Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[therealkabutops]

Super Doubles Streak of 92.

Really frustrating because I knew I should have never even tried with this team. The natures of two team members are just bad because I used the Tapu Fini and Kartana that I caught during my playthrough when I wasn't thinking of ever using them competitively. Anyway, I did break 90 so I thought I'd share. I won't try this team again until I replay the game and get optimal nature Tapu Fini and Kartana, though.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Naive Nature (yep...)
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 Spd/252 SpA/4 HP
-Moonblast
-Scald
-Grass Knot
-Ice Beam

I know, I know. But I didn't want to have to constantly Protect during Surfs, and Scald does burn levitaters and flying types in Misty Surge. Next time I may consider Shadow Ball over Grass Knot because Cresselia gets mildly annoying with this team.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Careful Nature (again...lol)
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
-Protect
-Leaf Blade
-Sacred Sword
-Smart Strike

Get the second hit after Scarf Tapu Fini for an immediate Beast Boost; bait hits whilst protecting; profit.

Arcanine @ Firium Z
Modest Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/126 SpA/126 Spd
-Protect
-Snarl
-Wild Charge
-Burn Up

Double nuke with the z-move and Burn Up. Sometimes Burn Up immediately to lose fire typing. Wild Charge so I'm not defenseless against waters and so Gyarados can't set up on me. Intimidate and Snarl for Garchomp longevity. There really didn't come a time when I wish I had Extremespeed. I know some people like Toxic, but I prefer hyper offense and hate long battles.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Adamant Nature
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
-Protect
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Poison Jab

Yes Outrage sucks in doubles because you can't choose who you hit, but I really wanted the Z move on my Arcanine and Dragon Claw is too weak. Over 92 matches I can say that it really was 50-50 when I got screwed/saved by using Outrage.

Strategy/Threats: Basically just opportunistic use of Protect makes this team go. The team has great coverage up front and swept more than half the battles without a switch. Naive Tapu is naturally scared of Electric types, however, but that's where Garchomp comes in. This team hates hates hates Rotom-Fan, Zapdos, and Thundurus starters because they force a Tapu Fini switch and Kartana can't touch them. Also, if the team leads with one of these guys and the partner is spamming blizzards I'm screwed unless I luck out. In fact, that's how I lost.

Proof: I think versioning up screwed up my videos, or at least for some reaosn I can't get a code right now. Anyway, here is a pic of the streak next to this exact post that I am typing right now.

 

[Kong Harald]

Hi guys, I got a few questions about scouting and multi battles :)

1) When you scout a trainer, will its pokemon's abilities get "locked"? Or get randomly determined every time you enter the battle tree?
2) Can you scout the same trainer more than once?
3) Will their lead be locked, or will it be random like in gen 6?

 

[paperquagsire]

Hi guys, I got a few questions about scouting and multi battles :)

1) When you scout a trainer, will its pokemon's abilities get "locked"? Or get randomly determined every time you enter the battle tree?
2) Can you scout the same trainer more than once?
3) Will their lead be locked, or will it be random like in gen 6?

The pokemons abilities are locked once scouted, and scouting the same trainer twice overwrites the first one

 

[AnonymousRandom]

Will their lead be locked, or will it be random like in gen 6?

The lead is locked into whatever Pokémon the Trainer led with during your battle against the Trainer.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Running at 70 wins in Super doubles, still ongoing. Team is super fun if anyone wants to try it though:

Mortals

Metagross @ Mega
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Clear Body (Tough Claws)

- Iron Head
- Protect
- Ice Punch
- Zen Headbutt

Tapu Koko @ Tapunium-Z
Timid, 4 HP, 252 SP. Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Electric Surge

- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Nature's Madness
- Dazzling Gleam

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Modest, 252 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse

Golisopod @ Assault Vest
Adamant, 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Speed
Ability: Emergency Exit

- Liquidate
- Aqua Jet
- First Impression
- Leech Life

That's right guys, NO CHAR-Y, a first in Titan history.

MegaGross + Koko is basic synergetic lead (random EQ will rape your future however), and GoA off of 130 Speed brings any nasty matchup down to very managable levels. MegaGross can chunk 25% out of nearly anything, including Mega Camerupt and Ferrothorn, which WILL decimate any other Koko set. High speed and solid power for simple, point-and-shoot friendly UI.
Hydreigon can also comfortably lead instead of Koko - pure preference. Also absorbs Earth Powers, Shadow Balls, and mono-Fire squads that haunt the Tree. Massive synergy with Metagross, and acts as your check to stupidly fast shit outside of the absurdly deadly ScarfChomp (Bait with EQ, then double-switch. You will die otherwise).
Golisopod looks odd, but we have TR problems as is and it works very well in the back: bulky, powerful, and heavy priority lets it pick off dangerous foes. First impression either outright kills a lot, or puts it in range of your partner. Leech Life lets it live forever while the Water coverage hits Fire mons when Hydra is locked on Dark Pulse. Araquanid is nice but I prefer the priority and actual damage output against Water resists.

Don't be me and run Golisopod + Lele plz.

 

[cityscapes]

Super Doubles Streak of 92.

Really frustrating because I knew I should have never even tried with this team. The natures of two team members are just bad because I used the Tapu Fini and Kartana that I caught during my playthrough when I wasn't thinking of ever using them competitively. Anyway, I did break 90 so I thought I'd share. I won't try this team again until I replay the game and get optimal nature Tapu Fini and Kartana, though.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Naive Nature (yep...)
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 Spd/252 SpA/4 HP
-Moonblast
-Scald
-Grass Knot
-Ice Beam

I know, I know. But I didn't want to have to constantly Protect during Surfs, and Scald does burn levitaters and flying types in Misty Surge. Next time I may consider Shadow Ball over Grass Knot because Cresselia gets mildly annoying with this team.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Careful Nature (again...lol)
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
-Protect
-Leaf Blade
-Sacred Sword
-Smart Strike

Get the second hit after Scarf Tapu Fini for an immediate Beast Boost; bait hits whilst protecting; profit.

Arcanine @ Firium Z
Modest Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/126 SpA/126 Spd
-Protect
-Snarl
-Wild Charge
-Burn Up

Double nuke with the z-move and Burn Up. Sometimes Burn Up immediately to lose fire typing. Wild Charge so I'm not defenseless against waters and so Gyarados can't set up on me. Intimidate and Snarl for Garchomp longevity. There really didn't come a time when I wish I had Extremespeed. I know some people like Toxic, but I prefer hyper offense and hate long battles.

Garchomp @ Life Orb
Adamant Nature
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
-Protect
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Poison Jab

Yes Outrage sucks in doubles because you can't choose who you hit, but I really wanted the Z move on my Arcanine and Dragon Claw is too weak. Over 92 matches I can say that it really was 50-50 when I got screwed/saved by using Outrage.

Strategy/Threats: Basically just opportunistic use of Protect makes this team go. The team has great coverage up front and swept more than half the battles without a switch. Naive Tapu is naturally scared of Electric types, however, but that's where Garchomp comes in. This team hates hates hates Rotom-Fan, Zapdos, and Thundurus starters because they force a Tapu Fini switch and Kartana can't touch them. Also, if the team leads with one of these guys and the partner is spamming blizzards I'm screwed unless I luck out. In fact, that's how I lost.

Proof: I think versioning up screwed up my videos, or at least for some reaosn I can't get a code right now. Anyway, here is a pic of the streak next to this exact post that I am typing right now.

yo just as a tip i recommend using soak on your fini. although being locked into a status move is kind of dumb, it allows kartana to always land a super effective hit, increasing its breaking power and helping against your electric weakness. i hope this advice helped, cool team!

