Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[GG Unit]

Good stuff, I watched the 489 replay and I have a couple questions:

1. Generally how much do you set up with Moody? What stat boosts do you wait for before going in? I couldn't see stats in the replay, so I don't know what you were at when you started attacking.

2. When you switched out on that Chandelure, is the risk of a Heat Wave hitting and critting worth worrying about? It seems like you would one or two hit Chandelure, and I'm assuming you had boosts to outspeed as well as some evasion boosts, so is it generally just best to play excessively safe once you get those good streaks going?

3. Is Charm worth fitting into Mimikyu's moveset to beat physical attackers? Or are there specific reasons for Confide over Charm?

Confide goes through Protect and doesn't miss against evasion items, and Durant has high enough defense to switch back in on physical attackers. Thunder Wave support is more than enough for Glalie, but if that misses you've done nothing whereas Confide is guaranteed to drop anything's Special Attack at least.

Glalie had low speed vs. Chandelure, otherwise I would have been fine with using Frost Breath first and then risking the critical hit from a hidden ability Chandelure that connected on a move with 30% effective accuracy. That was only my 2nd battle against a non-lead Chandelure with this team; in the Maison I could rely on a couple free turns from Chandelure4 attempting Will-o-Wisp or Calm Mind if Glalie had high enough Sp. Def and that appears to be the case this generation as well. Unless the opponent could have Heatran or Durant gets KOed, I'm fine with something around +2 or 3 Speed, Special Attack, and Evasion as long as the other stats besides attack aren't extremely negative since even if Glalie doesn't immediately mow down the rest of the team it can Sub/Protect stall for more boosts, Taunt to prevent bulky resists from healing, or just switch to Mimikyu to let Durant get a 2nd Entrainment off. That battle was extremely unlucky in terms of Glalie's Speed remaining in the -3/-4 range when everything else was +5 or +6 and then running into the only Infiltrator it couldn't OHKO.

But anyway, I just lost, ending my streak at 506. MT8W-WWWW-WWW5-C6AA

NoCheese Edit: the team is discussed at length here.

Choice Scarf Heatran KOed Durant, I set up Glalie and had patently awful Moody boosts when Heatran switched out after the 5th Magma Storm - Accuracy and Attack were at +6 while Special Attack, Accuracy, Evasion, and Speed were at 0 or negative every early on. I hit Kommo-o on the switch with Frost Breath, which would have KOed at +1 or higher (or 2HKOed had Glalie's Speed been at +1 or higher, either one of which would have left Glalie at more than enough health to PP stall Heatran).

Of course, it happens to be Kommo-o-2 rather than any of the other three Preschooler Victor could use when Glalie's Special Defense is high and its Defense and Evasion are still in the shitter after 8 turns. 99.9% of the time that's still going to be fine, but I still couldn't get a boost in Speed, Defense, or Evasion while stalling against it. This will be a recurring theme. At turn 22, I finally get a boost to go from +0 to +2 Speed and am able to KO Kommo-o from behind a Sub. Maybe it was a slight mistake not Protecting there for one extra boost and turn of Leftovers recovery, but if Speed had dropped that following turn Kommo-o would have outsped once again, and my victory was going to rely on stalling Heatran out of Flash Cannon PP.

Heatran comes in and, like Kommo-o, doesn't miss once. When Glalie is forced out for Mimikyu, Heatran uses its 8th of 10 Flash Cannons to activate the Red Card and get switched out. In comes Salamence, which once again (for one of the rare trainers who can use 4 different sets of the same Pokemon) is the toughest set, Mega Mence. In the luckiest thing that happened to me the entire battle, Mimikyu's 90% accurate Thunder Wave does not miss. That gives Glalie the chance to get a free Sub (and all but clinch the battle) with full paralysis, which doesn't happen. Glalie has 2 Protect PP left when it KOs Salamence. Heatran has 2 Flash Cannon PP. Double Protect doesn't work, and just as in the 30+ turns it was out previously, Glalie had no evasion boosts to evade the one attack it would have needed to to pull off the win.

