I would eventually lose to that, but as it turns out, the team's natural bulk helps it power through most of the unfortunate critical hits it has to endure, and it wasn't that big of a problem in the end.
- Phazing: Very early on, I realized that the team was powerless against Whirlwind and Roar. As a matter of fact, the team's 2 early losses were to that. However, most of the teams using Roar and Whirlwind can be played around if one can predict properly. It's important to recognize the threats on turn 1, and to not boost with Eevee before taking care of the phazers. After struggling with phazers so much early on, I thought the team was doomed to never go far into the Tree. But then, I found out that almost all the sets with Roar and Whirlwind (if not all!) are sets 1 and 2, which means they are never seen after battle 50 (maybe even 40?). What a relief! This leaves Dragon Tail and Clear Smog (specifically Amoongus4) as the only phazing to fear later on. Dragon Tail can be played around pretty easily with Clefairy and Tapu Fini, which leaves Amoongus4 as the one huge threat to the team. I only faced it once, but I had to plan each turn and predict heavily around it. Sadly, I didn't save that replay; I tend to button mash way too often between battles :(
- Grass types: If Clefairy gets KOed too early, Grass types put a lot of pressure on the team and are very tough to play around. The loss at 248 is a perfect example of it. In particular, I should mention Venusaur as one of the biggest threats to the team in general, it's been a nightmare to deal with every time I faced it.
- Taunt: Obviously, Clefairy doesn't like to get taunted. But if it gets taunted turn 1, Eevee most likely got the boosts, and is now fast enough to Baton Pass before getting taunted itself on turn 2, so Krookodile is the one getting taunted, which isn't a problem (I still haven't faced a case of Eevee getting successfully taunted). Switching out Clefairy after a Taunt is annoying but I have yet to face a situation where it truly punished me for it.
- Flinches: Fast threats that flinch Eevee (Greninja3 and Aerodactyl1 stick out) on the first turns are very annoying, and with enough bad luck, they could ruin the team's dreams. Slaking4 isn't as bad, since it can only flinch on turn 1, after which turn 2 is Truant. Fake Out is also annoying and usually goes into Eevee, but it's rarely a big deal, since Eevee can usually safely boost on turn 2.
- Blizzard: As a spread move, Blizzard will hit Eevee, and also Krookodile on the switch, despite Clefairy's redirection. The real threat isn't Blizzard itself, as it can be tanked, but a crit Blizzard on Krookodile or a freeze on any of the 2 is a huge problem. For this reason, I have gotten into the habit of switching Clefairy into Tapu Fini or simply passing the boosts directly to Tapu Fini (depending on the situation) just to get the safety of Misty Surge against freezes.
- Perish Song: I only faced one Perish Song user (replay is below), but it was very scary. It can probably be played around most of the time, but requires some serious thought.
- Bulldoze, Icy Wind, Tailwind: Speed control from the opponent can prevent Krookodile from outspeeding everything, making things less safe.
- Competitive Milotic: Krookodile's Intimidate comes with the drawback of activating Competitive, and Cynthia's Milotic loves to spam Surf, which is very scary to Krookodile, though Tapu Fini doesn't mind as much.
- General hax: Thanks to Follow Me, Clefairy is on the receiving end of all kinds of paralysis and confusion shenanigans, and this can make things unsafe for Eevee/Krookodile. Once again, though, Misty Surge is a big help is preventing this from hurting the team too much.
- Setup sweepers: When facing setup sweepers as a lead, they may go for Dragon/Quiver dance while Eevee sets up, making them a big threat to Krookodile once it hits the field. In particular, as funny as it might sound, Ribombee has been the scariest thing to go against (I lost my streak of 86 to it).
- OHKO moves & evasion: If Sheer Cold or the likes hits Clefairy on turn 1, and Krookodile on turn 2, the team is in a very bad spot (obviously). It didn't happen to me, but it could have! Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Double Team, Minimize... it's all very annoying, but if you focus on taking them out from early on, you will need some serious bad luck to struggle with these, as Krookodile can OHKO any of them.
- Battle #99 vs. Dancer Carrie: HGTW-WWWW-WWW6-R9G3. This battle actually highlights the way the team functions regularly. About 80% of the battles are similar to this one, though Tapu Fini often has to come in replacement of Clefairy.
- Battle #120 vs. Wally: 8WUW-WWWW-WWW6-R9FQ. I had to save this replay just because that Outrage damage made me laugh. For some reason, almost all of my "boss" battles were against Wally and Cynthia, with Plumeria and Sina as occasionals. I genuinely didn't see anyone else than these 4 during this run (well, except Blue of course) o.o
- Battle #149 vs. Preschooler Victor: J7VW-WWWW-WWW6-R9FL. I saved this battle as an example of when Baton Passing into Tapu Fini is better than into Krookodile. In this case, I knew Dragon Tail was incoming (all phazers try to phaze out the Eevee slot after it boosts), so going into Krookodile would have made me lose all of my boosts. Obviously, Tapu Fini had a phenomenal matchup against this entire team as well.