 

[justintr]

Hey everyone. I’m back a second time with a new team (first team here). This team consists of Nidoking, Tapu Bulu, Celesteela, and Greninja. This is a Super Doubles streak of 102. Not super impressive, and not as great as my previous streak but I’m still pretty satisfied with how I did. In the losing battle, I stupidly let Haxorus-4 set-up a couple of Dragon Dances, and ultimately paid the price for it. And to make matters worse, Darmanitan-4 ended up one-shotting Celesteela with Flare Blitz, so I couldn’t really set up Leech Seeds and stall.

Battle Video: FDMW-WWWW-WWW7-5ZLH

The team:

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Ability: Sheer Force
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spd
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

I wanted to try out Nidoking since it’s not really a Pokemon you would see used in the Tree. I love Sheer Force as an ability, and I wanted to try Landorus-Incarnate out, but I thought Nidoking would be more exciting. Earth Power and Sludge Bomb are mandatory STABs, and Thunderbolt is used to hit Water-types for super effective damage.

Tapu Bulu @ Rockium Z
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Grassy Surge
IVs: HT/HT/31/xx/31/31
EVs: 244 HP / 116 Att / 140 Def / 4 SpDef / 4 Spd
- Wood Hammer
- Horn Leech
- Stone Edge
- Protect

Bulu is probably my least favourite Tapu, but Grassy Terrain is nice for weakening the Earthquakes that can demolish Nidoking. Plus, this thing is a monster. Even without full investment in Attack, Bulu’s Wood Hammer is almost always a OHKO or 2HKO and Continental Crush allows it to hit Flying-types super hard.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Nature: Careful
Ability: Beast Boost
IVs: HT/31/HT/31/31/HT
EVs: 164 HP / 4 Att / 116 Def / 204 SpDef / 20 Spd
- Heavy Slam
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Protect

I think this set is a bit of an odd choice for Tree Doubles, but it worked out in the end. In fact, there were two battles that Celesteela ended up 1v3ing. Heavy Slam is there for damage, and Sub/Leech Seed/Protect are just for stalling.

Greninja @ Expert Belt
Nature: Timid
Ability: Protean
IVs: 31/xx/31/HT/31/HT
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spd
- Scald
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Fire

Originally, I was using an Ash-Greninja for this slot, but didn’t really like it too much, plus Grass-type attacks basically ate this thing alive. I switched to Protean Greninja around battle 60 or so. This Greninja also ended up with HP Fire, so I could actually end up switching to a Fire-type and resist whatever Grass move was thrown at me. Of course, it still is very frail and can’t really take a whole lot of hits but it worked out in the end.


The Ash-Greninja set:

-->

Greninja @ Expert Belt
Nature: Timid
Ability: Battle Bond
IVs: HT/31/HT/31/HT/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spd
- Scald
- Water Shuriken
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam


I’m actually a little surprised the team managed to get this far. But even though it’s not a very impressive streak, I’m still pretty happy with how well the team did. I might actually try it again! See ya.

 

[Supah eMKay]

Hey guys my very first post here! So I'm currently playing the Super Doubles and I did surprisingly well so far with 120 wins and still going. But I encountered something strange on my 93rd battle. The opponent had a Cresselia and to my surprise I hit it with an Earthquake. Out of curiosity I tried it again and it still hit. So I'm not sure if it was because of a hold item or some gravitating effect but it could also be a glitch. Has anyone encountered this Cresselia?

Here is the Video: RAZW-WWWW-WWW7-66DN

As for the team I'm using:

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Flamethrower is for the accuracy and if I have to ko a single Mon reliably. But it struggles a bit with dragons and fire types. For this reason I was also considering Dragon Pulse for FT but I'm hesitating to change it because it did so well so far. :)

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
- U-turn

Really good offensive synergy with CharY

Tapu Koko @ Electrium Z
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
- Protect

At first I had a Scarf Xurkitree in this spot and Lando had a LO. But this change is for the better I think even though Koko doesn't hit that hard. And it's also a really good switch-in for dragon moves and I also don't have to fear a ground move on the switch-in because of the leading flying Mons.
Discharge doesn't concern me much because the other partner mons who could take a hit have protect and Lando-T won't get hit at all and I still can single target with Z-Discharge. Maybe I could replace Grass Knot with something else like T-Bolt or Voltswitch because I never used it. Hmmm.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Protect

Standard Sash Kartana. Helped me a lot. Nothing noteworthy :P

So a pretty standard hyper offense team that served me surprisingly well so far, especially considering that this is my first try with the doubles format. As I said above I'm at 120 wins so far and hopefully will reach that 200. But I'm still happy that I got this far :)

 

[Altissimo]

But I encountered something strange on my 93th battle. The opponent had a Cresselia and to my surprise I hit it with an Earthquake. Out of curiosity I tried it again and it still hit. So I'm not sure if it was because of an hold item or some gravitating effect but it could also be glitch. Has anyone encountered this Cresselia?

Cress-4 holds Iron Ball.

 

[Supah eMKay]

Cress-4 holds Iron Ball.

Oh that explains it. I guess it's for trick room. Thank you for your reply.

 

[kneeshoeshoe]

I've been trying out this team in Doubles and currently have reached 50 wins. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! I'll be posting some battle videos if this streak somehow can get high enough (aiming for 200)

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Transform
- Spiky Shield

Smeargle

Originally I had Ribombee in this slot with Quiver Dance, Baton Pass, Pollen Puff and Protect but I didn't feel that it was very useful, and it lacked an attacking dance move to give Oricorio another free attack.

I then switched to Smeargle for a few rounds. Despite its lower speed, I found it way more useful than Ribombee for a few reasons:
- It's not weak to Rock unlike Ribombee
- It can use Revelation Dance to give Oricorio an extra attack for the turn, allowing Oricorio to either protect and attack simultaneously, or let it fire two STAB attacks in a row.
- Transform is an excellent utility move. On the occasions where Smeargle survives past two Quiver Dances I usually transform into Oricorio after getting a few QD boosts then start spamming Revelation Dance for 4 attacks per turn. Transforming into a batonpass-ed Mega Lucario to sweep the entire field is also an option which saved me a few times. Alternatively, there's also the option of transforming into opposing Pokemon, which I've only done a few times since I haven't reached the higher numbers with the legendaries as opponents.

EV spread is basic, max HP for survivability and for Transform, and max speed to outrun as many Pokemon as possible after speed boosts.

Oricorio-Sensu @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Dancer
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Timid Nature
- Revelation Dance
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
- Protect

Oricorio

First of all, I chose Ghost Oricorio over the other three because Ghost has the best neutral coverage. Having 3 immunities is great too. This bird, despite its average base stats, is made amazing thanks to its ability Dancer, which copies any dance move used by the other Pokemon on the field without using up its attack for the turn. This allows for some neat tricks like Protecting while using Dancer to get off an extra boost, or an attack.

Taunt is for Trick Room users and other generally annoying evasion mons like Zapdos2, and it can even block potential Taunt users from taunting Smeargle to uselessness while Smeargle protects. Baton Pass to flee to either Lilligant or Lucario in a bad matchup (normal types) or when Oricorio would be KO'd soon. I used to run Air Slash over Baton Pass to hit normal types immune to RD, but its damage output is just too underwhelming and I prefer to leave normal types to Lucario for cleanup. Finally Protect is essential to avoid damage while Dancer activates for Oricorio.

76 Speed EVs give it 135 speed unboosted, and 202 at +1, outspeeding all positive natured base 130s, and it outspeeds the entire Tree at +2 (barring Aerodactyl1). Everything else goes into physical bulk since special bulk is covered by Quiver Dance boosts.

As for its item, I choose Sitrus Berry for longevity. I used to run Normalium Z for hitting normal types with Breakneck Blitz and sometimes use Z-Protect and Z-Baton Pass for laughs, but it was too situational and I felt it a waste of the Z-crystal slot.

Lilligant @ Grassium Z
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Petal Dance
- Role Play
- Protect

Lilligant

The backup dancer. Since Smeargle usually doesn't survive long, Lilligant is a great replacement in its slot after it gets KO'd early. It can also take care of the normal and dark types which Oricorio struggles against.