So as you see, that's the kind of battle where Drapion would have had little chance unless it had gotten Evasion boosts within its first 4 Acupressures and then received additional luck in the form of actually evading attacks, whereas with Glalie it took a couple more orders of magnitude's worth of bad Moody luck to steal a victory from me. I suppose going forward a potential Heatran 4 lead is something that would require a first-turn Mimikyu switch-in (using the same logic as the Monty Hall problem), but even then it took such awful luck with the Moody boosts paired with the matchup that I (or anyone else) couldn't lose this battle again without actively trying to do so.

Edit: Here's the link to the rental team if you'd like to try it yourself:
https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-43F7-AC52

 

[Subpyro]

I'm still very interested in knowing the following;

Does anyone perhaps know or would be willing to test out, what happens if you are at low HP and use Destiny Bond on your opponent at the Battle Tree, being the last to move in that round?

Is the opponent smart enough to switch out/use a status move, or will they finish you off with a direct attack?

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Posting my progress now simply because I was planning on suspending this streak until I'm able to use Mega Mawile, with whom I intend to replace Araquanid.

While I did mention well before this topic gained momentum (let alone most regular had even begun the tree) that I'd planned to use this team; since most of the members are the go-to squad for Trick Room, I'm afraid my team is not going to raise any eyebrows. At least I have the comfort of knowing I thought for myself :P

Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Sassy, Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP, 164 Def, 92 SpD
-Trick Room
-Instruct
-Psychic
-Protect

Tried and true. I fluffed the defense instead of using any attack investment whatsoever because there are no particularly relevant numbers to hit with Psychic, and apart from Toxapex the move is only used to keep Hariyama from taking a second stat drop from Close Combat due to the first leaving the target red.

I want to thank whomever had the idea to make Fling waste your hold item against Protect users, because without it Conkeldurr4 would be a nightmare for this team. One of the Shiftry sets can do that also. Protect got sufficient mileage but rarely had to be used in lieu of TR.

Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Brave, Guts
EVs: 28 HP, 252 Atk, 108 Def, 116 SpD
-Fake Out
-Knock Off
-Heavy Slam
-Close Combat

Apart from gorging himself on HP-reduction berries to fluff both defenses, this is the same fellow from years prior, still doing the exact same thing to great effect. There have been a number of hiccups brought about by 7th-gen additions, but I'll get to those later. I've learned a lot since using this guy on a more serious team, mostly things about risk hedging and the like, which brought more out of him.

This EV spread allows Hariyama to survive non-crit Mega Gallade Psycho Cut, an attack it's guaranteed to eat if Wally leads with him. After an Intimidate, back-to-back Close Combats will still destroy Mega Mawile. Against Mega Mence, another problem, I'll typically flinch it and then use two Knock Offs. The damage is poor thanks to -1 and no damage buff, but the recoil from Double Edge is so severe that it'll kill Salamence afterward. If I opted to take down its partner instead or otherwise allow Mence to survive the recoil, the damage is still severe enough to allow Araquanid or Drampa to easily pick it off.

Araquanid @ LifeOrb
Brave, Water Bubble
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 SpD
-Protect
-Liquidation
-Lunge
-Power Split

This moveset looks a little wonky partly because as a temp I gave it that which it really needed to function on the team, while letting me quickly adapt it to my eventual randoms style of play without having to do the thing over. It'll later have Entrainment and/or Wide Guard in place of Protect. The lack of Waterium Z will be elaborated on.

Kinda weird that the default image from serebii is shiny Araquanid, but my own spidey is not shiny.

Drampa @ Dragonium Z
Quiet, Berserk
EVs: 196 HP, 60 Def, 252 SpA
-Protect
-Flamethrower
-Get Off My Lawn, Whippersnapper (Hyper Voice)
-Draco Meteor

I am convinced this is the optimal tree moveset for Drampa. I have not once wished I had a different elemental coverage move, though later on, using different teams, it's nice to have all those options. I decided Drampa is a much better candidate for the Z crystal than Araquanid for a number of reasons:

• Liquidation has no penalty and is otherwise a spammable attack
• Z moves can't be paired with Instruct, so DD is a better choice of one-time nuke
• Hydro Vortex is walled or absorbed by more enemies than Dragon attacks

