Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[Abbott Rabbot]

Hello I'm new the forum but I came across a potentially scientific moment that might be of use to people trying to "figure out" the Battle Arena. This quirk specifically affects the "Body" category as I was shocked to win this even after doing all the calcs. Hopefully this is useful to someone. Pardon the cell phone video of my DS, I don't have a capture card.

TLDR:
For the Body category, it would seem that your health ratios are determined the moment either player sends out their pokemon and they are face to face. Even before the ref says "Commence battling!" therefore you can sneak an extra turn of leftovers heal (8% HP) the turn your opponent sends in a pokemon, if you just KO'ed their last pokemon and are not 100% HP. This "Leftovers Overfill" is potentially useful if you could somehow rig your HP to be very low the turn something comes in, as your HP ratio can be greatly impacted by even a small heal like leftovers close to 1HP.

WHAT HAPPENED:
My Kingdra wins Body category in the above and I wasn't sure how. Delayed hit moves Dive/Fly/Dig etc. have already been shown to be very good at the Mind/Skill categories so I stalled and avoided crits from potential Scope Lens Feraligator 3/4 with Dive but I expected to tie overall (Δ O X). Yet after winning (Δ O O), I think there's a quirk with the Body category starting the HP ratio when the two first meet instead of when the referee says "Commence battling"

Per Bulbapedia: ​

• Body judges the amount of HP remaining at the end of the third round compared to their amount at the start of the first. The Pokémon with the better ratio wins the two points in the overall judgment.​

In the Video:

• My Kingdra has 85/175 (48% HP) when the referee says "Commence battling."​
• His Earthquake deals 52 dmg*. With Leftovers I finish the fight at 63/175 (36%) HP. My ratio of dmg taken is 63/85. I have ~74.1% HP​
• My Dive from my Modest 252/31 SpA EV/IV Kingdra does between 14.9% - 17.7% (27-32 dmg of 181 HP) to the 31 IVs Feraligator 3/4 who have identical stats. He has (if I hit max) 149/181 left or ~82.3% HP​

How do I win with a ratio of 74.1% HP left vs his 82.3% HP?

​

If I account for the moment Feraligator is sent out (~21 seconds) before I get the leftovers heal and the ref says "Commence Battling!" I have 75/175 HP. Now the ratio becomes in my favor 63/75 = 84% of my health remaining.​

​

This was Match 7 of Round 5. From what I can find, his Pokemon are now close to 31 IVs. It doesn't matter though, I ran the calcs against a 0 IVs Feraligator 3/4. He can hit me for 52 still, and if I max hit him for 37 that turn he still lives with 129/166 or 77% HP which is still more that my original value of 74.1% HP.

My Kingdra btw (https://pokepast.es/636532a490ddf7a3)

​

***Perhaps there lies a strategy with being very low HP where leftovers or another heal could provide you with a significant HP overfill (in terms of ratio when the two pokemon meet) to almost always win Body especially combined with any 2 turn attack move like Dive.***

EDIT:
P.S. if there is a more specific forum on Emerald Battle Arena pls move this there

 

[cowboyd11]

Hello Everyone!

Battle Tower Open (Lv. 100) Ongoing Streak: 112 Wins

This streak is still active and has been achieved across both my custom modded Game Boy Advance (new screen, new shell) and my Analogue Pocket. I have never used save states and never will because to me, it feels like cheating.

Gen III has always been my favorite. After getting absolutely wrecked by the Battle Tower as an 8-year-old, I made it a mission to return and reclaim my honor, to teach a lesson to the 2004 AI that caused me so much stress and rage as a kid.

After losing back to back streaks to Salon Maiden Anabel at 68 wins, I started to wonder if the Battle Tower had beaten my 24 year old self too.

