Wow, this run lasted a...*shockingly* short time after this. Final tally comes in at 54 wins, with Battle 55 being the one to do me in.Sure there's basically zero interest in the Tower nowadays, but I decided to get into it and hit my 50th win in the Classic ruleset (no Dynamax) last night! This is an ongoing streak, I'll try to update as I progress.
Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
The glue of this team, Garchomp has always been great and the SwSh Tower is no exception. Thunder Wave immunity, good dual STAB, good base stats, and nice options make it able to sweep so often. One thing that’s really nice about Jolly Scale Shot Garchomp is that after the +1 boost, the only Pokémon that outspeeds you is Leon’s Cinderace-5 (normal Cinderace-5 is a speed tie), but its best move against you is Focus Blast which does a max of 35.5%, and even without Swords Dance you guarantee OHKO it with Earthquake. It’s also Scarfed, and so is locked into whatever it chooses against you. Even in the worst case of you fighting it, locking into something else means it won’t Electro Ball Toxapex, or if Toxapex is out and it locks into that, Garchomp gets a free switch. That is to say, once you get +1, you outspeed anything that even resembles a threat.
Swords Dance and Earthquake are pretty standard for Garchomp. There are plenty of options for Dragon STAB but I go with Scale Shot for the speed boost, ability to ignore sash, and because Outrage is too risky in my opinion since it locks you and guarantees a confusion. Fire Fang isn’t often needed, but provides nice coverage against Grass types who may not take a guaranteed OHKO from either other move, as well as hit some tricky Pokémon like Corviknight. Lum Berry is a pretty old-school item, but it still works well to prevent unfortunate statuses which might try to cripple its sweeping capabilities.
Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
- Baneful Bunker
- Icy Wind
- Scald
- Sludge Wave
Toxapex and Garchomp have great synergy. Its typing and bulk allow it great switch-ins to Ice and Fairy moves, with Sludge Wave hitting the latter type hard. This synergy is reciprocal as well, since Garchomp gets a free switch-in to any Electric attacks. Scald is standard Water STAB that can shut down physical attackers, while Baneful Bunker is an extremely versatile tool: guaranteed poison on a contact move, stalling to allow Black Sludge healing or poison chip, or just as a Protect to scout an enemy set. Icy Wind rarely gets used, but is instrumental in neutralizing certain sweepers (most notably Dragapult-2, which threatens both Garchomp and Azelf but is outsped by both of them at -1) and keeping speed boosters in check. Regenerator is also invaluable in a 3v3 format, since it gives Toxapex very strong longevity if an ally can come in safely. But even on the offensive, 252 SPA allows Toxapex to chip down anything that doesn’t immediately threaten it, and even get some serious damage in against things that do. Garchomp may be this team’s sweeper, but Toxapex has soloed plenty of matches.
Azelf @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
- Psychic
Azelf sees less action than the previous two Pokémon, but is an important revenge killer with wide coverage the others lack. Levitate lets it get a free switch-in on Ground types that threaten Toxapex, and its typing means Psychic attacks don’t do much to it either. Choice Specs means it does not have to spend time setting up Nasty Plot and can just attack, having good coverage or simply STAB Psychic to muscle through opponents. While Choice locking is unfortunate, having an ally with Regenerator means that switching out to reset Choice is often a very viable move as Toxapex often takes less damage than it has recovered via Regenerator.While this team doesn’t have a ton of weaknesses, it certainly does have them.
Mr. Rime: this is probably PTSD since my first streak was ended by this thing doing massive damage to my team, but this Pokémon counters quite a lot of my team. Set 1 packs Freeze Dry, Set 2 packs Icy Wind and Psychic, Set 3 packs Sucker Punch to threaten Azelf, and Set 4 packs Blizzard and Psychic. Despite threatening Azelf, Set 3 is actually the least dangerous here since it gets poisoned off of Baneful Bunker, and the only switch that does any real damage is Toxapex -> Azelf, since it will Zen Headbutt Toxapex. It will Sucker Punch Azelf (free switch to Garchomp) and Ice Shard Garchomp (at worst, Toxapex loses 1 HP after Black Sludge), which are not threatening. Thankfully, Mr. Rime is slow and all things considered not *that* strong, so Toxapex can figure out how to chip all the other sets before Azelf can Shadow Ball it, or even get in Garchomp and use Earthquake depending on the situation.
BoltBeam: The Holy Grail of coverage can be very difficult for this team, especially if it is a special attacker carrying it since it cannot be stalled with Baneful Bunker as effectively. Azelf usually has to take a hit on the switch in these sorts of scenarios, which is unfortunate and often leaves it vulnerable to statuses which completely cripple it.
Priority: this team relies on natural speed to win fights, and again while priority moves that can threaten the team are uncommon, they do exist. Any priority user gets to hit first unless it’s going into Baneful Bunker. Most priority is not overly dangerous, but can be if a Pokémon is weak, or Ice Shard which still forces Garchomp out in many cases.