A love poem dedicated to Drampa

Talk about reliable ol' Granddad. I don't know whether to say Drampa put in the least amount of work, or was my MVP. Purely from a numbers standpoint, Drampa has the fewest KOs to his name by a freaking mile. But the things he destroyed were things that have pissed me off for fucking years in these facilities, or some new annoying things that I'm able to simply laugh at, like Toxapex. But the main thing I can't get enough of is the LOLvasion. In one of the battles leading up to 200, I faced a Zapdos2, who set up two Double Teams for itself while Hariyama took care of its partners. Rather than Instruct a CC onto Zapdos, Oranguru simply sent some Psychics its way; the only one that connected got a drop to SpD. At that point I couldn't have cared less what it did, because it can't KO Drampa in any number of hits I'd notice, and sure enough, it healed to full health and was OHKOd by Devastating Drake right afterward.

I've also murdered more than a few Sand Veil and Snow Cloak shitheads in their respective weathers. Ignoring Protect is also nice, and the quartering of damage doesn't accomplish much when the unblocked hit does something like 130%.

Hyper Voice has also been a surprisingly awesome move. Prior to SM I had only used this move with Pixilate, so I was initially taken aback that, even with plain old STAB, it was still hitting most targets for over 50% singularly; what this meant was that the initial Hyper Voice could KO a badly wounded enemy and then the Instructed move would do enough to KO the second target eating the full damage. Sound moves ignoring subs has come into play against Scrafty, which has shown up very frequently. I used this move a great deal. Flamethrower was just a great albeit situational move to have around. Drampa did a lot of battling with no Oranguru around and it still netted its fair share of OHKOs.

Drampa is easily my favorite new pokemon and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Defensively, it's below average compared to most high-end Normal types, but it can survive a lot more after a Lunge to a key threat. Fortunately its speed allows it to go first in most cases.

Some annoying problems to have come up repeatedly during these battles:

• The GSC legends getting Inner Focus. None of them are problems on their own, but Raikou was often able to set up Reflect while avoiding flinch, which never helps.
• Protect users with Pressure. This really is only referring to Suicune; one battle I didn't see it coming and blew 4 Close Combat PP for absolutely nothing. That really, really stung because it was early in the battle, but my dread was short-lived as I hadn't needed fighting coverage much.
• Even without Pressure, I've otherwise been very alert for sets which could potentially carry Protect and hedging my risks much better.
• Slowking, Carbink3, Aromatisse, Shiinotic, Amoonguss, to name some primary nuisances. TR teams were expanded far more than Mara or any Subway variants, and are a lot more problematic. If the aforementioned pokes lead, I forego TR and just work on killing them ASAP because they spell nothing but trouble. Bronzong is a more welcome sight because most of them carry only Rock Slide and Gyro Ball, which does jack shit to my leads.
• Dazzling/Queenly Majesty. Forget the losers that have this ability; I care about it protecting the allies!
• If the AI has a ghost in their lineup, they very well may switch the Fake Out target for it. A problem if my Close Combat rampage began with them. This has happened multiple times but thankfully never in any disastrous scenarios.
• Grimsley. I fought this guy I believe four times, and if he leads with two pokes capable of mega evolution, I get nervous. What I do is protect Oranguru and Close Combat one of them, but unfortunately this doesn't necessarily put it in the clear; the specific battle which comes to mind lead Tyranitar and Absol; neither evolved, leaving me thinking that the fallen (Tyranitar) would be replaced by something possibly worse. As it happened, Absol nearly KOed Oranguru the following turn, but I still got TR up. Unlike ghosts which Oranguru trolls to hell and back, dark types are more than capable of getting the better of me.

This team is even more braindead than Aron & Friends from my Maison days, but the massive freshening up on part of GF has gone a long way in helping me enjoy it and feel no monotony. Speaking of freshening, is it just me or are the "new" elements way more common than many of the old? I fight an awful lot of Rotoms and Lake Trio, not to mention those mega evos. Apart from some specialty trainers with really narrow pools, I can name a lot of pokes I've seen only once in 200 battles, memorable for how well they stood out for being rare. Clawitzer and Salazzle, off the top of my head. Toxapex and Entei are in practically every other fucking battle.

