Scrafty does have Low Kick, which could matter if Scrafty has Intimidate but it's also better to just pivot off of Ahhhppletun instead.
Aside from this, Eisen is possibly alluding to the fact that Cloyster can just choose Icicle Spear turn 1. It's not guaranteed to OHKO as long as it only rolls 2 or 3 hits, but of course it can have Skill Link too. Yeah, it's all pretty bad.
I really like your team (and I wondered myself if Weezing/Regigigas might work as a core in Tower Doubles), but I wonder if you might be better off switching Urshifu and Regigigas's items. Usually you want more power on the leads and bulk on the backups, since it's the former that needs to be able to attack straight away when you face leads that can't be left alone for a while and the latter that has to be able to take a hit when the leads have to switch out of things. Life Orb Urshifu can Protect to improve the frontline's flexibility, and Regigigas also has a better defensive typing for taking special hits - Assault Vest will not do Urshifu any good when it lives a Thunderbolt but gets paralyzed, or takes an Air Slash and is flinched.
set that sb879 developed for their record Rock streak that I later used for this record Poison streak at the time of writing. Not much to say here, other than I have Black Sludge instead of Shell Bell to allow for healing while switch stalling.
was a Steel neutrality that could handle 
and 
by setting up with Shell Armor + Body Press. Simple max HP and max Defense EVs, and Crunch was to chunk Ghost types.
was a Psychic immunity that could set up and sweep with Dragon Dance and Crunch through pesky Pokémon like 
. Its Sand Stream ability was also nice for boosting the special defense of itself and its allies while chipping down enemies. Sharp Beak and Aerial Ace gave it a chance against fighting types; it had a 68.8% chance to take out 
with a +0 Attack Max Airstream. It also took out 
and 
at +3 with Max Airstream, which is why I preferred Sharp Beak to Expert Belt. Crunch is reliable STAB (one generation too early for Knock Off), and Rest allowed for healing. Max Attack EVs and Adamant nature for maximum power.I think the 4 speed EVs did something. Otherwise, the Special Defense EVs make it so Download boosts 
and 
’s Attack instead of Special Attack, and the rest went into HP. go down to 
on battle 37 after maiming it with Body Press; should have been healthier, but I let it take a Reversal off a Dubwool with 1 HP. Really crashed and almost burned battle 39. I used against a lead Amoonguss; Starfall + two Oozes. Out comes Starmie; KO’s me because I wasn’t at full. Tyranitar lives the Surf thanks to Sand Stream, and I demolished the incoming Oranguru. I only had a few battles left on Nihilego PP-wise.
against a fully set up Drednaw at one point. Had another magnezone: whiff a Steel Beam against ; felt good. Lost to a 
battle 63; I was Dynamaxed at +1, which doesn’t OHKO even discounting sturdy, and was a bit low on health due to the Grass Knot-happy Blissey it came in on. Not sure if could have fixed it, and Nihilego wasn’t an option. Blissey also ended this leg by nailing with a Metronomed Psystrike, which I believe is the most damaging move possible that Blissey could use against excluding Final Gambit or a OHKO move..”
. 
has Regenerator combined with great attack and speed. With Life Orb, it hits an equivalent of 230 attack, compared with the 194 of Adamant 
. It also naturally hits 170 speed, allowing a useful outspeed on 
before any boosts. This is where most favorable comparisons with end; lacks a secondary type to provide secondary STAB and defensive utility, it has abysmal defenses, and it has an on-paper good, but not exceptional, PP of 120. Considering 32 of that is very situational Grass Knot PP and only 32 are STAB attacks, ’s effective PP is relatively low.
, 
, and . Grass Knot made a mixed attacker and took out various specially-frail and quad-weak Water and Ground types, including the pesky 
, and it provided minor healing via Grassy Terrain from Max Overgrowth. Rock Tomb was chosen to hit , 
, and 
, the last of which was an especially massive issue for the backline. In retrospect, Knock Off may have been better in the place of Grass Knot.’s biggest struggles were Psychic and Fairy types. After briefly testing Blaziken + a non-bulky and fast Calm Mind Cobalion (Flash Cannon + Volt Switch) as my two backline mons, I learned several things: 1) 
’s Speed Boost ability doesn’t proc on switch in, 2) Psychic immunity would be really nice, 3) without HP and defensive investment, Cobalion is pretty frail, especially on the special side, 4) Steel + Electric coverage is bad.
due to 
’s ability to heal with Drain Punch and spontaneously wake up from Rest with Shed Skin. and slower. Its Careful nature and remaining EVs bolster its Special Defense to better tank Moonblasts and Misty Explosions gave a 93.8% chance of OHKO on Sirfetch’d with +4 Drain Punch. The speed outspeeds at +2. Otherwise, Dialganet2 provides a great description of what Scrafty does for a fighting team. into a Jellicent’s Poltergeist when I thought it was going for a Substitute against Cobalion; survived with 3 HP. Similar narrow miss scenario against a lead Magnezone; hit the “it’s not Sturdy!” jackpot instead of getting obliterated by a Steel Beam. Got to bop a Ribombee with Mienshao once after an Airstream boost; felt good. Leg came to an end when Colabion had zero PP. Scrafty had one more battle left, Mienshao had 4 Low Kick PP (and 41 coverage PP, which, 20 of those were Grass Knot).
/
/ 
back in 2021, but having a Leftovers hog with no reliable recovery or means of doing PP-efficient damage was not workable. Grass neutralities are shaky when you’re contending with things like Hustle-boosted Grav Apples (
), Miracle Seed-boosted Wood Hammers (
), and Power Herb Solar Beams (). You’re also not going be able to OHKO every Grass type without setup (unless you’re the painfully slow 
, where can be taken out with a boosting item) has crazy special bulk with Assault Vest, tanks Ice attacks, and 
and 
are potent physical tanks. Water also struggles a lot with Psychic types, especially those with Grass or Electric coverage, such as , 
, 
, and 
. The Psychics cause problems by making the otherwise good less reliable while annihilating any would-be Psychic immunities or resistances with their coverage moves. Finally, there are four Water-resistant Dragon types that are also not afraid to ruin your day with strong Dragon Meteors (
); OHKOing all of them with a Water lead is a tall order./ and are slow as heck and easily sniped by strong Grass and Electric attacks from faster Pokémon. ’s base 100 Special Attack just doesn’t cut it in Gen 8. It can’t boost it, and it doesn’t get Stored Power to go with Cosmic Power. Reflect Type is an interesting way of defensively handling some threats, but swapping in with its mediocre bulk and myriad weaknesses is easier said than done. as a lead is that a Water lead should hit at least 135 speed to outspeed 
/ 
/ . This feat requires 71 base Speed if running a Speed-boosting nature, or 83 if running a neutral nature. While the first two are frail, the outspeed isn’t useful if survives. A 130 BP Max Geyser needs to be supported by a physical attack stat of 170 or special attack stat of 180 to snag the KO. This translates to base physical attack of 118 (neutral nature) or 103 (boosting nature), or a base special attack of 128 (neutral nature) or 112 (boosting nature). Honorable mentions to 
for a Rising Voltage KO on but an abysmal Grass/Dragon matchup, and 
for a Mystic Water-boosted KO on with 130 BP Max Geyser with Rain Dish + Giga Drain healing but, it is offensively weak overall. Aside from those honorable mentions, the final list boils down to 
. Of those, only and have effective ways of boosting attack while simultaneously taking out a good array of Pokémon on turn 1, and only and the tragically frail can boost speed without resorting to an 8 PP move in Bounce or a non-damaging setup move.