Without further ado, I present:

Aurora Stampede

​

Team

Tauros @ Choice Band - TT
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 100
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
IVs: HP 30 / Atk 31 / Def 30 / SpA 31 / SpD 30 / Spe 31
- Return
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Ghost
- Double-Edge

Suicune @ Leftovers - T
Ability: Pressure
Level: 100
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
IVs: HP 31 / Atk 12 / Def 31 / SpA 31 / SpD 31 / Spe 31
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Ice Beam
- Substitute

Latios @ Lum Berry - Apollo
Ability: Levitate
Level: 100
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
IVs: HP 31 / Atk 31 / Def 31 / SpA 31 / SpD 31 / Spe 31
- Dragon Claw
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Thunderbolt

Team Building

RNG Manipulating / Ace Codes

TT, my Tauros (named after Thierry Henry, French football legend) was my most interesting manip as he is obviously not from Emerald. I ended up catching a Tauros in the safari zone my Fire Red copy and sent it over to my Emerald where I used a number of e-sh4rk's bootstrap codes to effectively create a legitimate Tauros. I started by placing my Tauros in the daycare, I then used a code to instantly hatch an egg and change the PID of the egg to an adamant one, I then used another bootstrap code to change the IV's of the egg to make sure it came out with strong IV's as well as being Hidden Power Ghost. I then lastly changed my SID to one that would match the PID where it would yield a shiny Tauros. I hatched it, used some more bootstrap codes to EV train it perfectly to what I wanted and the rest is history.

T, my Suicine (named after my big bro) was another interesting manip that involved injecting my copy of Emerald with im a blissy's DLC and then following a number of steps to effectively RNG manipulate a legal Suicune from Colosseum while catching Suicune on the iconic Mirage Island. This included changing my SID to one that had a Suicune with the nature, IV's, and was shiny and then having to time travel within 30 or so seconds of the frame that it was at in the future and successfully clicking A on Suicune at the right time for it to appear.

Apollo, my Latios (just a cool name) also had an interesting process where on accident I chose Latios as my roamer by viewing it on the TV after the E4. I had to actually use some more ACE codes to spawn in the Southern Islands and then had to swap Latias from appearing there to Latios. I then followed steps to change my SID to the right one for a timid 6IV latty to appear.

Strategy

The Strategy is quite simple. Lead with Tauros and then decide:

Physical Attacker:
If the opposing mon is an physical attacker and susceptible to intimidate, decide if they are a major threat to the rest of the team or not and if they are, kill it with double edge or return. If they are not, swap either Suicune or Latty to setup on with 6x calm minds while using either substitute or recover spamming to stay alive and then proceed to sweep.

Special Attacker:

If the opposing mon is a weak special attacker I usually decide if it has enough power to cause damage to the rest of my team, I will kill it with Tauros. If it is weak enough I sub Suicune in to take hits while setting up Calm Mind, usually leftovers can keep Suicune alive while each additional Calm Mind reduces the damage taken significantly. Sometimes I can even swap in on mons with super effective moves like thunder punch and maybe I will take 20% for the first hit, each additional Calm Mind reduces it until it does nothing and I can safely setup substitute somewhere during the Calm Mind's and then finish off the entire team with Surf / Ice Beam. Similarly this also works with Latios but not as well as it is more fragile than Suicune and only has access to Recover and not a Substitute to hide behind.

OHKO'er:
If the opposing team has a mon with Fissure, Sheer Cold, Guillotine, or Horn Drill. I usually try to take the risk and swap into Latios and immediately setup Substitute. This does 2 things, it firstly is a great way to get them to lose PP fast as Suicune has the ability Pressure which increases the amount of PP usage by 2x. Secondly, and most importantly, Suicune has Substitute which can save it from an OHKO move and keep Suicune alive which has saved me a bunch of times.

Exportable

[https://pokepast.es/a122ef386a784e03]

This has been one hell of a journey. What started as a simple goal to earn a gold symbol and call it a day turned into something much bigger. I had no idea how much effort it would take to truly conquer the Battle Tower or any of the towers for that matter.
I didn’t expect to fall down a rabbit hole of RNG manipulation, ACE codes, and constantly pushing myself to learn and adapt. From long battles on cramped plane rides that stretched up to 15 minutes each, to the tension of prepping for the next opponent, to hours of theory crafting with my boys about which three epic mons could carry the run, this has genuinely become one of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life.

Just want to shoutout my boys: Dr. G and Alpa Chin, without you guys this team would have never existed.

What's Next?