Mega Mawile will bring a lot more to the table than Araquanid by way of Intimidate, additional bulk, and having four great moves instead of one. I'm pretty excited to get it!

 

[Coeur7]

EXCISED

 

[Tpick2211]

Posting my streak for doubles! lost at battle 139 using a team built around choice specs Tapu Koko. I completely admit Snorlax was a super weird 4th choice and not the best option, but I had a lot of fun using him.

Video: AUMG-WWWW-WWW5-C9AH
I lost from an awful decision at turn 1, followed by double snorlax flinch and some bad luck with paralysis.

Full Team

Greninja @ focus sash
Ability: Battle Bond
Nature: Naughty
- Waterfall
- Ice Beam
- Mat Block
- Dark Pulse

Perhaps Protean Greninja would be a better choice here, I'm not sure. I don't have the best natures for Greninja and Tapu Koko, I'm still fairly new to this so I guess I wasn't thinking about that when I got them.

Tapu Koko @ choice specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Nature: Modest
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch/Protect
- Grass Knot

This drew inspiration from Turskain early on in this leaderboard using this, and it was super fun. Thunderbolt OHKOs so many pokemon in the tree.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate -> Aerilate
Nature: Timid
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Early on I tried out EQ and Tailwind, but I just wasn't using them much. I didn't even really use flamethrower really. Most battles I just used Hyper Voice.

Snorlax @ Snorlium Z
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Adamant
- Giga Impact
- Earthquake
- Yawn
- Rest

I almost never needed Snorlax, so I got away with a weird/bad moveset. I know yawn seems silly with Electric Terrain, but many times coming in it, Electric Terrain had either disappeared, or there was a flying type or levitate mon. There were a crazy number of Zapdos, Articuno, Latios, Latias, Cresselia etc. after battle 50. In battles where I needed to switch Snorlax in, I usually just needed "pulverizing pancake" from him. Again would not recommend Snorlax or this moveset for the tree but I had a lot of fun with it.

 

[DougJustDoug]

on occasion, the computer will predict super-effective eq coming from garchomp (and by extension, super-effective same-type moves in general?) even before having seen the move; i saw rain dance jolteon retreated after firing a thunder into the chomp switch-in (so this wasn't due to choice-locking)

That was not the AI predicting the EQ. It was probably Jolteon 2, which has Thunder as its only attacking move. The AI will not continue to spam attacks into an immunity. So when Chomp came in, the AI knew it couldn't do anything to it, and switched out.

 

[Coeur7]

EXCISED

 

[TimG57867]

Hey guys. Just for some extra motivation:

http://nintendoeverything.com/pokemon-global-mission-4-announced-begins-on-february-28/

Looks like Battle Points earned in the tree are about to become a mission. Heck yeah. Even though my streak just got ended in the most embarrassing way possible, I alone probably already racked up about 1000 points already! Here's hoping the goal isn't astronomical. While the efforts of people here are fantabulous, I feel like we're a minority.

Speaking of which, I am soon going to post proof of my ended streak that got ended at 136.

But in any case, keep earning them points!

Confide goes through Protect and doesn't miss against evasion items, and Durant has high enough defense to switch back in on physical attackers. Thunder Wave support is more than enough for Glalie, but

Glalie had low speed vs. Chandelure, otherwise I would have been fine with using Frost Breath first and then risking the critical hit from a hidden ability Chandelure that connected on a move with 30% effective accuracy. That was only my 2nd battle against a non-lead Chandelure with this team; in the Maison I could rely on a couple free turns from Chandelure4 attempting Will-o-Wisp or Calm Mind if Glalie had high enough Sp. Def and that appears to be the case this generation as well. Unless the opponent could have Heatran or Durant gets KOed, I'm fine with something around +2 or 3 Speed, Special Attack, and Evasion as long as the other stats besides attack aren't extremely negative since even if Glalie doesn't immediately mow down the rest of the team it can Sub/Protect stall for more boosts, Taunt to prevent bulky resists from healing, or just switch to Mimikyu to let Durant get a 2nd Entrainment off. That battle was extremely unlucky in terms of Glalie's Speed remaining in the -3/-4 range when everything else was +5 or +6 and then running into the only Infiltrator it couldn't OHKO.