, , , , , and , but landed back on due to its relative bulk, power, and ability to boost both Attack and Speed. and , I don’t think U-Turn + Shell Bell on my first Urshifu-R set was optimal. Muscle Band secures some useful OHKOs and frees up Shell Bell for the back line. Many of the following Muscle Band-enabled KOs otherwise threaten huge damage or status.
(non-Sturdy)
(can still use Quick Claw Scorching Sands)
(Lightning Rod only)
(not worth the Sturdy risk)
with Intimidate
is an 81% chance)
, Intimidate-wielding 
, and notorious Sturdy users and , an Electric immunity was non-negotiable.. The move set and EVs got some improvements. The first change was Volt Switch for Rising Voltage. The speed stat underspeeds and , among other things, for a slow Volt Switch. Upon review, I think 4 EVs would have been better to underspeed . Due to its mediocre offenses, Grass weakness, and low physical defense really hates staying in after KOing a Pokémon. Volt Switch lets switch out after taking out a Pokémon or chipping something like to set up a KO for . I’m missing 8 Special Attack EVs that were supposed to guarantee a minimum of 50% damage on Belly Drum . At least 
and 
were still notable guaranteed Max Lightning KOs, but I don’t think those two calcs ever came up ( did and I got lucky!). Rest was a given for manual healing. Last two moves changed a couple times. I immediately ditched my original Soak + Toxic gimmick. Next iteration was Icy Wind + Heal Bell. This was mostly to slow down mons for KOs by my lead and other backline mons without Rest (originally lead + before replacing it with ). Icy Wind was also OK against Grass and Dragons if I Dynamaxed. However, after adding to the backline, I had more counter play against status. By harshly lowering opponents’ Special Attack, Eerie Impulse allowed for safer and more impactful uses of Rest and gave more comfortable setup opportunities. Scald was sort of a filler, but neutral hits against and were appreciated, as was the chance to burn things like 
. Ice Beam could have been OK for coverage. I already talked about the Special Attack and Speed EVs, but the nature and bulk EVs simply maximized Special Defense to handle Special Attackers that tried to avoid, with the excess going into Defense due to ’s high base HP. Shell Bell was used to free up Leftovers while supplementing Volt Absorb and Rest healing; it notably works better with Volt Switch than Leftovers. Bright Powder might have been better to dodge the occasional hit, but I’m not going to test it after getting a streak I’m happy with. here for the longest time. However, a glacial speed stat, low firepower, and a weakness to Psychic types caused too many issues, especially with an lead. I would have liked to have tried 
as a Steel type, but it’s not in SwSh. When trying to find a good replacement, I looked at sb879’s Ground run for inspiration from a fellow Grass-weak type. Maybe I’m selling the sea serpent short, but I think of Intimidate as a budget 
. Both and have only two weaknesses, one of which baits moves that let a teammate heal (Water Absorb for sb’s team). The Ground immunity is great alongside and prevents the effects of Spikes and Sticky Webs, which is actually relevant against 
and 
. In the back line, Intimidate is much better than Moxie, especially when is almost always setting up with Dragon Dance to boost attack anyway. As for moves, Waterfall is its best physical STAB, and Crunch has excellent neutral and super-effective coverage with a respectable 24 PP. Dragon Dance and Rest are ’s best setup and healing moves, respectively. The Speed EVs and nature outspeed and , among other things. The Attack guaranteed a OHKO with +3 Max Geyser on 
, though in practice I usually set up to +2. HP is divisible by 16 for Leftovers, and the rest went into Defense to work with Intimidate., Volt Switch + Eeire Impulse on , and the use of a speed-boosting setup sweeper/tank with Intimidate, , really helped narrow down the threats list.
or before it comes out. If :laturn: is out, Eerie Impulse can provide a buffer for to set up. If it leads, better hope at least one team member as at or near full and it doesn’t crit. than my previous team’s . is the biggest threat. needs +1 Speed, +1 Attack AND Dynamax to safely KO this thing. Which did happen at least once! Otherwise, a set up steamrolls it, or, worst case scenario, the healthiest back line member takes a Psychic before nails it with Volt Switch. offensively handles and and has a favorable, but risky, damage roll against at +0. Otherwise, serves as a shaky check. does not appreciate taking Draco Meteors, but it has a tough time OHKOing most Dragon types with a +1 in Attack. If is low, the backline can sponge hits if they are healthy, but crits are bad. Setting up is the alternate win con here. 
for means these two bulky Poisons are annoying as status threats and PP wasters, primarly because cannot KO either one unboosted, and it is is outsped by . 's Intimidate helps a lot, but Accupressure off is quite scary. Gunk Shot on a +1 Speed Dynamaxed . Battle 41 was in relatively rough shape PP-wise (2 Low Kick + 1 Aerial Ace + 4 Waterfall + 0 Drain Punch) and just below half HP. I let it go down to lead to get a quite healthy in scot-free. used its last two Eerie Impulses before Resting. Got Lanturn up to 65% health on a slow Volt Switch to . set up 2 of its last 3 Dragon Dances for a clean sweep with its last 3 Waterfall PP.
) that lacks massive initial fire power. This placement for Water “feels” right to me. For the longest time, Dark in the 100s felt out of place to me, too, until I noticed the 2023 record Dark run by SilverstarStream. This Water streak puts a whopping 13 of 18 types about 120 wins! I remember when over 100 with each type felt like a pipe dream. My current opinion is that Fairy, Ice, and Rock are fairly places in the 100 to 110 range (curse you, !), and Psychic is, unfortunately, probably about right in that range despite myriad legendaries available. Normal might have untapped potential if one were to swap Recycle Leppa Blissey (as suggested here by sb879 ) with Chansey on my current record Normal team. I may give that a whirl, I may not. Even though this format is old, I still have a soft spot for it, but I agree with others that the format can cause burnout.I forgot my proof on this post! Here it is!Restricted Sparring is now an over four-year-old format, but I’d like to report a new record of 125 for Water with Urshifu-R/Gyarados/Lanturn. I also had a couple relatively high streaks of 115 with Fighting using Mienshao/Cobalion/Scrafty and 84 with Rock using Nihilego/Tyranitar/Drednaw that I wanted to wait to post until getting a new type-specific record.