Dragon Leads: ironic, given I’m using a Dragon lead. But Scale Shot is relatively low power, meaning it’s not always a safe guess at an OHKO before Swords Dance. It also gives -1DEF, meaning physical attackers following them may force a switch to protect Garchomp as it wants its Swords Dance. These leads can sometimes be hit or miss, since Toxapex has some very good matchups into some of them, but Scale Shot’s BP being fairly low does mean that unboosted it is fairly weak.I try to keep a live commentary of some matches, namely all Leon ones and any that I almost lose so I can review them (spoiler, pretty much all the time it's due to me misplaying). Here are a couple from my current streak:
Battle 12: Second Leon fight (my previous streak ended the battle before him, so battle 2 of this streak was my first Leon). I was streaming on Twitch, but was my first time and didn’t remember to turn on saving broadcasts so this is going to be going off of memory mostly. He leads Mr. Rime, and I switch to Toxapex and it’s Rime-4. This is pretty bad for me — Blizzard will OHKO Garchomp if it connects and Chomp can’t unboosted KO Rime, Pex will be worn down to Psychic, and Azelf can’t OHKO with Shadow Ball (which isn’t a move I necessarily want locked in anyways). I get Rime low with a couple Sludge Waves, then send in Azelf and lock Thunderbolt for Charizard: but miraculously, he switches to Inteleon-4 on the first turn Azelf attacks, so the Sash is broken and it can’t outspeed me and it has no priority so it goes down next. I’m not 100% sure of the order of everything else (I intended to have a video…dumb me). I remember him using Overgrowth/Strike/Airstream with Charizard, and Hurricane missing on Pex so I can Scald for the KO. I still definitely had Garchomp. What I *believe* happened is that for some reason I switched out Azelf when Charizard came out instead of just sticking to Thunderbolt, which would be a bad move but I wasn’t thinking straight. Thunderbolt + Scald should be a guaranteed 2HKO there, and Rime was out anyways so long as someone that wasn’t Toxapex was still standing. Regardless of what happened, this was a scary fight because of Mr. Rime.
Battle 39: Rachel. I had a rough run-in with Galvantula a few runs ago: only one set can outspeed me (Galvantula-2, which is both a speed tie and a pretty non-threatening set) and I OHKO all of them with an unboosted Earthquake, but on one of my previous attempts I Swords Danced against Galvantula-4 but then went for Scale Shot instead of the free Earthquake and got KOed when Scale Shot missed. Needless to say, I absolutely did not learn my lesson to just Earthquake turn 1. She leads Galvantula-3 and I whiff Scale Shot while she uses Lunge, so I switch into Toxapex since Lunge is a guaranteed OHKO on Azelf. I bunker the first Volt Switch then it Volt Switches into Jolteon-4 but I hit it with Scald and get the burn. I Bunker a Thunder, but then Thunder connects next turn and Toxapex is down. In goes Garchomp, and I risk the Scale Shot just to get some boosted speed (since now Icy Wind is gone) and thankfully get it, taking Jolteon out after a Hyper Voice, but now Garchomp is in the yellow and +0 ATK. Braviary comes out, I Scale Shot for damage and it KOs me with Brave Bird. Thankfully, the damage is enough for Psychic to get the KO, and Psychic is a guaranteed OHKO on Galvantula-3.
Battle 55: Wilde. Out first is Froslass, which instantly forces a switch because it’ll OHKO Garchomp with any Ice move. It hits Toxapex with Ice Beam on the switch, and I Bunker to scout and it uses Spikes so Set 2. This is also unfortunately the set that outspeeds Garchomp and has a Salac Berry, so I hit it with two Icy Winds to get it slow and in EQ range, and it sets up another Spikes layer and then a Shadow Ball. Switch back to Garchomp and KO it with Earthquake, but I then have to switch again as Togekiss-3 comes out. I go into Toxapex, assuming I’ll take a Fairy move which I do (Play Rough). Thankfully this set is physical, so I can Bunker a Zen Headbutt next turn to poison it and get some free damage. Then comes Sludge Wave before a final Bunker before switching Azelf in on a ZH and KOing with Psychic. Unfortunately, the run-killer is out next: Mimikyu-4. I switch to Toxapex, and this is my mistake here. I don’t know what Mimikyu set is out yet, but the only one that can move before Azelf is Mimikyu-4, which couldn’t have OHKOed with Shadow Sneak here. So, I should have stayed and used Psychic to break the Disguise, but I don’t. Toxapex takes the Shadow Claw that is an OHKO on Azelf, and another probable misplay as I go for Baneful Bunker to try and poison but instead it uses Swords Dance. I’m actually completely boned now, as I have no priority and +2 Shadow Sneak will KO my entire team. Which it does. 3 Shadow Sneaks, 3 KOs, 1 ended streak.
Memo to self. Check the damage calculators. I would’ve seen that Azelf can take the Shadow Sneak from Mimikyu-4, which may not have guaranteed a victory but at least made one possible.
Memo to self. Check the damage calculators. I would’ve seen that Azelf can take the Shadow Sneak from Mimikyu-4, which may not have guaranteed a victory but at least made one possible.
Check your damage calculators, kids. Might just save your run!