But anyway, I just lost, ending my streak at 506. MT8W-WWWW-WWW5-C6AA

Choice Scarf Heatran KOed Durant, I set up Glalie and had patently awful Moody boosts when Heatran switched out after the 5th Magma Storm - Accuracy and Attack were at +6 while Special Attack, Accuracy, Evasion, and Speed were at 0 or negative every early on. I hit Kommo-o on the switch with Frost Breath, which would have KOed at +1 or higher (or 2HKOed had Glalie's Speed been at +1 or higher, either one of which which would have left Glalie at more than enough health to PP stall Heatran).

Of course, it happens to be Kommo-o-2 rather than any of the other three Preschooler Victor could use when Glalie's Special Defense is high and its Defense and Evasion are still in the shitter after 8 turns. 99.9% of the time that's still going to be fine, but I still couldn't get a boost in Speed, Defense, or Evasion while stalling against it. This will be a recurring theme. At turn 22, I finally get a boost to go from +0 to +2 Speed and am able to KO Kommo-o from behind a Sub. Maybe it was a slight mistake not Protecting there for one extra boost and turn of Leftovers recovery, but if Speed had dropped that following turn Kommo-o would have outsped once again, and my victory was going to rely on stalling Heatran out of Flash Cannon PP.

Heatran comes in and, like Kommo-o, doesn't miss once. When Glalie is forced out for Mimikyu, Heatran uses its 8th of 10 Flash Cannons to activate the Red Card and get switched out. In comes Salamence, which once again (for one of the rare trainers who can use 4 different sets of the same Pokemon) is the toughest set, Mega Mence. In the luckiest thing that happened to me the entire battle, Mimikyu's 90% accurate Thunder Wave does not miss. That gives Glalie the chance to get a free Sub (and all but clinch the battle) with full paralysis, which doesn't happen. Glalie has 2 Protect PP left when it KOs Salamence. Heatran has 2 Flash Cannon PP. Double Protect doesn't work, and just as in the 30+ turns it was out previously, Glalie had no evasion boosts to evade the one attack it would have needed to to pull off the win.

So as you see, that's the kind of battle where Drapion would have had little chance unless it had gotten Evasion boosts within its first 4 Acupressures and then received additional luck in the form of actually evading attacks, whereas with Glalie it took a couple more orders of magnitude's worth of bad Moody luck to steal a victory from me. I suppose going forward a potential Heatran 4 lead is something that would require a first-turn Mimikyu switch-in (using the same logic as the Monty Hall problem), but even then it took such awful luck with the Moody boosts paired with the matchup that I (or anyone else) couldn't lose this battle again without actively trying to do so.

Ooh sorry the hear that. Right now I am trying to get my Toxapex/Salamence/Chansey team to 200 wins before I move to greener pastures. (Lost at 136 in an easily avoidable way...). Once I retire them, I intend to pump a Moody Smeargle-Power Trip Smeargle team after being inspired by your post a while back. I thought Whimsicott would be a wonderful lead but had a hard time thinking of a third mon when I saw your Moody team with Red Card Mimikyu which sounds great. How do think Smeargle would fair with support like this? Apparently Smeargle just needs 21 turns to max Power Trip's BP.

 

[Smuckem]

Hey guys. Just for some extra motivation:

http://nintendoeverything.com/pokemon-global-mission-4-announced-begins-on-february-28/

Looks like Battle Points earned in the tree are about to become a mission. Heck yeah. Even though my streak just got ended in the most embarrassing way possible, I alone probably already racked up about 1000 points already! Here's hoping the goal isn't astronomical. While the efforts of people here are fantabulous, I feel like we're a minority.

Speaking of which, I am soon going to post proof of my ended streak that got ended at 136.

But in any case, keep earning them points!

LOL at the only other guy besides you to comment already bitching, we're gonna have to make up for a lot of casuals being useless for this (or crybabys).

Although as I say that, I'm gonna playing around with a lot of gimmicky and/or fun teams, and jumping back and forth between this and Subway...so I'm being a bit of a hypocrite, as I won't be much help in this regard initially.