I’ll do a quick run down of the Fighting and Rock teams before I dive into the main event. I have notes on the sets and runs, but I don’t go into detailed threats lists for those two types.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ROCK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rock team was meant to be a mirror of my Poison team using a Water/Dark core to support a lead Nihilego.
Nihilego @ Black Sludge
Level: 50
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Power Gem
- Grass Knot
- Acid
- Dazzling Gleam
Tyranitar @ Sharp Beak
Ability: Sand Stream
Adamant Nature
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 92 SpD / 4 Spe
- Crunch
- Aerial Ace
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
Drednaw-Gmax @ Leftovers
Ability: Shell Armor
Impish Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Crunch
- Rest
It’s the same lead
The run:
Leg 1. 39. Relatively smooth until the end. Let
Leg 2. 36 battles (75 total). Got lucky with non-Sturdy
Leg 3. 9 battles (84 total) I didn’t actually take notes on how I lost; I just have “whole team on low health on battle 83 and sacked
So yeah, Rock is a volatile type. One leg you’re winning 39 battles, another you’re losing before hitting 10.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FIGHTING~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Fighting team was a product of my fascination with using Life Orb and mixed attackers in a format where healing is limited and mixed attackers are rare. I also wanted to see if I could beat my prototype Flying team’s record of 116 wins with a Life Orb lead. Regenerator + Life Orb worked pretty well for Tornadus-T on that Flying team, so I figured I’d try the other speedy offensive mon with Regenerator: Mienshao. I came just shy of 116 wins, but still had fun with such a chaotic lead. Incidentally, this team is 100% Gen 5 mons!
Mienshao @ Life Orb
Ability: Regenerator
Hasty Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 SpA / 236 Spe
- Low Kick
- Aerial Ace
- Grass Knot
- Rock Tomb
Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
Careful Nature
EVs: 204 HP / 236 SpD / 68 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
- Rest
Scrafty @ Shell Bell
Ability: Shed Skin
Careful Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Rest
Fighting team description
The Lead
Like I mentioned, I wanted to use a mixed Life Orb lead to compete with
As for why the moves were selected, Low Kick is a given for its power and good PP reserve. Aerial Ace enables speed boosts from Max Airsteam and KOs a lot of pesky Pokémon with the help of Life Orb, such as
The Back Line
Like others before, I landed back on Scrafty for that key Psychic immunity and consistency against status, replacing Blaziken. Cobalion stayed, but got a much bulkier EV spread and a physical Swords Dance set. Only one of the two could hold Leftovers; I chose the needier
Cobalion is a defensive tank that can set up with Swords Dance. Its main functions were taking out Fairy types and serving as a poison immunity. HP EVs hit an actual stat of 192, which is divisible by 16 for Leftovers. The Speed EVs let it hit 137 speed, letting it outpace
I built this team a couple years back, but it looks like 220 Attack EVs on my
Fighting Run
Leg 1. 37 battles. I misclicked non-Maxed Low Kick against an Octillery on battle 34. Tragic; aside from a Gunk Shot miss, there is no room for error when your lead has 60 base defense and a Defense lowering nature. Cobalion wasn’t doing too hot on PP, anyway. I made it through battle 37, exhausting all of Cobalion’s attacking PP in the process.
Leg 2. Made it to 79 (42 battles) Emolga speed calc came into play right out of the gate! I swapped Scrafty in on a Zoroark posing as an Accelgor; I DD’ed twice before getting burned by Flamethrower and needing to Rest. Out pops Emolga! I take it out with Knock Off (should have Maxed for Static). Battle 51 got absurdly lucky; backline was in rough shape and Goodra Draco Meteor missed against an unboosted Mienshao as I went for the Knuckle and procced the Lansat berry. Mr. Rime on Battle 53 gave me a means of getting the team back up to full; both Scrafty and Cobalion were under half and para’d at this point. At least three greedy/risky moments with Mienshao. Lost an Overgrowth roll to Palossand and got hit with a Scorching Sands; luckily no burn. Also swapped
Leg 3. Scary lead Kingdra on battle 83; Cobalion was at about 2/3 but seemed like my best option (thinking back, Mienshao was probably better (had pretty good health), as Cobalion needed to avoid more crits). Draco Meteor missed on switch. I SDed once unmaxed then Knuckled twice. Escaped with very few HP; second mon Golurk ate a Steelspike and Cobalion got to rest against last mon Tentacruel. Scrafty’s speed investment came in handy again, this time against a Barraskewda when I was at +3 speed. Battle 99 I let Scrafty go down to a last mon Magneton… I didn’t check damage calcs or speed tiers. Should have used the much safer Cobalion, but I was trying to preserve PP…. which is a moot point once a entire teammate goes down. Battle 103 put me in rough spot; Mienshao missed the Overgrowth roll on lead Golduck; Mienshao almost went down, but I pulled through with Cobalion. Both remaining squad members were under half HP. The next dozen battle where a roller coaster of HP values. Cobalion went down to Rocky Helmet chip from a Gyarados on 115. I should have tried to swap in Mienshao on the Taunt to nail with Rock Tomb. Mienshao was bested by a Gale Wings Talonflame on battle 116, putting me just shy of my lead Life Orb Tornadus-T team (116 wins). I wish I’d played a bit better and gotten a little further, but not bad for a Life Orb meme lead! This team is definitely not a contender to dethrone Dialganet2 ’s Zapdos-G team; with a combination of good luck and perfect piloting, I think this team could cap out at 130.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WATER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I got the first 100+ Water type record reported on this forum about 3 years ago. Around that time, there seemed to be a notion that Water had a lot of untapped (bad pun) potential for Restricted Sparring type. (click the spoiler for more musings).
The Good on Paper
Water has:
Three evolution lines with Regenerator:
Three evolution lines with Recycle:
And a lot of Electric immunities
The Less Good in Practice (and my opinion on what needs to be accounted for in team buidling)
Water suffers from a few problems, most of which are unique to Restricted Sparring compared to other battle facilities.
- A hostile line-up of opposing Pokemon, mostly Grass, Psychic and Dragon types. Electric types are pretty easy to trivialize, but Grass types are not. I did limited testing with Sap Sipper
- Partly due to the aforementioned hostile lineup, the Recycle mons are sort of bad.