Quiver Dance is there for Oricorio. Petal Dance gives it a powerful 120 base power STAB attack which, thanks to Own Tempo, doesn't confuse Lilligant after usage. The only downside is that you can't select your target with Petal Dance. But more importantly, Dancer also copies it, giving Oricorio another coverage option (Oricorio also doesn't get locked into the move). Role Play is mostly filler, but it's sometimes useful for copying Dancer to do quadruple-attacks with Oricorio, and steal some other useful abilities. Bloom Doom gives it a 190 BP nuke that can select a target, unlike Petal Dance.

I gave Lilligant 12 Speed EVs to outrun base 100s at +1, and 236 HP EVs to give it 175 HP which is a 16n-1 number, reducing residual damage. Everything else went into physical bulk since QD boosts cover special bulk.

Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Aura Sphere
- Flash Cannon
- Dark Pulse
- Protect

Lucario

A backup plan in case everything else fails. Aura Sphere takes care of Pokemon which can't be hit by ghost-type Revelation Dance. There also aren't any Pokemon that resist all three of Lucario's moves, and it's also fast enough to outrun everything up to scarfed Terrakion2 after a passed +1 boost. Special over physical to take advantage of Oricorio's Baton Pass.

Possible improvements:
- Swapping the positions of Lilligant and Smeargle to make Lilligant the lead instead.
- Switching Mega Lucario to Mega Salamence for its Intimidate support and all-round better stats, although it adds another Rock weakness. I'm still thinking about this one.
- King's Shield over Spiky Shield on Smeargle to weaken Physical threats?
- is Substitute better than Role Play on Lilligant?

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Mortals

Metagross @ Mega
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Clear Body (Tough Claws)

- Iron Head
- Protect
- Ice Punch
- Zen Headbutt

Tapu Koko @ Tapunium-Z
Timid, 4 HP, 252 SP. Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Electric Surge

- Thunderbolt
- Protect
- Nature's Madness
- Dazzling Gleam

Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Modest, 252 Sp. Atk, 4 Sp. Def, 252 Speed
Ability: Levitate

- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dark Pulse

Golisopod @ Assault Vest
Adamant, 252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Speed
Ability: Emergency Exit

- Liquidate
- Aqua Jet
- First Impression
- Leech Life

Well I finally died at Battle 87 (86 wins) to Scarf Eruption Typhlosion + DD Char-X.
Typhlosion needs to be killed quick by Golisopod or Hydreigon, and a +1 Char-X easily annihilates the entire team single handed. No hax, just really bad matchup lol. I was quite impressed to see Golisopod survive a +1 Flare Blitz.
Got much farther than initially planned; Koko was easily the weakest link. May try HydraGross as the lead with Fini in back and some other filler.

Next attempt will have Char-Y and it will be funny.

 

[therealkabutops]

yo just as a tip i recommend using soak on your fini. although being locked into a status move is kind of dumb, it allows kartana to always land a super effective hit, increasing its breaking power and helping against your electric weakness. i hope this advice helped, cool team!

Thanks! That's an interesting strategy. I'll try it out.

 

[PikaCuber]

Well, just know that you won't have much longer to go after that point, I kept trying to push this morning and lost a close one to Wally at 60. Losing Tapu Koko Turn 1 proved to be the difference maker, as Wally's backups were the Fiary-weak ones and couldn't be punished as hard without it there.

I've discussed this with a few different people, but the KokoChu core has been disappointing in some respects, which is why 'Doobs' is my baseline team to work with these days for non-serious Tree efforts.

So, 59 wins is the new goalpost.

Smuckem, I did it! 78 Win Streak in Super Doubles

Team:

Charjabug (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Battery
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 118 Def / 140 SpD / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
IVs: 28 SpA
- String Shot
- Substitute
- Bug Bite
- Protect

Stats

164/102/143/66/113/56

One of the leads of the team, pairs alongside the Tapu Lele. EV Spread is to hit an odd number for Substitute, and the defensive EVs are to survive a max Marowak-A Flare Blitz in the rain or something like that.

String Shot was meant to help slow down threats to the rest of my team and has it's uses when I'm either Tormented or have nothing else to do. Substitute with an HP stat of 163, gets me 4 Subs and have 3 HP left. It also gives me a nice barrier to sit behind to stay alive and draw attacks towards it since the AI generally wants KOs. Bug Bite was definitely my most used move, primarily eating away the Super Effective and Healing Berries that so many of the Pokemon carry, as well as breaking Focus Sashes. Gave Charjabug many random stat boosts from things like Liechi Berries and healing from Sitrus Berries. Protect worked nicely for stalling and protecting itself from potentially lethal blows.


Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 236 Spe
Rash Nature
IVs: 25 HP / 2 Atk / 25 Def
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball

Stats

143/91/93/200/123/145

My other lead and just a nuke when combined with Battery. Psychic and Moonblast are basic STAB moves that abuse terrain. Psychic does a lot of damage that can OHKO just about anything hit for neutral damage, and even is able to OHKO even some Pokemon that resist Psychic. Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball ended up being relatively filler moves. Shadow Ball was used in very few, specific situations, and I don't believe I clicked Thunderbolt once that was not for fun.

EV spread is a slightly modified version of the Tapu Lele Josh C. used on their team, but made to fit the nature and IVs of my Tapu Lele. Speed IVs puts Tapu Lele into an empty speed tier that outspeeds almost the entire Battle Tree after the Choice Scarf boost. Max Special Attack for maximizing damage, and everything else is split around to get an odd HP number.


Salamence (M) @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Stats

171/126/100/178/100/152

Backup sweeper and another abuser of Battery. Intimidate is a great help at weakening anything that Salamence has to come in on, since it is usually switched in once on of the leads faints.

Hyper Voice gives a nice spread attack, good coverage, Battery boosted, STAB. Dragon Pulse is another STAB move and is good for some things that resist Flying. Flamethrower is primarily to hit Steels that resist the other two moves. Protect stalls out super effective attacks and scouts out the next few turns, as well as preserving Intimidate if it's the first time Salamence switches in.

Salamence almost never switches in for any of the leads. However, it is somewhat safe to switch out Tapu Lele for Salamence, although it has to fear for any Rock Slides that are primarily aimed at Charjabug.


Aegislash @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spd
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield

Stats

167/55/170/112/171/58

Sort of a Trick Room counter and the main switch in for just about my whole team, for both immunities and resistances. Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon are basic STABs, and lets Aegislash not worry about Intimidate. Wide Guard works greatly against Rock Slide and Earthquakes, letting me protect what is usually Salamence while it tears through teams. King's Shield changes Aegislash back to Shield Form, letting it take hits it weakening opponents. Ghostium Z gives Aegislash a big one time nuke to use, found by someone I saw on this thread, letting Aegislash OHKO many important and threatening Pokemon to this team.


Threats

Poison Types: Tapu Lele hates Poison moves, but Tapu Lele outspeeds all Poison-Types in the Battle Tree and can OHKO all of them, theoretically, leaving them to be of little worry. Plus, Aegislash can switch into any Poison moves, giving another way of beating them.

Most Steel Types: Tapu Lele hates them, but Aegislash can switch in to take the attack, and Salamence can come in to Intimidate most of them to make them less of a threat.

Ghost and Dark Types: Tapu Lele can nuke a lot of Ghost types with Psychic or Shadow Ball, but it either locks Tapu Lele into an inferior move or puts it at risk of missing the KO. Plus, Aegislash can't switch into Ghost moves very well, being weak to them. Dark types pose a similar problem, but at least Tapu Lele can Moonblast them for super effective damage.

Trick Room: Tapu Lele can stop it, but if it gets set up, Aegislash and Protect is my only real way to stop it. If it gets set up right at the beginning of the game, it is generally tolerable. However, if it goes up twice, the team is too weak by then to handle it.