As for what is next, I plan to take this team as far as it can go. I never wanted to create a boring team consisting of stall mons to achieve crazy high wins, that seems mundane but can totally respect the time commitment and grind required. Once this team comes to an end I want to recreate a team with 2 of my favorite mons, shiny Raikou and shiny Registeel, 2 of the best shinies ever and 2 wicked mons. The final mon is undecided but will probably end up being Suicune as it has been one of my favorite mons and is crazy powerful. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know!

 

[Swooce]

Hi all,

Returning with an ongoing 70 streak in the Lvl 50 Battle Tower using a team of my favorites, Espeon - Charizard - Swampert. (SubTectCM Espeon, SubPetaya Charizard, and CursePert). Will update w/ final score or if I can reach 105. I initially tried really hard to get a baton pass Espeon team going, but it ended up being too inconsistent, will explain more below. A story of the Anabel fight in still frames is attached, my video was too big to upload.

Team

Espeon (F) / Lucy
Timid - Synchronize - Leftovers
IVs: 31-4-31-31-31-31
EVs: 164 HP, 44 Def, 4 SpA, 76 SpD, 220 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 161-64-86-151-125-173
- Psychic
- Protect
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
EV Notes: EVs allow you to survive 170+ Atk Metagross Shadow Ball, and at +3 Modest Zapdos TBolt cannot break your substitutes.


Charizard (M) / Chef Curry
Timid - Blaze - Petaya Berry
IVs: 31-4-31-30-31-31
EVs: 52 HP, 20 Def, 200 SpA, 4 SpD, 228 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 160-81-101-154-106-163
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Claw
- Substitute
- Hidden Power Grass [68]
EV Notes: HP divisible by 4 for Petaya berry, investment survives 252+ Atk Ursaring/Absol Double-Edge, only 1/16 chance to die to 252+ SpA Gengar Thunderbolt. 200 SpA +1 Blaze Charizard Flamethrower OHKO Zapdos, Ursaring, Armaldo, Registeel, Metagross, other threats, guaranteed 2HKO 255HP Snorlax after Leftovers. If you forego HP Grass you can get an extra stat point, probably SpD is the best to guarantee surviving the GengarBolt. Try Smokescreen/Growl/Toxic if you can't breed Hidden Power.


Swampert (M) / Shrek
Impish - Torrent - Chesto Berry
IVs: 27-31-30-31-31-30
EVs: 252 HP, 12 Atk, 176 Def, 60 SpD, 8 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 205-132-132-94-129-81
- Earthquake
- Return
- Curse
- Rest
EV Notes: At least 205HP and 127 Def to guarantee that 170+Atk Metagross EQ cannot 3HKO, current spread takes max 49.7% damage from 252+Atk Rhydon Earthquake, the 12 Atk EVs guarantee that you will 3HKO 255HP Snorlax at base stats, winning the Curse war. You also still outspeed Snorlax after 1 Curse. With current IVs use Impish for an extra stat point, I would recommend Speed so that this set outspeeds Tyranitar in Level 60s/100s.

Team Building

Originally this was a Baton Pass Espeon team, I tried a variety of mons such as Gengar which is amazing after a boost, or Zapdos. I also played around with Charm which is good but is better for helping your teammates set up rather than helping Espeon set up (My other best Attempt lost in round 68 with a team of Charm Espeon, CursePert and Toxic/Ice Beam/Protect/Rest/Lefovers Articuno. No idea why I toxic the Lum Berry Latios instead of just blasting with Ice beam...?). I found Charizard to be a very good recipient, it has Flamethrower to blast steel types that threaten Espeon and great coverage overall. CursePert and CurseRegisteel also appreciate calm mind boosts and can set up on water types. I really like Swampert because it is able to take on the strong special Fire and Electric attackers that may overwhelm Espeon. Overall many of the teams I tried would peter out somewhere in the 50s and couldn't even achieve the ribbons (although passing CMs is still a lot of fun!). The conceptual problem is that you pass when faced with dark/steel types, bulky normals/Slowbro, and physical attackers. Unfortunately bulky normals and Slowbro are still going to wall the special attacker you pass to, you generally want a strong physical attacker to counter many of these, at which point it is not taking advantage of the SpA CM boosts, especially if you passed in the face of a physical attacker like Rhydon which doesn't care about increased SpD either.
My struggles changed when I replaced Baton Pass with Protect and doubled down on the leftovers Espeon, I managed to get to 70 wins on my 2nd attempt, and only lost the 1st because of misplays on my part. So far the team has felt pretty consistent.