- Mediocre primary STAB. All Water moves that hit 130 BP+ Max Geyser max out at 24 PP. Bubble Beam and Flip Turn are the next best options on the special and physical side, but they tend not to cut it outside Dynamax. G-Max Inteleon skirts this PP issue with G-Max Hydrosnipe off Water Gun, but then it gives up on setting Rain. Water is resisted by Dragon/Grass/Water, all very common types, and is susceptible to being rendered ineffective by Water Absorb.
- A lack of good leads. Strict speed and offensive requirements translate to only five possible leads: My assessment after some testing of
Here's the team I landed on:
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Muscle Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Low Kick
- Waterfall
- Drain Punch
- Aerial Ace
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Jolly Nature
EVs: 44 HP / 180 Atk / 92 Def / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
Lanturn @ Shell Bell
Ability: Volt Absorb
Calm Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 84 Def / 132 SpA / 252 SpD / 28 Spe
IVs: 10 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Scald
- Eerie Impulse
- Rest
The lead
I did experiment a bit with
Despite an unfortunate Psychic weakness, mediocre Special Defense, and an ability that doesn’t work in Dynamax, the bear that was terrorizing Gen 9 VGC prior to Regulation H is probably Water’s best lead. Despite unique combined utility against
Max Geyser:
Max Knuckle:
Max Airstream:
(
The following guaranteed KOs are unique to Muscle Band at +1 Attack:
Finally, a healing move. Healing with Drain Punch is relatively easy. There are 20 Pokémon KOed with +0 Drain Punch excluding the Static risk that is
An electric immunity for the back line
With strong electric types running amok, mostly notably the blazing fast
Given that I wanted the option to not use Leftovers, Water Absorb/Volt Absorb made sense as an ability. Quagsire’s low speed and susceptibility to status weren’t appealing, while Seismitoad didn’t offer much in terms of offense or utility.
Thus, like my first Water run, I settled on
Physical tank or wall that can handle problematic Grass types
I had
Threats are somewhat similar to my first water team, though the Muscle Band on
My lead is weak to Moonblast and is slower. No resists in the back, either. Best defense is boosting Speed on either
These are Psychic types that threaten big super-effective damage to the back line. These are lot more manageable with a Crunch
Swapping out
Leg 1: 41 battles. Battle 23 had to risk a poison off a
Leg 2. 41 battles (82 so far)
Battle 42 got off to a shaky start. Solrock and Whiscash were easy KOs with Waterfall and Max Geyser, respectively. Third Mon was Drapion. Without a speed boost, Urshifu can’t risk a Poison Fang Poisoning. Off to Gyarados on a Defense-boosting Acupressure. Yikes. Drapion boosts Evasion as I Dragon Dance. The first Rain-boosted Waterfall hits, doing about half. The second unfortunately misses, and the third connects for minimal damage after a second Defense boost. Not big on burning through Waterfall PP outside of rain, I go out to Lanturn and whiff two Scalds before taking the KO. I missed a few turns in my recollection, but all told, Drapion got to +6 Defense, +2 Evasion, +2 Accuracy, +2 Evasion. I was lucky to dodge Attack boosts and crits, and thankful for Intimidate on Gyarados.
Finally ran into an Exeggutor with Urshifu on battle 52. Rain was up from a lead Pelipper so I chanced Airstream and got the 81% OHKO.
Azumarill Volt Switch calc came in clutch in this leg… that is if I hadn’t messed up my EVs. Still a favorable roll (13/16)… but yikes.
Battle 66 was a cheek-clencher. Ribombee lead. Urshify near full, Lanturn at 65%, Gyarados at full. Two Moonblasts could KO Lanturn, Moonblast only takes out Dynamax Urshifu on a crit. I dodge the crit and KO Ribombee, Passimian, and Cloyster. Those last two required Muscle Band for guaranteed KOs.
Of course 67 is lead Exeggutor. I swap to Gyarados on a Power Herb Solar Beam then Lanturn on what I predicted as a Trick Room. It was another Solar Beam! Dynamaxed Lanturn for a Max Guard before getting off a couple mediocre Max Geysers. I got Future Sight thrown at me, and luckily I 3KHO Exeggutor and the mon that comes out on the Future Sight turn is Miltank. It took a lot of Volt Switch PP, but I got Gyarados and Lanturn back up to full and Urshifu up to just under half. Last Mon Tentacruel wasn’t an issue for Lanturn and Gyarados.
Burned my last Drain Punch PP on battle 76 on a Kangaskhan, getting Urshifu back to almost full after a Kingdra’s Draco Meteor
Gyarados used its last two Dragon Dances on Battle 82 and was down to 1 Crunch and 3 Waterfalls. Urshifu was also down to one Waterfall, and Lanturn had 2 PP each of Scald and Volt Switch. First DD was wasted as lead Swoobat U-Turned into Magnezone. I managed to take out the Magnezone without Reflect going up with the help of a Scald burn.”, Volt Switching to Gyarados. The last Dragon Dance got me to +4 Speed +0 Attack due to the second Skill Swap Simple Swoobat this leg. Unboosted Crunch felled the bat, and Max Darkness demolished the final Beheeyem.
Leg 3: 125 (43 battles)
Battle 100: Lead Sirfetch’d; Urshifu Airstreams. Passimian suffers the same fate. I didn’t have the patience to stall out the last month Meowstic, so Geyser it was.
Battle 105: Lead Miltank. Volt Switch into Urshifu to pick up the KO with Max Knuckle. Of course #2 is a Starmie. Urshifu lives any non-crit. Lanturn is at about 70%, so I decided to stay in. I live with 7. Clawitzer last, so I swap to Lanturn on an Aqua Jet.
With a maimed Urshifu, on battle 106 I come across a lead Bisharp. Not Pressure, so Defiant was a risk. I didn’t want to risk Sucker Punch, either, so I went to Lanturn on a strong Brick Break. I get Brick Breaked again as I Rest. I stall out Sucker Punch while Resting twice, leaving Lanturn asleep up at full health. Out to Urshifu on the last Sucker Punch . I’ve seen Bisharp throw out random Brick Breaks occasionally, so I got lucky with the Sucker Punches. Drain Punch up some health, then KO last mon Bouffalant with Max Knuckle.
Lead Morpeko on battle 107 lets Urshifu Drain Punch up to almost full like Starmie never happened. Second mon Alakazam allows Lanturn a risky wake up opportunity. I get the wake up but am left at 63 health after hitting Eerie Impulse on wake up. This is a Gyarados angle, but I get a Sp Def drop on the switch. Luckily it ends up OK, but the last mon Poliwrath is a nuisance. After a tense Rest-stall fest with a confused Gyarados, I get rid of the Dynamic Punches so Urshifu can come in and KO with Airstream after some chip from Crunch. Unfortunately, Gyarados only had 60% health afterward, and Urshifu’s health from the Drain Punch at the start of the battle was mostly wasted. However, this battle did allow Water to finally surpass the current Normal and Psychic type records.