 

[Siggu]

I wouldn't be that afraid. Unless the goal is extremely high (like, say, 100 million) it's not really much to worry about - even half-decent streaks (such as 20 or 30) give around 50 BP, and don't take much time.

 

[Kommo-o]

I'm sitting at 200 wins (ongoing) with my old Maison team of Dragonite / Chansey / Mega Slowbro. Still works reasonably well. But with more threatening Megas, and fewer trainers using just one set for a given Pokemon species, Dragonite gets fewer chances to safely lead with a Dragon Dance than it did in the Maison. On top of this, because of Dragonite's rather heavy reliance on Multiscale, once it is switched out, it's usually pretty hard to switch it back into an attack, especially with a non-Roost set. This is a pity, since the ability to switch around all three Pokemon until a suitable set up opportunity can be seized is one of the strengths of Mega Salamence / Chansey / Aegislash.

Accordingly, I'm wondering about a better lead option. Currently very tempted by Gliscor. Protect allows for scouting which set I'm up against, and immunities to Electric- and Ground-type attacks can help set up lots of switch stalling opportunities, on top of Gliscor's unbelievable ability to solo-stall. While the AI switching out when stalled out of damaging moves makes things a bit harder, I still think Gliscor will be able to create a decent number of set up opportunities for its teammates.

While Careful seems to be the standard choice, with Chansey's incredible special bulk and Mega Slowbro's wonderful physical defense already leaving me in a strong defensive position, I'm leaning towards trying Jolly instead. Fast Chansey turned out to be a big success for me last gen, so why not see if fast Gliscor can keep up?

Since I've done no serious theorymoning at all on this yet, I'm sure I'm missing something here. Any obvious holes?

Also, a few random parting observations. First, thank goodness the AI still doesn't seem to properly value the damage on multi-hit moves. Otherwise, Mega Heracross would be a real threat. Second, it certainly feels like there are a lot more mixed sets this time around, which can be irksome. Tyranitar2, for example, can be very scary. And third, I just know I'm going to lose a streak to Dugtrio2 at some point. That much speed + Fissure is no fun. With both it and Snorlax4 lurking, carrying a flying-type or Levitator seems especially useful this generation.

I'll get the leaderboard up to date soon, so keep those streaks coming! Best of luck, all!

IKR!!!! Dugtrio 2 is hell. This thing was a mistake like anime.

 

[adman2]

Yumping Yiminy! Lost to Entrenadora Guay Livia and her Infernape-3, Whimsicott-4, Magmortar-3, and Heat Rotom-3/4 (all it used was Overheat, so I couldn't guess the exact set). Nothing in Super Doubles hurts quite like having your own weather used against you. The surprise Stone Edge from Infernape didn't help, but the Tailwind from Whimsicott was much worse. I thought I would get to 50 with my Mega Charizard Y team, but only got to 34.

 

[Smuckem]

Yumping Yiminy! Lost to Entrenadora Guay Livia and her Infernape-3, Whimsicott-4, Magmortar-3, and Heat Rotom-3/4 (all it used was Overheat, so I couldn't guess the exact set). Nothing in Super Doubles hurts quite like having your own weather used against you. The surprise Stone Edge from Infernape didn't help, but the Tailwind from Whimsicott was much worse. I thought I would get to 50 with my Mega Charizard Y team, but only got to 34.

That's progress at least, the nature of some of your earlier posts suggested that you weren't getting past 20 (maybe 10)...at least you're now in "I'll get a Bottle Cap for losing" range.

You folks complaining about Dugtrio2 are tempting me into creating my own (Jolly) version of it, sounds interesting. (I can make fun because, the one time I've faced it so far, it missed three consecutive Fissures on me, one on Aron, and never tried anything else--it hasn't screwed me yet.)

 

[adman2]

That's progress at least, the nature of some of your earlier posts suggested that you weren't getting past 20 (maybe 10)...at least you're now in "I'll get a Bottle Cap for losing" range.