Espeon:
SubTect is a tried and true strategy, combined with Calm Mind and leftovers you can basically set up on almost any special attacker. Once they can't break your substitute you are in stall and set up territory and can easily get to +6. Espeon most likely has the best stat spread to pull this off (minus the Lati@s of course), it's a little bulkier than Alakazam and doesn't have the Ice Beam weakness of the Lati@s so does better against the many water types of the frontier. In fact water types are some of the best setup opportunities because they cannot deal status with their STAB unlike Fire/Ice/Electric attackers. Protect is probably the best move for a lead Pokemon followed by substitute, combined with Espeon's super speed and you generally have a pretty safe opening. You can scout most sets, sometimes it's better to use substitute first against a pokemon like Ludicolo which is liable to Rain Dance or Double Team on turn 1. Other turn1 sub targets include Muk (curse), Jynx, Fire types (Sunny Day and OverHerb), grassy poison double team spammers, and some ghost types. Obviously with Baton Pass you just Sub turn 1 almost every match and can try to pass that along. I can strongly recommend focusing on a more offensive spread and running Cheri Berry if you are going to use Baton Pass or Charm, this opens up Leftovers for some tanky recipient like Articuno and increases your sweep chances with only 1-2 boosts, you can also swap stall confuse rays or swagger without burning your berry. Biggest threats are Snorlax (guaranteed 2HKO at +3), Metagross (can't 2HKO) and Dark Types.

Charizard:
SubPetaya Charizard is basically there to switch into Metagross and other steel types and blast away, it also removes grass types for Swampert. This Pokemon is pretty goated in gen3, no stealth rock and deceptively good bulk that can switch into a huge number of attacks on the frontier, grab a boost + blaze, and then fire away. Earthquake/Fissure immunity is also essential since Espeon and Swampert are hit. The stat spread tries to make the best of Charizard's stats and STAB. When using Charizard often you will beat the check it switched into and then suicide against the next pokemon. You only have a small chance to OHKO the standard 170HP frontier Metagross spreads, but of course after a Petaya boost and/or blaze that doesn't matter. You also OHKO Rhydon before a boost and Swampert after Petaya berry activates. Charizard has so far taken care of all 3 of these mons during the streak and also switched into Latias 8 Shadow ball, ate Psychic for a Petaya boost on the 1st Dragon Claw, and then removed the offending dragon from my screen. Some other options would be to drop HP Grass or Dragon Claw for Smokescreen or Growl, which would help the other two mons set up much more comfortably, but all 3 coverage moves have been useful so far, those might work well on a Lead Charizard. The bulk is also useful, you will survive even the strongest normal STAB attacks, things like Choice Band Absol Double-Edge, and non-stab Thunderbolts. Another note is that zero Flygon sets have a rock type move, so Dragon Claw Charizard counters them well. I think Timid Moltres, such as the stall set seen in this forum and giving Espeon a different item, could be a great replacement and also guarantee the native OHKO on Metagross. An even better option is definitely Choice Band Salamence with Aerial Ace/Earthquake/Flamethrower/Brick Break, having intimidate plus a Snorlax and Dark-type counter would support the rest of the team a lot. Biggest threats are bulky waters, anything with a rock move, and Quick Claw users, unfortunately these have a lot of overlap.