Excadrill: I haven't played against many yet, but the one I did face either did an odd AI decision, or just me not looking more carefully at the sets. Either way, it's Steel moves hits Tapu Lele hard, and Ground attacks hurts Aegislash on the switch in, if not on the next turn. The one I did face for some reason did target Tapu Lele with what I assume to be a Drill Run, but I can't confirm this since I wasn't paying attention. Salamence is my only real counter to this, with Flamethrower.

Specially Defensive Walls: Primarily Blissey and Snorlax. Thankfully, the ones I faced weren't too big of an issue, but otherwise they can sponge a lot of my attacks and stall out the game.

Sand Teams: Sand based teams are a bit of a pain to deal with. The Pokemon themselves aren't the biggest issue, but the fact that Sandstorm raises the Special Defense of any Rock, Ground, and Steel types against my Specially Attacking team gives it a big issue. Generally I need to work around it with Tapu Lele and Aegislash, and Salamence only comes in for baiting and Intimidate.

Heatran: Still an issue. Nothing on my team can hit it extremely well, except for something from Tapu Lele or a Never-Ending Nightmare from Aegislash. However, the only thing that Heatran doesn't OHKO, or come close to doing so, is Salamence, which can't hit it back.

There's almost definitely more, but I can't think of them at the moment.


Team Problems:

Tapu Lele isn't perfect by any means, being able to copy Josh C.'s Tapu Lele completely would make it bulkier by just the slightest bit. Also, the team has only Special Attackers, which can cause a lot of issues. I might need to get a mixed Salamence for this team, with Earthquake for some of the Steel problems. Or, make Aegislash a physical one, with Shadow Claw and Sacred Sword over Shadow Ball and Flash Cannon, but then I miss out on some Fairy coverage.


Battles:

Battle 42: ERKW-WWWW-WWW7-7NSN

Analysis

Nothing too special, just pointing out some odd AI behavior. Florges kept switching between using Grassy and Misty Terrain. I have another battle with one of my previous iterations of my team with the same Florges.
Other Battle: F25W-WWWW-WWW7-7NT2

Battle 50: CTFG-WWWW-WWW7-7NSR

Analysis

One of the better battles of this run, showing how good this team can end up being. Also the Stamp Battle of this run.

Battle 52: 5VGG-WWWW-WWW7-7NSU

Analysis

Showcasing the Heatran problem. Aegislash can beat Heatran down enough to let someone else finish it off, but I need to know what set Heatran is, since one of the sets, I believe Heatran4 (whichever one has Overheat) can one shot Aegislash. Thankfully, it wasn't, so I was able to chunk it enough with a Never-Ending Nightmare to finish it off with something else.

Battle 79: DWPW-WWWW-WWW7-7NSV (Loss)

Analysis

Trick Room and Steel type lead. I had to let Trick Room come up because I didn't want to risk losing Tapu Lele. However, I prioritized the Aggron over the Slowbro, which let it set up a second Trick Room later in the game when I had only Tapu Lele left. Mainly just a bad matchup, although I could have kept the Aggron around and left it for Salamence to finish it off outside of Trick Room.

Final Notes:

I'm loving the changes I've made to the Charjabug team. Tapu Lele could be better, and I'll probably work on getting a mixed Salamence going and try it out. Overall, I'm happy that Charjabug is working out, and that it's once again the top of my personal leader board.

 

[kneeshoeshoe]

Interesting! Never thought Charjabug would be used anywhere. Have you considered cutting speed and not running Scarf on Tapu Lele since you already have String Shot? That could make way for a more defensive set.

 

[PikaCuber]

Interesting! Never thought Charjabug would be used anywhere. Have you considered cutting speed and not running Scarf on Tapu Lele since you already have String Shot? That could make way for a more defensive set.

That's actually a decent thought, I never considered that. Maybe I'll try it out after I run through my original team again. Although I won't be able to outspeed Aerodactyl1 without Timid, and Manectric4 needs about half investment to be outsped at -2. I'll need a different Tapu Lele though, so I don't lose out on bulk. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[silver_angel]

Hi,
Based on Skewtr google spreadsheet, I updated my database with the battle tree data (it took me some while because I had to update to gen VII first):
http://the.silver.angel.free.fr/btree/

The advatange compared to the spreadsheet is that the mons are sorted by their dex number, and the scrolling is much faster. Also, I added a support for the French language, but I still haven't all the trainer names in French (if anyone could help me on that, that would be awesome).

I thought this could interest some of you. Please note that it is still in beta-test, so don't hesitate to notice me of any error/problem you would see.

 

[Euj]

Hello. I am posting a 50-win streak in Single Battle. Pokemon Moon is the first Pokemon game I have ever played, so I basically learned everything from scratch in the past few months, and this thread has been really helpful to me. Thanks!

50th battle video: SFFW-WWWW-WWW7-8HQU


I tried to copy the Salamence/Aegislash/Chansey team used by many people here, especially the one from GG Unit. But I didn't realize I need to let the parent Salamence relearn Dragon Dance (an Egg move) in order to pass it down (a beginner mistake) until I have all three Pokemon leveled up and trained. So I ended up having a previously bred Garchomp as the lead. However, the more I played, the more I realized the advantage of having Salamence. Most obviously, I don't have a good answer to Ground moves, and Garchomp is too easy to go down without recovery means.


Here is the team:

1. Garchomp @ Dragonium Z

Ability: Rough Skin

Jolly Nature

IV: 31/31/31/31/31/31

EV: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

- Earthquake

- Dragon Claw - Protect (after Battle 40+).

- Rock Slide - Poison Jab - Flamethrower (after Battle 30+)

- Outrage

I am not entirely sure about the move set of Garchomp. Later I used Protect because Dragon Claw is obviously redundant, while Protect not only helps me stall PP, but also allows me to tell the set of opponent Pokemon (e.g. Altaria-3 vs. Altaria-4, Garchomp-3 vs. Garchomp-4) in order to decide whether I should switch and whom I should switched to. Flamethrower is specifically for Toucannon-4 (and maybe -3) because this is a non-contact move to prevent Garchomp from being burned while Toucannon is charging Beak Blast (I used a Z-Outrage plus a Flamethrower to finish it).


2. Aegislash @ Leftovers

Ability: Stance Change

Adamant Nature

IV: 31/31/31/Decent/31/31

EV: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe

- King's Shield

- Swords Dance

- Shadow Sneak

- Sacred Sword

This is completely copied from GG Unit's team.


3. Chansey @ Eviolite

Ability: Natural Cure

Timid Nature

IV: 31/0/31/31/31/31

EV: 244 Def / 20 Sp.Def / 244 Spe

- Substitute

- Minimize

- Seismic Toss

- Soft-Boiled

This is also completely copied from GG Unit's team.


I feel I don't have enough experience to have a good writeup, but will try my best. Please let me know if I made mistakes.

[Some Strategies]

Because Garchomp lacks recovery, I tried to only let it attack when I know it can KO opponent Pokemon without taking too much damage. Whenever possible, I switch to Aegislash or Chansey to set up.

As many people have said, Aegislash and Chansey are really friendly for beginners. Even with my not-so-ideal choice of Garchomp lead, I could manage to pull through 50-win (with some luck, I guess). I really like Chansey, whose flexibility has been discussed in other people’s posts. Even though Aegislash can also handle ice attacks well, I could run into trouble if it gets frozen. So I usually switch to Chansey when facing ice attackers. Its Natural Cure ability is great for dealing with status infliction too, not to mention its ability to hide behind a Substitute. Also when Chansey already sets up with Substitute, I could always get a free Seismic Toss (except when facing Ghost types) when strong physical attackers get in the field, which Chansey usually struggles with, and if I am lucky with Minimize, I may finish them with Chansey too.