Battle 108 was Cursola/Exeggutor/Coalossal. I get the roll on Exeggutor (I had rain up so less risky than normal) and dodge an Endure on Coalossal.
Team as a whole limped into Battle 109; Butterfree and Lilligant are no match for Urshifu. In comes Cramorant! The perfect opportunity to get the backline up to full health! Unfortunately, this generally requires stalling out all of Surf’s PP at a minimal. Gyarados’s PP was getting comparatively low, so it was up to Lanturn to proc Gulp Missile after the stall. Used a Scald to do that to dodge a Volt Switch crit, Rest, Volt Switch, Urshifu to get ~30 HP off Drain Punch.
With the team mostly in the clear on Battle 110, I come across a Kingdra lead ready to chunk my team. Urshifu will only get KOed from Crit Sniper Draco Meteor, so it’s Knuckle time. No crit, so Airstream next turn then Stoutland (easy KO). Last mon Exploud means Drain Punch gets me to almost full.
Battle 115 put me into another challenging lead, Ribombee. Lanturn swap looked good until I got crit on the switch (crit is a 75% OHKO on Urshifu from full while Dyamaxed. Gyarados hard switch; I get off one Dragon Dance and go to 21% health. I don’t commit to Dynamax and pick off Ribombee with a Waterfall. In comes Drampa. Whether I maxed Gyarados or swap in Urshifu, I could die to a crit, and +1 Max Darkness is unlikely to KO. No crit on the Urshifu switch, and Drain Punch gives some good healing as I pick off an easy last Mon Cloyster.
Battle 116: Team is back to limping. Lucky for me, there’s a lead Galvantula. Switch a bit to stall out Thunder, set up with Gyarados once it’s stalled, and presto! Lanturn is back to full, and Gyarados is only missing 1 HP after taking out Galvantula, Lopunny, and Beheeyem.
Battle 120 is lead Exeggutor. The team isn’t crashing PP-wise and Gyarados has almost full HP, so I swap in on a Solar Beam. Turn 2 is a Future Sight while I Dragon Dance, so I decided to run for it with a +1 Attack and Speed while Trick Room wasn’t a problem. In comes Wailord. Tickle and Future Sight neuter and maim me as Dynamax fades. Clawitzer. Lanturn went down trying to tank 2 Dragon Pulses while swapping to Urshifu. Urshifu did get a free switch, but I used all but 1 of my remaining Drain Punches to offset the Dragon Pulses.
Battle 124 I got to use my last Drain Punch on a lead Blissey.
Battle 126 I’m down to 100 (non-Dynamax) HP on Urshifu with 5 attacking PP. Gyarados has 51 HP, two Dragon Dances, and 5 Attacking PP. Staring down a lead Ribombee that will KO me even with Dynamax, I sack Urshifu. Gyarados survived and KOed Ribombee and Solrock. Down to 0 Waterfall PP and 3 Crunch PP, in comes Cramorant Forgetting about Feather Dance and (wrongly) fearing a KO from Surf, I Max Guard Gyarados instead of attacking while Cramorant sets up Aqua Ring. I do KO the Cramorant with my last Crunch, but I took a Gulp Missile Pikachu to the face in the process, knocking Gyarados out.
Closing thoughts
At the time of writing, a streak of 125 puts water just above Bug, a mediocre type with incredible Pokémon, and Dark, a good type with some decent Pokémon but nasty Fairy and Fighting weaknesses . It is just below Ground, a good type with some restrictive weaknesses and a lead (
I used in my last Normal streak, except I subbed Surf for Grass Knot. Eisenherz used this move on in their Normal streak, and I think it is better for this team than Grass Knot. I found the Dry Skin healing, ability to hit 
, gamble against , and not resetting terrain helpful. The only major loss was not KOing . See also sb879 's post here on as a Normal-type lead for Restricted Sparring. I used in my last Normal streak. I explain it there, but in summary, it’s a physical setup tank with a Fighting neutrality, Grass resistance, and Ground immunity.
being mentioned was in this post by sb879. I put it to work as a hybrid PP staller/setup sweeper here. Now, Blissey’s speed stat isn’t great and fighting moves are scary, so if I sent it out against the lead Pokemon, I’d lean into the PP stalling role to give 
over . I’d remove 
and probably from the threat list for this team, as handles both pretty well with Soft-Boiled. The item removing threats listed by sb879 in the Restricted Sparring Guide were something to always keep in mind for . due to lack of Grass Knot on 
due to Swift Swim getting set up by Max Geyser
due to Light Screen, paralysis risk, and Volt Switch allowing for pivoting due to Dragon Dance and good coverage against my team while already set up and Dynamaxed with felt great. I got to full HP on everyone on battle 39 using a last mon . Battle 42 involved a last mon , and I was out of Dynamax due to a dumb ’s Baneful Bunker. Rain and Electric Terrain were up. Hyper Beam got me the win 90% of the time, and I could have probably eked out 2 to 3 more battles with my remaining PP. However, I played it safe and sacrificed to take out with a combo of Surf and Wild Charge recoil. As an aside, I think only used 5 Rest PP this leg, and it only had 6 Bulk Up PP (2 setups) at the end! reared its ugly head on battle 46. I switched in and only got one Bulk Up in before I decided to take three turns of Dynamax to take out. Up next is … so I can’t use Fly due to Thunder. stalled it out of attacking moves and could heal as depleted Psych Up PP. Not knowing the last Pokémon and fearing a Fighting type, I set up a bit with as faints to Struggle recoil. In comes . would have been the safest play, but for some reason (laziness?) I took the 5% risk of a miss and 9.5% chance of Poison Point to get the KO with Fly. that took down into yellow health. Next mon burned a Hyper Beam PP, and last mon led me to switch in to avoid a potential Tri Attack. The next battle, I was able to heal almost everything back with a few Parabolic Charges and Max Geyser against a lead that stalled out of all PP except Recycle. Second mon was scary but fell to Hyper Beam; however that was half my Hyper Beam PP only 14 battles into leg 2. Last mon was not a problem due to . as a second mon came in and would have knocked out if Hyper Beam missed the 75%. I switch in :blissey". It of course Ingrains instead of attacking... I Soft-Boiled before a eating a massive Wood Hammer, then KO with Flamethrower next turn. In comes :cinccinno:… who has Cute Charm and only hits two Tail Slaps as I hit Soft-Boiled! I am pretty sure the pre-Wood Hammer Soft-Boiled saved me. and were both at full HP at the end of battle 69, which was nice. could have been, but I didn’t count my PP stalling and got hit with a Struggle from a . with Max Geyser on battle 73 and did not roll Sturdy ( only had 6 bulk up PP). was down to 3 PP at the end of Battle 86. Last mon of this leg was . I tested for Water Absorb with Geyser, and luckily it was that and not Unaware. dispatched it., so I switch to to get a couple Calm Minds up. I avoid getting paralyzed by Discharge, then see Volt Switch into . has an even HP stat, so my strat was double Max Guard to KO with High Jump Kick recoil. I miss the double and get taken down to 33 HP after Dynamax. comes out next, so I get a Soft-Boiled off as it Volt Switches to . It seems like the AI prioritizes pivoting moves in a weird way, as does a lot more damage to than . Anyway, I pivot to on Waterfall, on Drill Run, then one Bulk Up to guarantee a KO with the 95% Accurate Fly. mercifully avoids the Ice Fang while boosting to +6 attack with Acupressure. Luckily Fly hits and there were no Defense boosts. was a simple stall with , so the whole team ended up with full HP like nothing happened! lead. This time gets paralyzed, but no Volt Switch. I chunk ’s HP before bringing back in on the last turn of Light Screen. I use Geyser, but unfortunately second mon is Passho Berry ; even in Rain I don’t have guaranteed OHKO, so off to . Luckily the last mon 
didn’t paralyze me with Wild Charge. caused me to swap to . I did my now-standard single Bulk Up into Max Phantasm x2 + Max Airstream. In comes . Shadow Claw isn’t a guaranteed KO at +1, so off to . I get to +6 while faints to Life Orb. In comes . I blindly click Flamethrower as it Dragon Dances. Looked like 2HKO, so I went for it and got it, tanking a +1 Earthquake in the process. Turns out that was a 32.8% chance of a 2HKO, and +1 Earthquake had a 25.8% chance to 2HKO me. To be fair, I would have been swept if it got to +2 with Dragon Dance and switched, so the Flamethrower play was probably right.