Swampert:
CursePert is great for the frontier, especially because you need much less investment to counter Metagross due to not having Choice Band or 252 attack EVs, and have Charizard backing you up. It is further EVd to basically outspeed and/or win the curse war against enemy Snorlax. I used Careful instead of impish because I originally had a more specially-oriented spread to take better advantage of Calm Mind boosts (205 HP 127 Def 135 SpD extra Atk), but the current physical investment has paid off for sure. Better breeding and Impish could get you 1-4 more points, I would say 1 speed and 3 SpD to round out this mon (205 HP 132 Def 132 SpD 82 Speed) to outspeed Tyranitar in Level 60/100 (obviously this wrecks both Charizard and Espeon). Currently hitting 129 SpD over 128 changes Latios Luster purge from >65% 3HKO to like 29% 3HKO. You can set up to +6 on basically any electric type, and also fire types that don't have SunnyBeam. Against waters often a 1 curse -> resto berry -> 2 attacks sequence can get you past them with a bit of HP to spare. Being at 1 curse is a good place anyways since you still outspeed Snorlax. Return takes care of Salamence and Gyarados at +5. I originally had Rock Slide but it is not a good move, and the team getting walled by Claydol is embarassing. You cannot touch Misdreavus or Gengar, but I was able to PP stall and Struggle a Misdreavus so not too big of a threat, while Espeon cleanly picks off Gengar and Charizard can switch into any of its attacks and set up (minus Gengar 1 of course). Against Anabel set up to +6 on Raikou, EQ at the right moment so Reflect somes offline, then sweep. Biggest threats are grass move users and big physical crits, also psychic special defense drops.

Overall this team is fun, there feels like a good variety of matches, some with slow setup and some with quick sweeps, which keeps things interesting. Definitely would recommend CBMence Aerial Ace/EQ/Flamethrower/Brick Break over Charizard to probably get a more consistent streak going. This team is fairly susceptible to status even with double substitute, so a Lum Berry Pokemon (Moltres?) would also make a great choice over Charizard. CBFlygon could replace Swampert in the role of checking Electric/Fire/Steel types and role compress fire coverage, but cannot set up and sweep.

 

[Swooce]

Hi all,

Returning with an ongoing 70 streak in the Lvl 50 Battle Tower using a team of my favorites, Espeon - Charizard - Swampert. (SubTectCM Espeon, SubPetaya Charizard, and CursePert). Will update w/ final score or if I can reach 105. I initially tried really hard to get a baton pass Espeon team going, but it ended up being too inconsistent, will explain more below. A story of the Anabel fight in still frames is attached, my video was too big to upload.

Team

Espeon (F) / Lucy
Timid - Synchronize - Leftovers
IVs: 31-4-31-31-31-31
EVs: 164 HP, 44 Def, 4 SpA, 76 SpD, 220 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 161-64-86-151-125-173
- Psychic
- Protect
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
EV Notes: EVs allow you to survive 170+ Atk Metagross Shadow Ball, and at +3 Modest Zapdos TBolt cannot break your substitutes.


Charizard (M) / Chef Curry
Timid - Blaze - Petaya Berry
IVs: 31-4-31-30-31-31
EVs: 52 HP, 20 Def, 200 SpA, 4 SpD, 228 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 160-81-101-154-106-163
- Flamethrower
- Dragon Claw
- Substitute
- Hidden Power Grass [68]
EV Notes: HP divisible by 4 for Petaya berry, investment survives 252+ Atk Ursaring/Absol Double-Edge, only 1/16 chance to die to 252+ SpA Gengar Thunderbolt. 200 SpA +1 Blaze Charizard Flamethrower OHKO Zapdos, Ursaring, Armaldo, Registeel, Metagross, other threats, guaranteed 2HKO 255HP Snorlax after Leftovers. If you forego HP Grass you can get an extra stat point, probably SpD is the best to guarantee surviving the GengarBolt. Try Smokescreen/Growl/Toxic if you can't breed Hidden Power.


Swampert (M) / Shrek
Impish - Torrent - Chesto Berry
IVs: 27-31-30-31-31-30
EVs: 252 HP, 12 Atk, 176 Def, 60 SpD, 8 Speed
Lvl 50 stats: 205-132-132-94-129-81
- Earthquake
- Return
- Curse
- Rest
EV Notes: At least 205HP and 127 Def to guarantee that 170+Atk Metagross EQ cannot 3HKO, current spread takes max 49.7% damage from 252+Atk Rhydon Earthquake, the 12 Atk EVs guarantee that you will 3HKO 255HP Snorlax at base stats, winning the Curse war. You also still outspeed Snorlax after 1 Curse. With current IVs use Impish for an extra stat point, I would recommend Speed so that this set outspeeds Tyranitar in Level 60s/100s.