Finally, with Aegislash and Chansey, I am actually glad to see Taunt users (e.g. Bisharp-1 and Weavile-1/4), Weather setters, TR users and Pokemon packed with Protect (e.g. Archeops-4), because this usually means I could get free turns to attack if I predict correctly and know how to switch between Aegislash and Chansey. Encore users may be a little bit annoying, but so far I can always find some ways to deal with them. For example:

Infernape-4: switch from Garchomp to Aegislash to void its Close Combat, King's Shield once to lower its Atk when it uses Flare Blitz. It will use Encore on the next turn, so I get a free turn to attack it with Sacred Sword. Switch to Garchomp again to eat a Flare Blitz (Rough Skin and recoil will damage Infernape-4). Repeat this pattern until it has -6 Atk and around 50% HP left, and then finish it with Sacred Sword. The only downside is Garchomp may get burned.

Accelgor-1: its Giga Gain doesn't do much damage on Aegislash, so keep using Swords Dance without using King's Shield, and then use Shadow Sneak when the Encore ends.


[Threats]

As mentioned above, the lack of Flying type (or Levitate) Pokemon has made this team vulnerable to various Ground Physical attackers. Usually I had to switch between Garchomp and Aegislash to stall PP of threatening moves, and Garchomp's Protect and Aegislash's King's Shield help a lot. If I really need to let Chansey deal with strong physical attackers and I know that they won't 1HKO Chansey, I will try to set up Minimize first before using Substitute, because in this case Substitute is likely to be destroyed in one hit. I feel really lucky that I only met Dugtrio-2 once and its Fissure only worked on Turn 1 (KO my Garchomp), so that I can set up Chansey's Substitute to deal with it.


I also had trouble with fast Pokemon that can set up Dragon Dance or Swords Dance. For example:

Altaria-3: I have done quite a few mock battles with it, and the best way I can think of is to switch between Garchomp and Aegislash, using Protect and King's Shield, hoping that it will use Giga Impact when facing Garchomp, so that I could hit it with either Earthquake or Shadow Sneak during its recharge turn.

Mimikyu-3: I remember GG Unit said Chansey can abuse Substitute to stall its Play Rough? But I feel I am bad at predicting when it will use Swords Dance in the middle, and sometimes I am running low on Substitute already. Therefore I chose to switch between Chansey and Aegislash (use King’s Shield) to stall its Shadow Claw before using Aegislash to finish it (it will try to use Swords Dance and then Wood Hammer). Aegislash will take some damage but it's usually manageable.


For every Pokemon in every battle of this streak, especially after battle 40, I checked the speed tier table, the battle tree move set table and Bulbapedia (because I don't even know what the move does if it's the first time I see it) to decide what to do. I believe I wouldn’t have made it to 50 wins without these resources. So I would like to thank many people for their discussion on this thread, GG Unit for the team, and people that have put together the spreadsheets for the Battle Tree! I really enjoy Pokemon battles and have learned a lot. I am going to try Double Battle and hopefully will continue with the Single Battle later (have finally bred a Dragon Dance Salamence). Good luck to everyone!

 

[Smuckem]

The Stamp Run Compilation (S.R.C.) and QR Rental Repository (QR3) have been updated through here. I am always looking for new QR teams to add to the proceedings, so if you have posted here and haven't shared your teams yet, or if you're lurking and just afraid of sharing because you feel your team isn't up to snuff, fear not! Just VM me with your QR links (or those you've tried from other Trainers) and I'll add them.

Let's keep pushing, folks--I'm sure that, with today's earlier announcements, at least a few of us have some new motivation to keep piling up BP, stamps, and streaks...

 

[justintr]

Hello again!

I had this team ready for a while,but I had to wait for the release of Swampertite. Anyway, I am back with an ongoing streak of 233 in Super Doubles with the team of Mega Swampert, Pelipper, Xurkitree, and Kartana! I meant to post this much earlier (around 120 or so), but I got a little carried away and kept going throughout the night. I did manage to save a video of my last battle before I decided to retire for a bit. Oh, I also decided to post a QR code for this team in case anyone wanted to try it. I know I just posted a completed streak last week, but I have a lot of free time at work, so I just spam Battle Tree, haha.

Battle Video: KRYG-WWWW-WWW7-9E45

The Team:

-->

Swampert @ Swampertite
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Torrent --> Swift Swim
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Atk / 148 Spe
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Pretty standard M-Swampert set. The HP EVs give it some bulk vs some neutral hits and SOME grass attacks. Waterfall and Earthquake are STAB, and Ice Punch for coverage. Protect to scout and stall out turns if needed. The Jolly nature and speed EVs allow it to pretty much outspeed everything in the Tree except for a few random Choice Scarf pokemon while under the rain.

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Nature: Modest
Ability: Drizzle
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Tailwind
- Protect

I decided to use Pelipper as the Swampert's leading partner. I went with a glass cannon build so Pelipper can deal as much damage as possible with Hurricane and Scald. Tailwind is used to help M-Swampert outspeed the very few pokes that can outspeed, and also helps Xurkitree and Kartana. Protect is used to stall out turns after Focus Sash has been consumed.

Xurkitree @ Air Balloon
Nature: Timid
Ability: Beast Boost
IVs: HT/xx/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Tail Glow
- Protect

I was originally going to go with Tapu Koko as my Thunder-user, but I wanted something a little more interesting. I ended up going with Xurkitree because I love how he looks, and with Tail Glow, he hits like a truck. The EVs allow Xurkitree to live some neutral hits, however most Water attacks KO it in the rain, which sucks. I also use Xurkitree to soak up Thunder Waves that are aimed at Pelipper or Kartana. Thunder is used for STAB, and I always try to use it whenever possible. Hidden Power Ice is used for coverage on things that Thunder can't hit. Tail Glow is used to make Xurkitree hit even harder, and Protect is used to scout and stall whenever needed. Oh, also yeah, I'm using Air Balloon. I know it seems kinda strange, but it works really well with Swampert's Earthquake and allows Xurk to maybe set up a Tail Glow or use Thunder whenever E-quake is used.

Kartana @ Assault Vest
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Beast Boost
IVs: HT/HT/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Atk / 4 Def / 132 SpD / 252 Spe
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- X-Scissor

And finally, we have Kartana. Assault Vest allows Kartana to survive some non-fire special attacks (most fire attacks still KO, even in the rain). Leaf Blade and Smart Strike are there for STAB, Sacred Sword is used to coverage and to punish anything that tries to boost its defense, and X-Scissor is there to some damage to the annoying Cresselias, Azelfs, Mesprits, Uxies, etc that run around in the Tree.

I stole the EVs for Xurk and Kartana from another site, but they have been working amazingly well during this run.

 

[waffles101]

Hello again!

I had this team ready for a while,but I had to wait for the release of Swampertite. Anyway, I am back with an ongoing streak of 233 in Super Doubles with the team of Mega Swampert, Pelipper, Xurkitree, and Kartana! I meant to post this much earlier (around 120 or so), but I got a little carried away and kept going throughout the night. I did manage to save a video of my last battle before I decided to retire for a bit. Oh, I also decided to post a QR code for this team in case anyone wanted to try it. I know I just posted a completed streak last week, but I have a lot of free time at work, so I just spam Battle Tree, haha.

Battle Video: KRYG-WWWW-WWW7-9E45

The Team:

View attachment 83263 -->

Swampert @ Swampertite
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Torrent --> Swift Swim
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 108 HP / 252 Att / 148 Spd
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Protect

Pretty standard M-Swampert set. The HP EVs give it some bulk vs some neutral hits and SOME grass attacks. Waterfall and Earthquake are STAB, and Ice Punch for coverage. Protect to scout and stall out turns if needed. The Jolly nature and speed EVs allow it to pretty much outspeed everything in the Tree except for a few random Choice Scarf pokemon while under the rain.

View attachment 83264
Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Nature: Modest
Ability: Drizzle
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtt / 252 Spd
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Tailwind
- Protect

I decided to use Pelipper as the Swampert's leading partner. I went with a glass cannon build so Pelipper can deal as much damage as possible with Hurricane and Scald. Tailwind is used to help M-Swampert outspeed the very few pokes that can outspeed, and also helps Xurkitree and Kartana. Protect is used to stall out turns after Focus Sash has been consumed.