- Battle #183 vs. Worker Omar: YQ9G-WWWW-WWW6-R9FH. What a scary battle! As you may notice, I completely misplayed from lack of attention, and hard switched my boosted Eevee into Krookodile, though with the critical hit on that turn, that misplay ended up not mattering at all. Tapu Fini comes to the rescue and shows its power, assisted by Eevee.
- Battle #188 vs. Punk Guy Dustin: VLXG-WWWW-WWW6-R9FC. This battle is an example of getting a double Intimidate in a single turn, and how much it can matter (feat. Krookodile tanking a Play Rough from Mega Mawile).
- Battle #201 vs. Golfer Patrick: VH6W-WWWW-WWW6-R9ET. Eevee flinching turn 1 - whenever it got hit by Rock Slide turn 1, Eevee just flinched, every single time. I came to expect it after a while. FeelsBadMan
- Battle #244 vs. Hiker Vivek: 4M7W-WWWW-WWW6-R9EY. For some reason the 240-250 stretch was really interesting, every battle featuring some of the team's biggest threats, but very different ones every time. In this particular example, I go against Trick Room, and that's the perfect occasion to showcase how good After You on Clefairy is. I faced many Trick Room teams/trainers before this battle, but they almost never went for Trick Room.
- Battle #247 vs. Lass Inez: GZLG-WWWW-WWW6-R9EC. Once again, I make the read that Baton Passing into Tapu Fini is a safer move, which ends up working out. Krookodile is actually still very good without the boosts, and I guess this battle kind of shows the team's good synergy.
- Battle #248 vs. Office Worker Darrel: WRGW-WWWW-WWW6-R9EA. Really scary battle against Perish Song for the first time. Going for the KO on Florges or switching Krookodile out on the last turn of Perish Song was a huge dilemma, especially since I didn't know the opponent's 4th Pokémon. I believe I made the right choice, though.
- Battle #249 vs. Young Athlete Thamina: G7TW-WWWW-WWW6-R8FQ. I have no regrets on this loss, I don't think it could have been avoided other than by luck (Hydro Pump or Leaf Storm missing), and it highlights the team's unfortunate weakness to Grass.
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Has anyone had any experiences with Eeveepass teams?
I tried a comp with Clefairy+Eevee+M-Gyarados+A-Marowak, but found too many crappy Roar users (me cries). When it worked, M-Gyarados was invincible doing 1v4 lol. When it didn't work, I struggled a bit against Paralysis (sometimes A-Marowak helped) and Freeze.
Probably I'll try Tapu Fini in place of A-Marowak with Psych-Up and helping M-Gyarados with Misty Terrain, or some crappy Pokemon with Heal Bell.
I had a really low streak but I wanted to test the idea before going deeper into it. And I found that there are too many Roar users, lol.
Has anyone done decently/well with a team like that? What were your sweepers?
EDIT: Ninja'd, didn't check the next page of the thread, lol
I tried a comp with Clefairy+Eevee+M-Gyarados+A-Marowak, but found too many crappy Roar users (me cries). When it worked, M-Gyarados was invincible doing 1v4 lol. When it didn't work, I struggled a bit against Paralysis (sometimes A-Marowak helped) and Freeze.
Probably I'll try Tapu Fini in place of A-Marowak with Psych-Up and helping M-Gyarados with Misty Terrain, or some crappy Pokemon with Heal Bell.
I had a really low streak but I wanted to test the idea before going deeper into it. And I found that there are too many Roar users, lol.
Has anyone done decently/well with a team like that? What were your sweepers?
EDIT: Ninja'd, didn't check the next page of the thread, lol
I won't say Eeveepass is viable AT ALL. Unless you have inseparable love and obsession towards Eevee, you can't make them work. Phazing moves are everywhere like you said, and Taunt will just keep Eevee from Baton Passing.
Pass the boost to Krookodile, who becomes a monster with Power Trip, strong Mega such as Mega Salamence or Mega Gyarados, or any Psychic-type user with Stored Power but not on stuff like Marowak which is slow with boosts.
I'm sorry, but to be completely honest I really can't trust that you have a good opinion of what goes on in the Battle Tree when you are claiming 450 wins (which, by the way, would put you second on the current leaderboard) with a team that includes... stealth rock garchomp... with rock tomb which has less than 100% accuracy... and something with life orb, a very fickle item... and a Mega Evolution that has no protection whatsoever for when it Mega Evolves... and no battle videos whatsoever.
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Hey! Thanks for sharing your team, but I was just thinking it looked like it had some weird choices that left it open to a few key threats in the Tree. In particular, I'm thinking about Omastar-4, especially since it can get a Shell Smash up fairly easily against Bisharp or Garchomp; similarly, Azumarill-3 seems like a significant threat with its access to Belly Drum + Aqua Jet, which looks like it could tear through your team fairly fast. Did you run into these threats often, and if / when you did, how did you deal with them?