Team Building

Originally this was a Baton Pass Espeon team, I tried a variety of mons such as Gengar which is amazing after a boost, or Zapdos. I also played around with Charm which is good but is better for helping your teammates set up rather than helping Espeon set up (My other best Attempt lost in round 68 with a team of Charm Espeon, CursePert and Toxic/Ice Beam/Protect/Rest/Lefovers Articuno. No idea why I toxic the Lum Berry Latios instead of just blasting with Ice beam...?). I found Charizard to be a very good recipient, it has Flamethrower to blast steel types that threaten Espeon and great coverage overall. CursePert and CurseRegisteel also appreciate calm mind boosts and can set up on water types. I really like Swampert because it is able to take on the strong special Fire and Electric attackers that may overwhelm Espeon. Overall many of the teams I tried would peter out somewhere in the 50s and couldn't even achieve the ribbons (although passing CMs is still a lot of fun!). The conceptual problem is that you pass when faced with dark/steel types, bulky normals/Slowbro, and physical attackers. Unfortunately bulky normals and Slowbro are still going to wall the special attacker you pass to, you generally want a strong physical attacker to counter many of these, at which point it is not taking advantage of the SpA CM boosts, especially if you passed in the face of a physical attacker like Rhydon which doesn't care about increased SpD either.
My struggles changed when I replaced Baton Pass with Protect and doubled down on the leftovers Espeon, I managed to get to 70 wins on my 2nd attempt, and only lost the 1st because of misplays on my part. So far the team has felt pretty consistent.

Espeon:
SubTect is a tried and true strategy, combined with Calm Mind and leftovers you can basically set up on almost any special attacker. Once they can't break your substitute you are in stall and set up territory and can easily get to +6. Espeon most likely has the best stat spread to pull this off (minus the Lati@s of course), it's a little bulkier than Alakazam and doesn't have the Ice Beam weakness of the Lati@s so does better against the many water types of the frontier. In fact water types are some of the best setup opportunities because they cannot deal status with their STAB unlike Fire/Ice/Electric attackers. Protect is probably the best move for a lead Pokemon followed by substitute, combined with Espeon's super speed and you generally have a pretty safe opening. You can scout most sets, sometimes it's better to use substitute first against a pokemon like Ludicolo which is liable to Rain Dance or Double Team on turn 1. Other turn1 sub targets include Muk (curse), Jynx, Fire types (Sunny Day and OverHerb), grassy poison double team spammers, and some ghost types. Obviously with Baton Pass you just Sub turn 1 almost every match and can try to pass that along. I can strongly recommend focusing on a more offensive spread and running Cheri Berry if you are going to use Baton Pass or Charm, this opens up Leftovers for some tanky recipient like Articuno and increases your sweep chances with only 1-2 boosts, you can also swap stall confuse rays or swagger without burning your berry. Biggest threats are Snorlax (guaranteed 2HKO at +3), Metagross (can't 2HKO) and Dark Types.

Charizard:
SubPetaya Charizard is basically there to switch into Metagross and other steel types and blast away, it also removes grass types for Swampert. This Pokemon is pretty goated in gen3, no stealth rock and deceptively good bulk that can switch into a huge number of attacks on the frontier, grab a boost + blaze, and then fire away. Earthquake/Fissure immunity is also essential since Espeon and Swampert are hit. The stat spread tries to make the best of Charizard's stats and STAB. When using Charizard often you will beat the check it switched into and then suicide against the next pokemon. You only have a small chance to OHKO the standard 170HP frontier Metagross spreads, but of course after a Petaya boost and/or blaze that doesn't matter. You also OHKO Rhydon before a boost and Swampert after Petaya berry activates. Charizard has so far taken care of all 3 of these mons during the streak and also switched into Latias 8 Shadow ball, ate Psychic for a Petaya boost on the 1st Dragon Claw, and then removed the offending dragon from my screen. Some other options would be to drop HP Grass or Dragon Claw for Smokescreen or Growl, which would help the other two mons set up much more comfortably, but all 3 coverage moves have been useful so far, those might work well on a Lead Charizard. The bulk is also useful, you will survive even the strongest normal STAB attacks, things like Choice Band Absol Double-Edge, and non-stab Thunderbolts. Another note is that zero Flygon sets have a rock type move, so Dragon Claw Charizard counters them well. I think Timid Moltres, such as the stall set seen in this forum and giving Espeon a different item, could be a great replacement and also guarantee the native OHKO on Metagross. An even better option is definitely Choice Band Salamence with Aerial Ace/Earthquake/Flamethrower/Brick Break, having intimidate plus a Snorlax and Dark-type counter would support the rest of the team a lot. Biggest threats are bulky waters, anything with a rock move, and Quick Claw users, unfortunately these have a lot of overlap.