, setting up with , convincing a 
to go for Breaking Swipe over Rock Wrecker while 2HKOing it, healing against a last mon , then making sure topped off during a Baneful Bunker turn before taking the KO. of the run, and it’s a lead. Not Unaware, so set up relatively comfortably. used its last Hyper Beam against a . and are down to 4 and 3 Attacking PP, respectively. In comes lead . I switch in and decide to Dynamax. I burn my last two Fly PP on the and 
, and use my last Shadow Claw PP to chip the incoming 
. cleaned up, but in the process I forgot to Recycle the Leppa Berry before the end of the battle.., and I assume it will be ’s last time leading. However, in comes . While I did burn all of ’s attacking PP, I had 9 Rest PP kicking around to stall out Horn Leeches. I realize my Leppa Berry blunder from last battle as I use my last Flamethrower PP to burn the . I use my last 3 Bulk Up PP and burn my Rest PP to get some hefty Struggles ready for the last mon. It’s a 
, which carries Knock Off, so my hypothetical Leppa Berry wouldn’t have been totally safe, either. I get Red Carded to , who Struggles down to bring in safely to finish off the while also fainting to Struggle recoil. is full HP, but only has 3 PP, for the beginning of battle 138. Unfortunately, Max Lightning off Rising Voltage is only a 31.1% chance to take out the lead 
, and I don’t get it. I use my last Surf PP, then easily KO the second mon with my last Parabolic Charge PP. However, I have no way through a last mon 
, sealing the streak at 137 victories.
on Psychic and 
on Ghost. The former leverages its Fairy type to cover Psychic’s Dark weakness while boosting damage with Psychic Surge. ’s secondary type is arguably less important due to its Disguise ability coupled with 
support, though Fairy/Ghost has very good coverage and Max Starfall can block status. Due to its weaknesses in this format, Fairy as a primary Restricted Sparring type has been languishing at the bottom of the RS type leaderboard for a long time, bested by even the Rock and Ice types. Granted, if you’re CTNC, Fairy seems to be the best type if you’re looking to beat Restricted Sparring with only status moves, like they did in this run. With some of that information in mind, I recently had the idea to try 
in the back line of a Fairy team, and it worked surprisingly well! due to Disguise messing with the predictability of the AI’s move selection, a low Attack stat before a Swords Dance, a mediocre matchup against Steel types, and only having 64 attacking PP. I very briefly tried Life Orb 
with Parabolic Charge after my success with Life Orb , but base 81 Special Attack is not it. Besides , 
is another Fairy type that sticks out as a decent lead, as Eisenherz alludes to in their Fairy streak writeup. However, is far from perfect. I’ll list the good, then the not so good. has good type coverage. Access to Flamethrower is especially critical, as Steel types run rampant on opponents’ teams in Restricted Sparring. The ground immunity is good to allow for switches from . Its natural bulk is also quite good. Finally, despite not being able to boost offensive stats, Max Flare can boost subsequent Fire moves by setting sun. and anything faster. Despite the ground immunity, not being affected by Terrains is a bit of a bummer, as status immunity from Max Starfall and healing from Max Overgrowth would be nice. The 96 attacking PP with my current moveset is a little low, too, but I managed a 137 Normal streak with a lead with the same PP. With a fully special moveset, also only has one ability that is relevant during Dynamax, Super Luck, which isn’t reliable enough to count on for a lead, even with a potential Scope Lens attached. It is also pretty weak if Dynamax runs out, and its strongest STAB move, Air Slash, can miss. in their Fairy run, except I subbed Grass Knot for Nasty Plot for the extra PP and the ability to take out 15 extra Pokémon without a boost, especially Rock types. Air Slash is for a strong STAB Max Airstream, Flamethrower roasts almost every Steel type and alleviates some Air Slash PP usage by KOing Grass and Bug types. Draining Kiss provides healing and 7 extra KOs as Max Starfall. Air Cutter was tempting for PP reasons, but lacks too much power to replace Air Slash, I need Grass Knot and Flamethrower for coverage, and Draining Kiss is needed for healing since I’m running Wise Glasses. EVs are simple max speed and offense. outspeed and KO with a max move (Max Airstream), which is my general benchmark for a decent Restricted Sparring lead. Wise Glasses, compared to the more standard lead item of Shell Bell, picks up 9 extra KOs with Max Airstream, including , , , and the aforementioned . Wise Glasses also enables one extra KO with no-sun Max Flare (non-Sturdy ), three with Sun-boosted Max Flare (, , and ), one with Max Overgrowth (non-Sap Sipper ), and one with Max Starfall (). Max Starfall also has a favorable roll (75%) for OHKOs against and 
. Finally, Wise Glasses guarantees OHKOs with Draining Kiss on and , and with Flamethrower on , , , and .
