I am not a big fan of Multi as a format. As said in my last post, Super Multi is my least favorite facility format in Gen 5-7, the only reason I completed it in those generations was to get the Trophy/Stamp you get from beating it. I never tried Multi that much in Gen 3 (or 4). When I battled in Super Multi in Gen 5-7, I always used 2 games and 2 systems, so I haven’t tried Multi with AI partners that much either. I mostly used AI partners to unlock the Super lines in Gen 5-7, and even that wasn’t always easy (or fun). I remember that when I tried to unlock the Super Multi line in Black 2 with an AI partner, I had to make 3 tries because we lost twice before making it… On the whole, my experience with AI partners for Multi isn’t particularly positive. I never tried it that much in Gen 3-4 either, just a little. But now, I decided to try it again for “fun” (relatively speaking).
I started with Level 50. I had never tried this format before, so I did not have an ongoing streak. But nothing could stop me from starting one! It went way better than expected, so I actually want it to be added to the leaderboards. And I think green_typhlosion needs some company as he is the only one with streaks on the Multi leaderboards right now!
Format: Level 50, Multi with AI, retail cart
My team:
Salamence (F) @ Lum Berry ** Natalow
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 169/205/95/108/90/152
Nature: Adamant
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
Starmie @ Leftovers ** Zed
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: Flawless Sp.att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 125/77/99/167/97/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
Streak:
43
Picture proof:
Salamence is different compared to the one I have used on previous teams I have posted about here. This one is built as a Choice Bander, with both Rock Slide and Brick Break for coverage. However, I did not give it a Choice Band since I find it inconvenient and risky to be unable to switch between moves in Multi. So it got a Lum Berry for status protection instead. Starmie is the same as the one I used for Single. I gave it a Leftovers here since it was for once not taken by another team member!
As for the teams used by my AI partner, they varied with each round. I never wrote down the names of my AI partner aside from the one in the final round, and I only checked their exact Pokémon sets for the last two rounds. The reason being that I didn’t think I would get this far when I started on this streak.
I don’t know if you can “reroll” your partners by entering the partner selection room and then leaving without choosing a partner, or if doing that will reset your streak. I never tried it either.
Here's how it went for each round:
Round 1:
I had an apprentice with a team of Solrock/Golem, decided to go with him. All the others were trainers with weak Pokémon (like the opposing Pokémon you face in round 1). The partner I chose worked quite well (but after all, it was round 1), though it was annoying when his Solrock used Cosmic Power instead of attacking (maybe it is the ancestor to Martin’s Solrock in S/S?). And while Solarbeam was useful for taking down certain opponents, the charging turn slowed down things a bit. Levitate was nice though as it allowed Salamence to Earthquake freely.
An easy round overall, but it was expected since it was the first round.
Here, I also “learned” that the opposing Pokémon are all pulled from the pool of the first of the two opposing trainers. I know I have read about that somewhere in the past, now I got to experience it myself. It is a little weird but it makes it much easier to look up the opposing sets.
Round 2:
The partner I chose for Round 1 wasn’t around anymore, so I went with another one. I picked another apprentice, this one had a team of Mightyena/Swalot. It meant I couldn’t quake freely, but now I got dual Intimidate again! This also worked fairly well as long as the partner didn’t do anything stupid. Like using Taunt against a Crawdaunt with only attacking moves… which happened once. But my partner chose good moves most of the time.
This round was also easy, but that was expected since it was round 2 and still early.
Round 3:
Here, I went with the same apprentice as in Round 1, but now he had a Sandslash instead of Golem. Though that didn’t matter as he never had to use Sandslash. Just like in Round 1, Solrock was sometimes good, sometimes it went the Martin route and used Cosmic Power instead of doing something useful. It also used Explosion twice, but only to finish the battles as we had pretty much already won when it came down to that.
Like the first two, this round was easy.
Round 4:
For this round, I went with a regular NPC trainer instead of an apprentice. The one I went with had Ludicolo/Cradily, it felt like it could work (although I have a fear of Cradily). Ludicolo always started with Rain Dance, and it did some stupid things like using Fire Punch in the Rain. The Cradily sometimes used Barrier instead of attacking. So they weren’t as great as I had expected.
During this round, I somehow got to face the same two leads (and the same lead trainer too, I think), in battle 1 and 5.
I almost lost in battle 5 here. On turn 1, I switched to Starmie to tank an Ice Beam that was meant for Salamence, but Starmie also got hit by a Crit Faint Attack and fainted. Then I misplayed during turn 2 and lost Salamence as well, leaving me with just the AI partner left against all 4 opponents. We still won even if the AI did many stupid moves such as Cradily using Confuse Ray against the final opponent (a Cacturne) instead of trying to beat it with Rock Slide.
A similar thing happened in battle 6. I lost Salamence against a QC Delcatty on turn 1 (since when does Delcatty learn Ice Beam? I didn’t know it could, and 55 base Sp.att was apparently enough to beat Salamence). Then I lost Starmie against a Plusle as my partner Ludicolo decided to not use Surf on that turn. In the end, it was only Cradily left against another Cacturne, but we won this battle as well.