Swampert:
CursePert is great for the frontier, especially because you need much less investment to counter Metagross due to not having Choice Band or 252 attack EVs, and have Charizard backing you up. It is further EVd to basically outspeed and/or win the curse war against enemy Snorlax. I used Careful instead of impish because I originally had a more specially-oriented spread to take better advantage of Calm Mind boosts (205 HP 127 Def 135 SpD extra Atk), but the current physical investment has paid off for sure. Better breeding and Impish could get you 1-4 more points, I would say 1 speed and 3 SpD to round out this mon (205 HP 132 Def 132 SpD 82 Speed) to outspeed Tyranitar in Level 60/100 (obviously this wrecks both Charizard and Espeon). Currently hitting 129 SpD over 128 changes Latios Luster purge from >65% 3HKO to like 29% 3HKO. You can set up to +6 on basically any electric type, and also fire types that don't have SunnyBeam. Against waters often a 1 curse -> resto berry -> 2 attacks sequence can get you past them with a bit of HP to spare. Being at 1 curse is a good place anyways since you still outspeed Snorlax. Return takes care of Salamence and Gyarados at +5. I originally had Rock Slide but it is not a good move, and the team getting walled by Claydol is embarassing. You cannot touch Misdreavus or Gengar, but I was able to PP stall and Struggle a Misdreavus so not too big of a threat, while Espeon cleanly picks off Gengar and Charizard can switch into any of its attacks and set up (minus Gengar 1 of course). Against Anabel set up to +6 on Raikou, EQ at the right moment so Reflect somes offline, then sweep. Biggest threats are grass move users and big physical crits, also psychic special defense drops.

Overall this team is fun, there feels like a good variety of matches, some with slow setup and some with quick sweeps, which keeps things interesting. Definitely would recommend CBMence Aerial Ace/EQ/Flamethrower/Brick Break over Charizard to probably get a more consistent streak going. This team is fairly susceptible to status even with double substitute, so a Lum Berry Pokemon (Moltres?) would also make a great choice over Charizard. CBFlygon could replace Swampert in the role of checking Electric/Fire/Steel types and role compress fire coverage, but cannot set up and sweep.

Ended with a score of 98 (lost round 99). Misplayed against 2nd slot Choice Band Aerodactyl 2 which Ancientpowered my Charizard, then got an omniboost while stalling with Espeon. It ended up doing too much recoil damage and fainted before Swampert could get more than 3 boosts, which was not enough to OHKO 3rd slot Flygon 2 before it hit with Solar Beam. Moral of the story is to just hard switch to Swampert when you see an Aerodactyl. This team can definitely go all the way to 105 so hopefully I can do that soon, not bad for a 2nd attempt though. I also wanted to share this calc I did not intend, but turned out very helpful:

Dewgong 4 Signal Beam vs. 52HP 20Def Charizard: 8-10 damage (5-6.2%)
Dewgong 4 Surf vs. 52HP 4SpD Charizard: 127-150 damage (79.3-93.7%)
Charizard does 44% and 64% with HP grass at +0/+1 so this set is a free setup as long as Dewgong doesn't high roll twice.

 

[bumpsetspike3]

Gen 3 Battle Factory Open Level (lvl 100) Streak: 89 Wins
This was played on an emulator.
I don't record or stream anything, but I tried to log my thought process at each decision as I was playing. I still made a lot of misplays but I am generally happy with how I played.

Notes here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UMUs_TyCyu8faw5QcyjNOhmBIYLqb5FP3wncp1aKgCY/edit?usp=sharing