A lot of the progress was because my sun team usually double Protected on the first turn, allowing for easier scouting than a hyper offense Drizzle team would. Aegislash is there mainly there to be a Wide Guard user for Rock Slides, but it seems more of a liability than anything else. What are some better Wide Guard users for a sun team, and what can help take out the Fire types that isn't reliant on Water damage? (i.e. good Rock/Ground coverage, ideally not a legendary since I don't have most of those)

 

[Siggu]

A lot of the progress was because my sun team usually double Protected on the first turn, allowing for easier scouting than a hyper offense Drizzle team would. Aegislash is there mainly there to be a Wide Guard user for Rock Slides, but it seems more of a liability than anything else. What are some better Wide Guard users for a sun team, and what can help take out the Fire types that isn't reliant on Water damage? (i.e. good Rock/Ground coverage, ideally not a legendary since I don't have most of those)

Perhaps Alolan Golem? With enough support you could even use it to fight rain.

Carracosta is the second thing that comes to my mind (with Water STAB as backup just in case).

(Among those that can be obtained without previous trading with another generation)

 

[Smuckem]

Swampert, No Guard Machamp with Rock coverage...there are others I personally like, but they don't synergize with sun or are better suited for Trick Room, or are so gimmicky I wouldn't dare recommend them to others unless they were feeling ballsy.

 

[Alakalando]

Hey guys,first time posting here.I currently own a personal-best 72 wins streak achieved with Jolly Megamence (27 ivs in attack,max atk/spd) with Double-Edge,quake,dd and Fire Fang,standard quiet Aegislash with atrocious IVs, Sacred Sword and Ghostium Z,and 3IV Bold defensive Fini with lefties,Calm Mind,Surf,Moonblast,Taunt.i have also tried other cores which only yielded streaks in the fifties-sixties, and now i want to prepare a mega mawile team to be ready for the release of mawilite at the end of the month.i was considering adamant max HP/Atk with Play Rough,Iron Head,Sucker Punch,but the 4th moveslot is very much up for grabs.My considerations were Thunderpunch (offers the best neutral coverage alongside stabs),Knock Off(huge utility,especially in the battle tree,also steel/fairy/dark has at least neutral coverage on everything),Seismic Toss (guaranteed 2hko on everything that resists Stabs barring ghosts which can be dealt with with Sucker Punch),Metal Burst (If i know it barely survives a hit, I pretty much ohko in return) and Taunt (huge plus in the battle tree, although moving second limits its potential a bit).All suggestions are gratefully accepted.Also, feel free to propose different natures-evs which you think will perform better against the current Pokemon sets of the Tree.I chose this specific sets cause i love this mon's huge damage output and excellent defensive typing.Thanks in advance!

 

[adman2]

Perhaps Alolan Golem? With enough support you could even use it to fight rain.

Carracosta is the second thing that comes to my mind (with Water STAB as backup just in case).

(Among those that can be obtained without previous trading with another generation)

How would Alolan Golem fight rain teams? That low Speed has to be a major problem without Trick Room, and the Water weakness would hurt it against single-target Water moves. Surf and Muddy Water could be Wide Guarded though, and the AI loves hurting its own Pokemon with Surf.

Should non-Trick Room Carracosta go with Shell Smash, or is it too slow to work?

 

[NoCheese]

And we're up to date, at least for singles and doubles. Extra points to GG Unit for two massive streaks currently atop the singles board.

As always, please let me know if you spot any errors or omissions. At least one streak wasn't added because proof is still pending, so don't forget your proof photo or video!

Happy Valentines Day, all!

 

[Level 51]

And we're up to date, at least for singles and doubles. Extra points to GG Unit for two massive streaks currently atop the singles board.

As always, please let me know if you spot any errors or omissions. At least one streak wasn't added because proof is still pending, so don't forget your proof photo or video!

Happy Valentines Day, all!

Hi! I think you may have forgotten to condense GG Unit's multiple streaks into one - he has a listing at #3 as well with ~400 as well as the one at #1 :P

edit: The same holds true for Josh C.'s Doubles streaks, unless you're changing the recording format this year to list streaks separately?

 

[NoCheese]

Hi! I think you may have forgotten to condense GG Unit's multiple streaks into one - he has a listing at #3 as well with ~400 as well as the one at #1 :P

edit: The same holds true for Josh C.'s Doubles streaks, unless you're changing the recording format this year to list streaks separately?