functions on a Restricted Sparring Fairy team in their Fairy streak write up, so I won’t go into too much detail. It is a very good Pokemon. My set is almost identical to Eisenherz’s on their Fairy team, just a little less bulk, a touch more Special Attack, and a different item. I trained this years ago for some previous Restricted Sparring runs that didn’t make it very far, and I don’t remember the rationale for the Special Attack. It gets and 
at +2 Special Attack with a max move; maybe that was it? Leftovers was needed by , so I opted for Shell Bell for healing since wasn’t using the item. also has utility on this team in that it can protect from status.. has the 10th lowest base stat total of any fully evolved Pokémon, assuming you count the solo form of 
. However, it has arguably the best defensive typing in the game, a great ability in Intimidate, a good move pool, and a base Attack of 85, which is usable with some Swords Dances. Its typing provides a neutrality to Steel and an immunity to Poison, greatly easing match ups against threats like and . Its typing is also great at baiting out Ground and Fire moves that and can switch in on. Steel typing also trivializes 
, which can otherwise hits and super effectively. All that being said, ’s stats are really bad, meaning that unresisted STAB moves and even strong, resisted special STAB moves can spell trouble. It leans very heavily on resistances, immunities, and stat modification through Intimidate + Iron Defense to stay alive. It also has a tendency to burn through attacking PP quickly, as even at +6 Attack, Knock Off misses the OHKO on a lot of Restricted Sparring opponents. was almost fully physically defensive EV-wise and had Seismic Toss/Iron Defense/Baton Pass/Rest. However, the knockouts with Seismic Toss were too slow, Baton Pass was getting almost no usage, and I needed to check a few specially offensive threats. I landed on a moveset that is identical to sb879 's from their Dark run and similar to SilverstarStream 's 
from their relatively recent Fire streak. Knock Off has good PP, good super effective and neutral coverage, and decent base power on the first hit. Notably, Knock Off OHKOs at +2 Attack, a Pokémon that the rest of the team abhors due to its massive Special Defense and ability to quickly burn PP with Spite. +2 Knock Off also OHKOs and , and it takes out 
at +0. Swords Dance is needed for Knock Off to hit hard enough against most opponents, Iron Defense eases Swords Dance setup against physical attackers, and Rest is Mawile’s best healing move. I considered Stockpile over Iron Defense, but ’s low stats mean that boosting its physical defense quickly is often necessary. It also often likes going beyond the +3 cap of Stockpile, especially against mons like and . I wish I had room for Iron Head on this set, but I think the other moves are too necessary to get rid of.’s EVs, it has max HP for general bulk. The Special Defense + HP lives two Shadow Balls 93.7% of the time barring crits and Special Defense drops. The speed outpaces the six uninvested base 60 speed Pokémon; is probably the most notable for this team, but is also nice to outspeed. An Impish nature and 44 EVs gives as much physical bulk as possible while still maximizing HP and hitting Special Defense and Speed benchmarks. The remainder went into Attack., on other team compositions. However, its offensive move pool is horrid in terms of both coverage and PP, and I couldn’t get Recycle + Leppa Berry strats to work effectively with it. and/or cannot be OHKOed by outside sun/crits :pinchurchin: , , are a gray area; has 62.5% chance to OHKO on with Max Overgrowth, and the magnet duo are OHKO by Max Flare if they lack Sturdy) 
are all slower than and usually OHKOed even outside Dynamax (Draining Kiss is a 87.5% roll on ) and are weak to them, and doesn’t do so hot against unresisted STAB attacks, especially on the special side. The paralysis chance from most of them is also terrible if Misty Terrain isn’t up. is probably the biggest threat to the team. If it comes out as a lead, it usually takes a KO, and is only reliably dealt with by setting up before it comes out (luckily sun from Max Flare lets take the OHKO). is not great either because it outspeeds , isn’t OHKOed by Max Starfall even with a speed boost, and sets Light Screen does OK against but doesn’t like the Light Screen and can’t handle getting crit while setting up Calm Minds. can OHKO it at +2 Attack, but takes quite a bit of damage from its STAB Electric moves. 
or is set up, is in this team’s top 3 scariest matchups, as Wise Glasses-boosted Thunder hits hard and has a decent chance to paralyze. It also has really good special defense, meaning not even a crit Max Airstream from will OHKO. is pretty easy to OHKO, but its speed means something is probably taking damage, and has a chance to get paralyzed or frozen. doesn’t get OHKOed by without a crit, is unpredictable, and gets scary if it has the Flare Boost ability. It seems to tend to go for Tailwind turn one against , so Max Airstream might be the best move, but then you risk status from a Tricked Flame Orb or Thunderbolt if it doesn’t go for Tailwind. on this run, was already set up. Failing that, has to dodge crits from Fire Punch. has an 87.5% chance to 2HKO, but that assume two things: 1) you have two turns of Dynamax left, and 2) your damage isn’t reduced by a Moonblast Special Attack drop or a Calm Mind boost. Despite its Steel typing, matches poorly into due to only carrying a dark move and having base 55 Special Defense.’s moveset and give it a lot of Special Defense EVs. This thing has crazy special bulk; needs +3 or +2 and rain to OHKO, and it likes to waste PP with Spite, Endure, and potentially Grudge. is specifically tailored to take on this Pokémon with some consistency, but the combination of Endure + Weak Armor makes a less-than-safe bet against . is also weak to Flamethrower and cannot OHKO without a Swords Dance boost. is usually part of the puzzle of defeating this thing unless is already out and set up. If isn’t the one defeating , then appreciates it as a pivot point so it does not have swap into Flamethrower (outside of a Magic Powder or Forest’s Curse from Metronome) or deal with status. doesn’t take Moonblasts very well and would have to spend at least 3 Knock Off PP and probably 5 or 6 Rest PP for a chance to dispatch it with reasonable safety (one Knock Off to get rid of Pixie Plate, two to KO after Swords Dances). One poorly timed crit, though, and is toast. I always just stay in with , and I managed to dodge Special Attack drops this run./
has no trouble dispatching these two. can't set up easily against due to Shadow Ball being pretty strong. has U-Turn, meaning it can switch to something can't handle while halving the damage on and . is slower and only has a 68.8% chance to OHKO with Max Airstream. to is probably the most efficient line, though I’ve used to solo it as well, at the cost of many Knock Off PP. is out and is low on health or out of Dynamax turns. Psychic Terrain-boosted Psychic + the possibility of Analytic shreds my team if I give it an opening.
is slower and baits Flamethrower here, which is a pretty strong move and has a chance to burn. It also sets up a theoretical for to come in on an unexpected Flamethrower, but that never happened. is set up or crits with Max Airstream, this thing is liable to drain some health and PP off my team. It heals so much, and my team lacks the initial firepower to take it out in one hit.