Xurkitree @ Air Balloon
Nature: Timid
Ability: Beast Boost
IVs: HT/xx/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpAtt / 12 SpDef / 252 Spd
- Thunder
- Hidden Power Ice
- Tail Glow
- Protect

I was originally going to go with Tapu Koko as my Thunder-user, but I wanted something a little more interesting. I ended up going with Xurkitree because I love how he looks, and with Tail Glow, he hits like a truck. The EVs allow Xurkitree to live some neutral hits, however most Water attacks KO it in the rain, which sucks. I also use Xurkitree to soak up Thunder Waves that are aimed at Pelipper or Kartana. Thunder is used for STAB, and I always try to use it whenever possible. Hidden Power Ice is used for coverage on things that Thunder can't hit. Tail Glow is used to make Xurkitree hit even harder, and Protect is used to scout and stall whenever needed. Oh, also yeah, I'm using Air Balloon. I know it seems kinda strange, but it works really well with Swampert's Earthquake and allows Xurk to maybe set up a Tail Glow or use Thunder whenever E-quake is used.

View attachment 83265
Kartana @ Assault Vest
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Beast Boost
IVs: HT/HT/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Att / 4 Def / 132 SpDef / 252 Spd
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- X-Scissor

And finally, we have Kartana. Assault Vest allows Kartana to survive some non-fire special attacks (most fire attacks still KO, even in the rain). Leaf Blade and Smart Strike are there for STAB, Sacred Sword is used to coverage and to punish anything that tries to boost its defense, and X-Scissor is there to some damage to the annoying Cresselias, Azelfs, Mesprits, Uxies, etc that run around in the Tree.

I stole the EVs for Xurk and Kartana from another site, but they have been working amazingly well during this run.

Looks like a pretty fun rain team and now that I think about it, Xurkitree makes a better thunder user than the Magnezone I used. Just wondering how often your rain runs out and whether that poses any issues for Xurk. I found this was a problem when I ran rain and resulted in magnezone stuck with a thunder that I couldn't effectively use. Also have you considered brine on Pelipper? I can imagine it would work quite well alongside EQ.

 

[justintr]

Looks like a pretty fun rain team and now that I think about it, Xurkitree makes a better thunder user than the Magnezone I used. Just wondering how often your rain runs out and whether that poses any issues for Xurk. I found this was a problem when I ran rain and resulted in magnezone stuck with a thunder that I couldn't effectively use. Also have you considered brine on Pelipper? I can imagine it would work quite well alongside EQ.

Usually, when I face the beefier pokemon like Cresselia or Regigigas, that's when the rain runs out, and it has been a problem for Xurkitree in the past. I've been pretty lucky hitting Thunders outside of rain though. I've never actually considered running Brine, I mainly just use Scald for the burn chance, but it does sound like something that could work. I'll give it a shot whenever I continue the streak

 

[Josh C.]

Oh, the injustice of it all...
#1,867: QFCG-WWWW-WWW7-8MET

{raw Discord logs of me mainly talking to myself]

Josh C. - Today at 4:39 PM
holy shit, should've just lost my streak at 1,866 wins
that was the closest, most nail-biting affair
can't even explain it properly right now
RNG decided to favour me on at least three occasions
I won with sharpedo living on 1 HP against bastiodon-4 (sturdy), without two waterfalls I would've been stuck in with arcanine having already used burn up earlier
therefore losing

Level 51 - Today at 4:44 PM
o

Josh C. - Today at 4:45 PM
I was caught off-guard by and underestimated lead abomasnow-3; just thought "I have arcanine for abomasnow, let's target the other slot!"(edited)
after its first sheer cold landed and eliminated lele, I didn't have the proper resources to take it out swiftly, cause sash
I'll watch the video back sometime (definitely saved it, haha) but at some point I switched in chomp forgetting about arc being typeless, thinking that aboma would just focus blast pedo
instead it blizzards so I sac chomp for nothing
ferrothorn came out so I needed to get damage on that with a HH crunch, also would've lost there had aboma hit focus blast
and well, ferro seed bombing instead of cursing
I honestly didn't deserve to win that, a crazy amount of fortune just happened to head my way; thought it was over when chomp died and arc was locked in, with no way to reset burn up or intimidate

...so yeah, huge plot twist, major injustice for the AI. Watch the video to judge for yourself, which involve a couple questionable plays combined with an OHKO move to make matters worse. Switching out Sharpedo right away for Arcanine was risky but not without reason; he is my quickest and most hassle-free answer to Abomasnow, and also immune to freeze with Burn Up's handy thawing-while-still-a-fire-type attribute. What I failed to account for however was the threat of Sash Abomasnow-3 with its shiny new Sheer Cold on deck (thanks GF, we always needed more OHKO moves on mons that can't be taken down in one hit). So in that sense the opening turn was a poor one, with my not committing to getting damage on Aboma and breaking that potential Sash. The safer alternative would've been to Psychic Aboma and Protect Sharpedo, simultaneously getting intel on Porygon2's set; in some situations getting Thunder Waved is unavoidable (Blizzard says hi to Garchomp switch-in, more on that a little later), Sharpedo is the more common target but never 100% guaranteed; that was another fact to keep in mind, and something I risked switching Arcanine in. Having him fully paralyzed and unable to get the Burn Up off immediately could've also spelled big trouble.

OHKO moves in general are things you can't really prepare to come out on top against every single time, regardless of how many times they hit before you can take out the mon dishing them out. I mean, that is your safety measure outside of Sub Mence or something similar; eliminate the offender before they're able to get a hit on you. So having failed to do that myself, I was in a position where Arcanine lacking backup Flamethrower really hurt; I didn't want Sharpedo to fall so soon to P2's Thunderbolt; it was going to do so little in the scheme of the battle before being sacrificed, all because of a measly 1HP Abomasnow. Cue the second stupidly aggressive play, Pedo switch-out for Garchomp (heh, lucky the second Sheer Cold missed on fire dog). Aboma would either Focus Blast Pedo (or Arcanine, I guess) or Sheer Cold again, right? I mean, at this stage I had to take my chances. Right?

...wrong. I completely overlooked the fact that Arcanine was now typeless, and what the implications would now be for Aboma's move selection. A shiver of dread travels down my spine as I see "used Blizzard!" scroll into view in the text box; in practise the plan was to switch into possible Thunderbolt/Focus Blast and simply EQ + Protect for a double KO on the opposing side, which wouldn't have even been possible without the prior Psychic crit, might I add. This goes out the window as Chomp is cut down mercilessly on the switch by Blizzard. Actually, looking back on the turn after, double Protecting Arcanine made sense to preserve HP against whatever my opponent would have in the back, and to ensure the Sitrus Berry activated at the highest-possible mark, but didn't gel with the aforementioned 'taking chances' approach. I knew the double into Pedo was probable, why not capitalize and at least try for a Toxic to finally be rid of Aboma? You can probably gather by now that typeless Arcanine stuck on the field with no way to switch out isn't very good. It's what I get for playing bad though!

Out comes Ferrothorn to replace P2. My exact thought at this point was "well shit, this is pretty much GG, it's been a fantastic run but I'm not gonna click forfeit like a coward, might as well play it out!" And that's what I do; my plays from here on out were guided by the odds, however slim in my favour they might be. Let's go through the possibilities:
- Hope for HH Crunch crit on Ferro, otherwise
- Hope for Focus Miss, and Ferro not Exploding or Seed Bombing, which combined with Iron Barbs would do me in anyway.