Overall, this round was much harder than the first three, but I somehow got through it in the end.
Round 5:
I picked a partner with Espeon/Vaporeon. Espeon would usually start with Calm Mind unless it could KO an opponent with Psychic, in which case it did that. In one battle here, my AI partner was very intelligent as she switched out on the last turn of a Perish Song which one opponent had used. One battle was also very funny. It involved an Arcanine and a Flareon. The Arcanine used Fire Blast on the Flareon to activate Flash Fire, but the Flareon knew no Fire-type moves, making it pointless!
This round went very well on the whole, it was much easier than round 4. I think my AI partner here was really great.
Round 6:
I picked a partner with Metagross-2 and Snorlax-2. A Metagross with Earthquake sounded good since it meant that it could Quake freely as long as I had Salamence out. In fact, it might almost have been too good since the Metagross would often use EQ even if one or both opponents were resistant to it.
I almost lost in battle 1 here. It was against multiple Water-types with Ice-type moves. I lost Salamence and Starmie due to misplay, only having the AI side left against one of the opposing sides. First was a Whiscash which Metagross beat, followed by a Wailord-2. Metagross just used EQ while the Wailord set up with Curse and Amnesia, using ChestoRest to heal itself when necessary. Once Metagross was out of PP for EQ, it started using Psych Up instead, probably because Meteor Mash was ineffective. The good thing was that it gained all the boosts the Wailord had gained, the bad being that it didn’t cause any damage. The Wailord eventually beat Metagross with Double-Edge, Snorlax was sent out to replace it. Snorlax used EQ, the Wailord used Double-Edge and took heavy recoil, Snorlax lived with a tiny bit of HP left. It used ChestoRest and tanked another Double-Edge. The Wailord took even more recoil and now had very little HP left, allowing Snorlax to KO it with EQ. This battle was extremely close and I really thought I would lose here.
Battle 4 was also quite scary, it was against more Water-types. But we made it. Starmie got frozen but thawed immediately, then it used Thunderbolt and managed to paralyze an opposing Blastoise. It got fully paralyzed instead of attacking, contributing to our victory.
Battle 7 was also close. Once again, it was against Water- and Ice-types. I lost Salamence on turn 1, then I used Starmie to clean up one of the opposing sides. A Milotic was left. Metagross kept using Meteor Mash since Starmie was out on the field (meaning it didn’t want to use EQ to KO Starmie), the Milotic survived and kept using Recover. It then beat Starmie with Mirror Coat and Metagross somehow decided to keep using Meteor Mash instead of shifting to Earthquake once Starmie had fainted. But it eventually used EQ to beat the Milotic. The last opposing Pokémon was a Kangaskhan. It beat Metagross but Snorlax saved the day. It set up a few Curses, used Rest at just the right moment and KO’d the Kanga with EQ.
Overall, this round was much harder than round 5. I really thought I would lose in the first battle here.
Round 7:
The losing round. My partner here was Pokémon Breeder Clare, she used Milotic-4 and Aggron-4.
Battle 1 was close… and weird. One of the opposing leads was a Forretress which got a QC activation, it used Explosion to instantly wipe out the entire field. The backups were Medicham and Quagsire. Medicham defeated Starmie, Aggron defeated Medicham, and Quagsire just used Amnesia which allowed Aggron to 2HKO it with Double-Edge.
I then lost in the second battle in this round. Video and battle summary below.
Battle summary:
Our opponents were
Camper Armando and Swimmer Pedro. I took note of Armando since the opposing Pokémon would get picked from his roster.
They lead with Porygon2 and Miltank. Porygon2 traces Milotic’s Marvel Scale. Upon checking the list, I see that Porygon2 is a BoltBeam set with Brightpowder while Miltank has Curse and Double Team, not a very fun duo to face. I decide to get rid of P2 first since it is dangerous, so I let Salamence use Brick Break on it, but it misses! Miltank uses Double Team, P2 KO’s Sala with Ice Beam as expected, Milotic is useless as it uses Mirror Coat. At this point, it felt like we had already lost.
On turn 2, I let Starmie use Surf. It hits Miltank but misses against Porygon2. Miltank uses Curse, P2 KO’s Starmie with a Crit Thunderbolt, Milotic is useless with Mirror Coat once again. Only the AI side left against all four opponents now, not good at all. Miltank uses Curse, P2 uses Thunderbolt on Milotic which does around half, it reflects with Mirror Coat which does around 90% to the Porygon2. Milotic then uses Ice Beam to finally KO P2, Electabuzz is sent out to replace it. Miltank KO’s Milotic with Double-Edge. Aggron is sent out, only to be KO’d by a Crit Cross Chop from Electabuzz.
I’m not sure what I could have done to win this battle, if I could have done anything at tall. It would of course have helped if I had hit the P2 instead of missing against it, but chances are it would have survived a Brick Break and a Surf. Though, it would also have been better if my AI partner had used Surf instead of Mirror Coat on the first two turns, I guess she expected her Milotic to be hit by Thunderbolt. But the AI prioritized defeating my side of the field first. This was a quite annoying loss but I’m still happy about this streak since I got quite far in the end.