, but has an easy OHKO with Max Flare. I maybe ran into one of these on my run and it just took a little health off of . works as a check in a pinch, but Swords Dance makes crits scary., as it can set up Belly Drum or paralyze with Body Slam. is a decent check if the Belly Drum goes up so long as it doesn’t have Huge Power. 
’s Max Flare has a 62.5% chance to OHKO, making this is the only Steel type that doesn’t have a guaranteed KO against with Max Flare besides Sturdy /. I’d probably take the risk with in some situations, but I think would do OK against it.. If has Weak Armor, OHKOs 93.8% of the time, but both Sand Stream and Sturdy block the OHKO. doesn’t stack up well due to consuming its item with Meteor Beam and having high physical bulk. can do pretty well, especially if Dynamax is available.
doesn’t OHKO without a crit Max Airstream, and even that isn’t a guarantee. easily walls it, but doesn’t do much in return due to Defense Curl. can 2HKO with +1 Moonblast, but can end up taking quite a bit of damage in the process if it tries to set up. can’t 2HKO with Max Airstream unless it crits, and it resists all of ’s moves. does pretty well here, but Waterfall crits after a few Swords Dances would be bad news, and flinches can cause issues. needs +6 to OHKO with Knock Off. That being said, this thing has never actually ended a run for me. sweep against /
/. I think I was down to 7 or so Knock Off PP by the end of the leg. wasn’t getting as much action as it should have, and I fumbled pretty hard around battle 27 by switching into some -laid Spikes trying to protect ’s Knock Off PP from a that used Endure to get a Weak Armor speed boost. Spikes + Shadow Ball brought down to 12 HP and benched it for the rest of the leg. Battle 34 got chipped pretty bad by a 
; lucky had set the sun. Battle 35 was ability roulette, and had pretty low PP. Lead luckily wasn’t Sap Sipper, and wasn’t Sturdy. Battle 36 I got unlucky with a Sturdy as the second mon. Somewhat fortunately it went for Light Screen, meaning the last Mon was a 2HKO with Draining Kiss, leaving with a single Air Slash PP to his name. I could have sacked to to give a new lease on life, but that would have left me pretty vulnerable to Grass and Electric types. fight. chipped it with Max Flare (sun was already up), but had to finish the job. Metronome rolled 
’s forgettable signature move,, Magic Powder, turning into a Psychic type. Annoying, as that reduced the power of my moves and caused to attack with Flamethrower. No burns, but a crit did bring me down to 4 HP. It took a fair amount of PP, but I clawed my way back to almost half health. Battle 65 was another last mon , but got lucky with Metronome rolls and scored a crit Surf. Battle 65 shit hit the fan. Lead . I debated switching to , but I’ve seen Electroweb before instead of the usual Fling or Acrobatics. I just did a normal Airstream. Big mistake. In comes . I Max Flare hoping to reduce Thunder’s accuracy. Instead I get paralyzed and taken to low red health. Hard swap to catches another Thunder hit. Next swap to dodges a Thunder; it dodges at least 2 before getting crit. A +2 Knock Off finishes. I don’t remember the last Pokémon, but I know and were in low red and was in mid yellow for HP by the end of battle 65. I decide to try one more battle. The lead of the next battle (66) is . Full paralysis on , so I get taken out by Psychic. sneaks in a Knock Off before also falling to Psychic. comes in, and I go for Max Geyser, which is plenty with Knock Off damage. next, which falls to two Max Starfalls after getting a weak Steel Roller in. Dynamax ends, and out comes , threatening a stronger Steel Roller that probably would have KOed. Luckily, it wasn’t Sturdy, so I lived, took the KO with Surf, and I promptly accepted my last full team heal. somewhere during this run, but I don’t have notes. I think it was this leg somewhere? I remember using a to line to dispatch it. Battle 68 had and in second and third position, respectively. Normally scary, but two Max Flares made quick work of them because I got lucky with no Sturdy on the former. Battle 78 had another , this time in the lead. Luckily not Sturdy again! Battle 84 saw lead . I decided to do a to line, as ’s PP was getting drained a little quickly this leg. Metronome rolls Stuff Cheeks as I switch in. I get hit with Flamethrower while I Swords Dance. I’m at +2 and yellow health and in comes Light Ball . Uh oh. Dynamax is my only out, but someone didn’t give their any Dynamax candies. I Max Guard to get a little health back with Leftovers, then survive a 14/16 roll with Volt Tackle to retaliate with Max Darkness. Last mon was luckily , so healed up and got to fight another day. Battle 87 I got a little cocky against a last mon with a fully set up and got burned and taken to almost half health. I heal up next battle against a last mon 
at the cost of 3 PP (I didn’t calc the Draining Kiss after the Luminous Moss boost post-Surf and missed a KO). showed up as the lead of battle 92 to chunk my with Flamethrower, bringing me to lower yellow health. I decide to take a slight risk (losing Wise Glasses to a Weakness Policy-boosted Thief) and Draining Kiss on the lead battle 93, and land a nice crit to KO and heal to full. Battle 106 brought down to 1 Knock Off PP and to 1 Air Slash PP. Battle 107 last Mon was , but this time I rolled Sturdy and got down to 35 HP post-Dynamax. Battle 108 was a lead that turned into a sweep, bringing down to 5 attacking PP. Battle 109 used ’s last Knock Off PP on a lead , and was down to 1 PP in each of its moves at the end of the battle. Battle 110 saw a lead Alcremie, letting watch another Pokemon faint (Misty Explosion) despite no longer having attack PP. Next mon was , conveniently letting heal a bit in spite of PP woes. Battle 111 was a lead Obstagoon, so I switch in on the inevitable parting shot. In comes Passimian. used its last PP to sweep Passimian and and get some chip into the 
’s Obstruct. burned several Grass Knots to KO that . Battle 112 I use my last Air Slash as a Max Move on , finish with Max Overgrowth, use Max Overgrowth on 
, crit with my last Flamethrower on , then KO with Grass Knot. With only a Grass Knot and Draining Kiss PP a piece on , I step into Battle 113 in case I can Struggle stall something. Lead 
got me hopeful, as had the HP to tank several Snarls and ’s Intimidates made the Flys a non-issue. I switch-stall quite a bit while also depleting all of ’s PP except for its remaining two Swords Dances. I set those up while uses its last Struggles. In comes 
. Good! I chunk it with a Struggle from before going down to Earth Power. takes the KO with Grass Knot. Last Pokemon is… ! Using my very last PP, I take the KO with Max Starfall.’s Toxic Spikes, and another got to 36 on the first leg before crashing out in the second leg on battle 49 after losing on battle 42 to a last mon . and have it be an integral part of the team, even without a Mega available! I do wonder how Gen 9 Fairies like Iron Valiant, Flutter Mane, and even Tinkaton would perform in this format. 