I don't get the crit but the latter two to my disbelief actually occur; Focus Miss does what it does best and Ferro for whatever reason decides to Curse. Not bad, I get to live another turn! But this time I need to land a Toxic while Pedo Protects, if it misses I'll need to chance a double Protect or another Blast dodge the following turn, fun fun fun. Toxic lands which is amazing, Aboma goes down and out comes Bastiodon. Fortunately Ferro is in KO range even at +2 thanks to the power of HH-boosted Crunch, as he Curses a second time. But he has to be dealt with this turn, and my plan against Bastiodon afterwards is to just spam HH Waterfall; I'm screwed either way if it's Set 4, survives the hit (56.3% OHKO chance) and Metal Bursts Pedo, or is Sturdy, or is Set 3 and Stone Edge crits...

...I cringe at the second lot of Iron Barbs damage Pedo is forced to endure, Arcanine Protects cause might as well... down to 91/145 (62%) now...Bastiodon Rock Slides (Set 4), down to 46/145 (31%)...shit that's down 50%...alright here goes nothing, initiate HH Waterfall...Sturdy as expected...Sitrus Berry blah blah...wait what, no Metal Burst? Another Rock Slide, fair enough, moment of truth (wasn't bothering to look up the calc at this stage)...

...Sharpedo lives on 1HP, literally surviving, and keeping my streak alive by the skin of his teeth. That boy got bulk. He's able to Waterfall a final time and close out the battle with a remarkable, yet undeserved victory. I can say with some confidence with that this will go down in personal history as one of the most ridiculous, unexpected Facility wins I've ever experienced. How I was allowed to climb back with an actual sniff at winning after such dire early turns was nothing short of mind-boggling. I'll just leave this calc here now, take of it what you will...

252+ Atk Bastiodon Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Sharpedo-Mega: 40-48 (27.5 - 33.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO


Perhaps destiny or fate was at play here, though I don't really believe in that stuff. Who am I kidding, it's all RNG, there ain't no higher power. Maybe the game just thought, "You've worked so hard towards achieving 2K, the next big milestone, don't jeopardize that now with one super shitty performance; you'll win this battle in the end but it'll be extremely close and intense, don't worry!" Regardless of the reason, #1867 rattled me back into gear, to continue playing and utilize Sharkanine to the potential it deserves, towards that next significant number.

And here we are - 9J3G-WWWW-WWW7-8MF2, posting an ongoing Doubles streak of 2,000 wins.
I was actually hoping for Colress to show up for #2,000; out of all the Battle Legends he is the most challenging for the team and the one that requires manoeuvering most carefully around, so it only seemed fitting. But Cynthia sufficed.

One last thing, I just wanna say thanks again to turskain for questioning why I was running the poor man's Sharpedo, Bruxish, way back when. I doubt I'd be here now if you hadn't.

Proof pics

#1,733: N2RG-WWWW-WWW7-9HB5 "Switching fun"

Discord notes

had quite an interesting/enjoyable battle in doubles earlier; I'll probably upload at a later date but I'll go through the turns

turn 1 - cobalion/uxie leads: I make the sensible 'cover all bases' play by switching out lele for arcanine and protecting sharpedo; scouting for the dangerous uxie (aka modest quick claw), protection from a fighting move, saving lele from an iron head KO while also getting the -1 off. Cobalion sacred swords pedo (set 2) while uxie thunder waves arcanine (set 1)

turn 2 - while I could get rid of uxie-1 here with crunch and sacrifice pedo to cobalion-2, getting a free switch-in after (a reasonable tradeoff), instead I take advantage of being able to preserve pedo for longer, thanks to intimidate and uxie's not-very-threatening set by switching him out for chomp; uxie'll try to thunder wave pedo, calm mind or extrasensory arcanine. I also aim a toxic at uxie; this might seem oddly passive but tectonic rage is my ticket to dealing with cobalion, and I thought not using burn up so soon was the smarter move vs unknown backups. Cobalion sacred swords chomp for mild damage, uxie thunder waves into chomp, arcanine gets paralyzed (no big deal)

turn 3 - arcanine being paralyzed already actually benefits me here, knowing with full certainty that uxie will not thunder wave that slot again; its only options are to calm mind or extrasensory, which even with the terrain boost isn't very scary at neutral. With this in mind and the fact that arcanine isn't offering a whole lot in this position I switch him back out for pedo, chomp comfortably outspeeds and tectonic rages cobalion for the KO, uxie puts chomp just below half HP with an extrasensory. Now I've regained a favourable board position, with pedo set to KO uxie and the ablity to intimidate-shuffle later if needed.

turn 4 - out comes virizion to replace cobalion: poison jab's too weak to OHKO any of the sets, so even after protecting the first turn then using psychic fangs the next to KO virizion, pedo would likely have to take a thunder wave, and chomp wouldn't make much headway on uxie either. The solution? Switch chomp out for lele based on the assumption that lele will fighting or grass-move into pedo, and uxie will either calm mind, thunder wave pedo or extrasensory again (won't thunder wave a ground type). Even if virizion did decide to attack lele instead (which I've never seen occur while pedo is on the field), she was still at full HP so I considered the switch to be very safe. Virizion focus blasts into protect (set 2), uxie calm minds. More positioning strats boys, now I can score a double KO the next turn without any sort of sacrifice!

turn 5 - that's precisely what happens, I mega evolve and crunch uxie-1 while lele psychics virizion-2. Last mon is terrakion, revealed to be scarfed as it sacred swords pedo before he can move, but that leaves lele to finish the job

I like how with the greater set variance I'm still encountering unique situations like this every now and then, even when I'm 1700+ wins deep into a streak

#1,793: B7PW-WWWW-WWW7-9HCF "Quadruple Intimidate"

 

[kneeshoeshoe]

Usually, when I face the beefier pokemon like Cresselia or Regigigas, that's when the rain runs out, and it has been a problem for Xurkitree in the past. I've been pretty lucky hitting Thunders outside of rain though. I've never actually considered running Brine, I mainly just use Scald for the burn chance, but it does sound like something that could work. I'll give it a shot whenever I continue the streak

Are opposing weather setters an issue for your team? Or do you just switch Pelipper out and in again to reset the rain?

I ran Politoed/Swampert in the Maison a long time ago and the opposing Tyranitars/Aurorus/Abomasnows really gave me problems. I ended up going with 0 speed IVs and a negative nature on Politoed to underspeed all other weather setters.

 

[kneeshoeshoe]

Ongoing streak of 400 wins in Super Doubles. Since I can't see a reason for changing the spreads and moves any further, I thought I'd just share them to get some suggestions and possibly help out other newer players! I'll be posting the video once the streak ends.

Team

Pheromosa @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 12 SpA / 244 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Low Kick
- Lunge
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Pheromosa

Standard tree Pheromosa, EV'd to hit an empty speed tier of 202 outspeeding scarf Skarmory3. Max attack and the remaining EVs go into SpA. I thought about cutting either attack or speed for more SpA to guarantee Ice Beam KOs on certain mons, but it just wasn't worth the huge investment. For reference, Pheromosa can't OHKO Landorus1, Noivern1, Garchomp1, Garchomp4 (Mega), Salamence1 and Salamence3 with Ice Beam (probably also a few more 4x weak mons which I forgot to mention); none of these pose a real threat to my two leads anyway. 60 SpA EVs are required to guarantee an OHKO on Garchomp1; I felt that was way too much of a investment to warrant it.

Poison Jab vs Lunge / Ice Beam was another debate I thought really hard about but ultimately I decided to drop it for better coverage in the latter two moves. The only two opposing critters I can think of that really suffer from Poison Jab are Whimsicott and Shiinotic; both of which can be either double-targetted for an instant KO or 2HKO'd by either lead's moves. By the way, Poison Jab also doesn't OHKO Florges and Aromatisse; if it had a chance to OHKO Aromatisse before it can setup a potential Trick Room, then I would definitely run it.

While High Jump Kick is a really tempting move to run (I actually ran it for a while in previous streaks, and a miss almost always costed me the battle), considering it nails KOs that Low Kick can't guarantee - such as on Togedemaru and Rotom formes, its inaccuracy simply isn't viable for long streaks in the tree. Every crash usually means I lose Pheromosa immediately.