After this, I had one format left, which was Open Level Multi with AI. I had an ongoing streak of 14 since before, continued on it now. I entered with Raikou/Latios from my level 100 box and managed to get a streak of
46 wins. Here’s how it went:
Round 3:
I could choose my player character from Ruby as a partner, so I picked him. I guess you are able to pick player characters from other games if you have Mixed Records with them. I was able to pick my character from Sapphire for Level 50, but I did not since the team he had was terrible. As for my Ruby character, his (or rather my) team consisted of Gardevoir/Swampert, which seemed better than any of the alternatives. I know that the movesets and stats of these two Pokémon really suck (I am the one who raised them, after all), and I really dislike Gardevoir, but they still felt like the best choice here.
Battle 4 featured a lead Wobbuffet. Both of my partner Pokémon got defeated, but I set up with Raikou and swept.
Battle 5 involved an opposing Cacturne which spammed Teeter Dance even after everything had gotten confused, the battle then ended with another Wobbuffet which I also beat easily.
It was an easy round overall, but that was expected since it was the third round.
Round 4:
I did not pick my Ruby character again even if I could. Instead, I went with a regular NPC with Feraligatr/Snorlax. The Feraligatr would almost always start with Rain Dance in order to power up its Surf. It also had Roar, which ended up being surprisingly useful against an opposing Snorlax with Double Team. Gatr phazed out the Lax, resetting the Evasion boosts, allowing us to easily beat it once it got sent back in later.
Otherwise nothing notable happened in this round. There were some scary moments in the last two battles, but we won everything and it was an easy round in the end.
Round 5:
I picked a partner with Ursaring/Golduck. The Ursaring had a Quick Claw which activated several times, that was great to see. However, it would often use Counter in the wrong situations, like when we were up against two Special attackers. The Golduck once used Psych Up to get all the boosts from a Calm Mind/Double Team Gardevoir, that felt really great as well.
Battle 3 featured an Electrode with Double Team which was really annoying. It feels like every Pokémon in the Frontier has at least one set with Double Team.
This was another easy round on the whole.
Round 6:
For this round, I picked a partner with Heracross/Victreebel.
One very interesting thing I noticed here was that the gender of the AI partner’s Pokémon can change between battles. I only noticed this since my partner Victreebel had Attract. The Heracross and Victreebel were Male in some battles, Female in others. Really weird. I guess that the game resets some of the data for the partners before every battle, such as genders. Not sure if anything else that isn’t completely set (like the Ability) is affected by it as well. Either way, it was something I noticed.
Once more, the AI was smart enough to switch out on the last turn when an opposing Misdreavus had used Perish Song.
Heracross would often start with Bulk Up, but not always. Sadly, it felt like Megahorn missed a lot.
Battle 6 here was rather close as I only had Latios left against a CQ Slowking. But we still won in the end.
Other than that, this was another easy round.
Round 7:
Like on Level 50, this was the losing round. I chose a partner with Typhlosion/Espeon. None of the partners I could choose from felt super great, but I went with this one as I had had great success with Espeon as a partner in a previous round at level 50. It was a bit risky since having a team of only special attackers would cause trouble against opposing special walls like Blissey and Snorlax. Thankfully, it turned out that the Typhlosion was running a mixed set, but that was unfortunately not super helpful in the end. I also had CM on both Raikou and Latios so they could potentially get through special walls if they managed to set up fully. In theory, at least.
The first battle here was a little scary as a lead Swampert OHKO’d both Raikou and Typhlosion on turn 1, but it went easy after that.
Battle 2 was a similar situation against another Swampert. This battle became much closer as I only had Latios left in the end.
I lost in battle 47 against a team of Clefable/Ninetales + Snorlax/Arcanine. As expected, trouble against a special wall. Snorlax in this case. My side managed to take out the Clefable, but the Snorlax beat both Raikou and Latios, which meant that only the AI side was left. Typhlosion took down the Lax, but was defeated by the backups. They then managed to beat Espeon as well. Ninetales also haxed a bit with Attract/Confuse Ray, it might have gone easier if that hadn’t happened.
But I’m still happy about this streak, it went pretty well in the end. Despite getting a somewhat higher streak than on Level 50, I don’t want this added to the leaderboards. The team I used here just doesn’t feel as good as the team I used for Level 50. My Latios isn’t very good, at least not in my eyes.
And with that, I am done with Multi with an AI partner. The only format I haven’t tried in the Tower is Multi with a second game. But since I only have one copy of Emerald, I am unable to try it. I am not really interested in giving it a try either to be honest. I decided to check if it could be done with R/S, but upon going back to the Battle Tower in Sapphire to check, Multi doesn’t even exist in the R/S Tower. Nor does Double, for that matter. Only Single. I never thought of this before since I haven’t battled that much at the R/S Tower. It is odd how the games that introduced Double as a format doesn’t even feature it in their battle facility.
Multi with an AI partner in Emerald was okay in the end, I guess it is more fun when I’m just battling casually instead of having a goal of winning 49/50 battles in a row like I had in Gen 5/6/7. With that said, I don’t think I’ll ever try Multi in Emerald again.