Oh, whoops! Fixing now. Like last time I list them separately but under one entry on the leaderboard, not several. So my thanks for the catch!

 

[Kanburi]

They just made an announcement here about the distribution of the remaining mega stones. Some like the previously announced Beedrillite and Mawilite will be available via competition to participants one to two months before they release it to everyone else. Others will just be distributed to all players simultaneously (I'm guessing just via Internet periodically).

 

[Coeur7]

EXCISED

 

[Smuckem]

i especially hope that this will encourage Smuckem to put floatzel and/or ice platform in their rightful places

Oh, I'm trying right now, it just isn't working too well yet.

I'm currently running Phase A of The Floatzel Plan, running a copy of Politoed/Ludicolo/Bisharp from R Inanimate's Triples rain team. The key difference here is Ludicolo going Grass Knot-->Giga Drain, as my first attempt with this team had Ludicolo carrying Life Orb and I needed something to mitigate the recoil + self damage from Politoed's Surfs. Grass Knot also isn't too helpful against lighter Waters like Politoed & Vaporeon, who have been constant presences in my attempts so far. That's just the luck of the roll, though--I'm sure one of these runs will feature Water-Grounds aplenty. Bringing up the rear is a female near-copy of Floatzel4, with the key difference being Life Orb-->Waterium-Z (the hold item here is flexible and will probably go back to LO at some point).

The team has managed streaks of 30 & 29. The first streak was ended by Trick Room; the second, minutes before I logged on today, was ended by Colress, mainly Porygon2 & Electrode4 leading and effectively setting things up for Metagross4 & Magnezone3 to knock me down. It didn't help matters that Magnezone3 (who has ended more Tree climbs of mine than any other opponent so far) got yet another Bright Powder miss to rub it in my face.

The main issue this team has run into is that, without Kingdra on hand to outpseed Ludicolo and activate its Absorb Bulb, the duck has to wait for Politoed to hit Surf, and Politoed on its own doesn't hit particularly hard even under rain, so Turn 1 lacks the immediate punch that this same team enjoys in Triples. Certain threats also outrun Scarfed Politoed (Electrode, Accelgor, opposing non-Trace Swift Swimmers), which half-defeats the purpose of it being Scarfed. It doesn't help matters that Doubles gives you less room then Triples to bounce back from unfavorable lead matchups and immediate hax, and Tree Doubles is overall tougher than Maison Doubles, so having Floatzel take up a slot is a bigger liability than was last gen (I would need the Subway vets on here to tell me how much of a liability Floatzel would have been back then, and I assume carrying it around in Gen IV Frontier would have been a death sentence).

I need to change things up, I'm just not sure how at the moment.

Fortunately, I can take my time with this Phase:
- I'm already on the Tree leaderboard thanks to Los Expertos, so my place in this thread's history is already assured (well, until the next server crash anyways)
- Officially, The Floatzel Plan is already complete thanks to the success of Phase B: getting it on here would merely be gravy and an attempt to stay 'current' with facility goings-on. While it will likely be quite a while before the Maison leaderboard is updated, Floatzel's place in that thread's history is assured too--I know the write-up's there for anyone to sit there and be dumbfounded at.

Might be a while before I get around to Avalugg, although I know one man who may be able to get it on the leaderboard "faster" than I can...

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

They just made an announcement here about the distribution of the remaining mega stones. Some like the previously announced Beedrillite and Mawilite will be available via competition to participants one to two months before they release it to everyone else. Others will just be distributed to all players simultaneously (I'm guessing just via Internet periodically).

That's actually reassuring, because the tournaments have limited availability for participants and someone is undoubtedly going to get screwed. I have no intention of trying to stockpile points but I'll still try to join in time and do my mandatory three battles.

Might be a while before I get around to Avalugg, although I know one man who may be able to get it on the leaderboard "faster" than I can...

lol while Chunks hasn't been on any one dedicated team, that guy (actually I think my Avalugg is female) has been a part of some giant streaks. Battles 261-270 from my last really substantial randoms run, looking at the text file I use to chronicle all that shit. He/she puts in some work but would really like Icicle Crash or something.