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Energy Ball
- Taunt

Tapu Lele

I feel that Scarf is the only item that maximises Lele's potential, given its high base SpA. Giving it a speed burst in the form of Choice Scarf only makes it a monster that tears through most of the tree with terrain boosted Psychic before they can even land a hit.

I originally ran 156 Spe EVs to outspeed Pheromosa by 1 point and 92/4/4 EVs in defenses. It was only after getting OHKO'd by Mega Beedrill's Poison Jab somewhere in an early run that I realised how stupid I was to not EV to outrun it, considering Psychic is a guaranteed OHKO on Beedrill3. Modest max SpA is pretty much mandatory imo, it gets many KOs and 2HKOs that Timid can't.

As for the moves, Psychic and Moonblast are the necessary STABs which also cover Pheromosa's weaknesses. I've alternated between many moves for the last two slots, including HP Fire, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam, Psyshock, Shadow Ball, Thunder, etc; these were ultimately narrowed down to HP Fire, Dazzling Gleam and Energy Ball. However after a few runs I noticed that HP Fire was ridiculously weak; it never OHKOs any 4x fire weak mon, most notably Escavalier which returns an OHKO with Iron Head. I left the fire coverage option to Salamence instead, and went with Energy Ball for a guaranteed KO on Mega Swampert. As for Dazzling Gleam, there was never a situation where I felt the need to attack both opposing Pokemon with a fairy move, save for certain matchups like Grimsley. Pokemon 4x weak to Fairy are usually easily OHKO'd by Pheromosa without the need for Lele's intervention.

The team is obviously weak to Trick Room considering how frail Pheromosa is; and since Lele has a mostly unused 4th move slot I decided to add Taunt in. Having Taunt on a scarf set makes it really crucial to decide when to use it, especially since the next turn is wasted switching to another Pokemon. I usually only Taunt when Pheromosa+Lele are unable to guarantee a combined KO on the target; more details added below in the team threats.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Flamethrower
- Protect

Salamence

I've experimented with Mega Gyarados in this slot before. It was great, having the ability to break through Levitate with Mold Breaker, but too slow and too reliant on getting up a Dragon Dance before being able to sweep. Nothing fit this role as well as Mega Salamence did, with its ability to punch holes in practically everything with Aerilate-boosted Return. As for the EVs, I never really saw a need to run anything less than max speed to speedtie with all the other base 120s. SpA investment for Flamethrower is also largely unnecessary as it doesn't turn any significant 2HKOs into OHKOs.

I chose Return over Double-Edge after seeing just how much recoil Salamence takes from Double-Edge and opening itself up to many revenge KOs; I felt that the extended longevity was worth the trade-off. Earthquake and Flamethrower are there for coverage to hit through certain Rock- and Steel-types that Pheromosa can't, be it due to a lack of power or the fact that it's already dead by the time Salamence comes in. I made a few calcs with Fire Fang and realised that 4 SpA Flamethrower generally does more damage than 252 Atk Fire Fang for some reason.

No Dragon Dance or Roost since the AI usually doesn't give me the opportunity to setup; I wouldn't sacrifice a valuable Protect slot for it anyway.

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 188 Def / 68 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Leech Seed
- Wide Guard
- Heavy Slam
- Protect

Celesteela

I've read a few similar team writeups before and noticed many others use Aegislash for this slot instead. While I don't deny that Aegislash has better offensive presence and possibly a more defensive matchup, I feel that it lacks the potential to close games. Often when using Aegislash after Phero/Lele are both down, I almost always have to take a hit before getting damage off, and that was convincing enough for me to not use it. Besides, you're basically screwed if Aegislash is left as your last Pokemon and staring down a bad matchup, or two attackers.

Celesteela is a great finishing answer to practically everything that doesn't carry strong Electric- or Fire-type attacks. As long as the opponent doesn't have a powerful attack to take it down in a few hits, Leech Seed + Protect combined with a 120BP Heavy Slam is more than enough to seal the game. There have been a few occasions where I screwed up at the beginning and Celesteela managed to pull out a win vs a 1v3 onslaught. Besides, using Leech Seed on a Blissey is hilariously fun! Oh, and also, being a Flying type has an added bonus of letting Salamence Earthquake freely. Overall, I haven't once regretted using Celesteela in this slot.

I EV'd Celesteela to survive a Thunder from Zapdos3 and throw a Leech Seed in before dying, and for special bulk in general. The rest went into physical bulk. 4 Speed EVs let it hit an empty speed tier of 82, outrunning a few mons (thanks turskain for the speed tier list) -
81 - Tyrantrum-1
81 - Breloom-1
81 - Honchkrow-1
81 - Samurott-2
81 - Politoed-2
81 - Honchkrow-2
81 - Metagross-2
81 - Tyranitar-4

Heavy Slam, even without Attack investment, OHKOs a surprising number of fairies including Mimikyu, Aromatisse23, Florges234 and Sylveon34. Wide Guard came in useful a few times, most notably for protecting Salamence from opposing Blizzards, as well as the occasional Discharge and Explosion. It sometimes (albeit rarely) also lets Pheromosa get in another hit at 1HP while the opponent tries to use a spread move to finish it off.

Team threats:

Trick Room

Trick Room
This is a big problem for the team considering how fast and (relatively) frail all my Pokemon are (barring Celesteela, but even that gets undersped by every TR user), which is why I run Taunt for the TR setters that can't be eliminated on Turn 1.

There are just general notes on how I handle all the TR users, they're not necessarily optimal plays; my actions may also vary depending on the TR user's partner.

Aromatisse (4) - Might have Aroma Veil to block Taunt. Lunge, then switch Lele into Celesteela and Heavy Slam next turn. Or yolo Taunt and pray it isn't Aroma Veil, although it's usually not worth it since only one set carries TR.
Audino (4) - Only set 4 carries TR, Psychic + Low Kick KOs it.
Bronzong (1,4) - Taunt.
Carbink (3) - Heavy Slam OHKO. Beware of Sturdy.
Cofagrigus (3) - Taunt. Only one set has TR, but the other sets all have annoying status moves making it an instant Taunt target in my book.
Cresselia (4) - Taunt. Only one set has TR, but sets 2 and 3 also get severely crippled by taunt. You'll also avoid lame Double Team shenanigans this way.
Dusknoir (2,4) - Taunt. All sets are taunt bait; the Pain Split variants are rather annoying as well.
Jellicent (3) - Don't taunt since it carries Mental Herb. Psychic it immediately to weaken Water Spout, then Psychic again next turn to KO.
Reuniclus (2) - Moonblast/Psychic (depends on which move you want to get locked into) + Lunge KO.
Slowbro-Mega (4) - EnergyBall/Moonblast + Lunge KO.
Slowking (1,4) - Lunge OHKOs set 1 and has 9/16 chance to OHKO set 4, but to be safe just double target it (Psychic does enough to guarantee the KO)
Trevenant (4) - Typically doesn't go for TR immediately (I could be wrong), Psychic + Lunge/IceBeam KO.

Faster scarf users aren't really a threat for me, considering they're really frail and usually OHKO'd by my two leads. They usually target Pheromosa, so I just protect and OHKO with Lele. Entei3 is one of my favourites to deal with - I just Protect on Pheromosa, tank the Eruption on Lele (it survives crit Eruption) then Psychic it down to the red where its Eruptions start doing pitiful damage even on paper-thin bulk Pheromosa.

I've also been experimenting a little with my previous gimmicky Oricorio team on regular Doubles. Managed to get my previous streak in Super Doubles to 95 or 96 before losing terribly to a Scarfed Terrakion.

Dancer

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Whirlwind
- Transform
- Baneful Bunker

Oricorio-Sensu @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Dancer
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 172 Def / 28 SpA / 12 SpD / 52 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Revelation Dance
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Calm Mind
- Protect

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 SpA / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Psych Up
- Protect

Pheromosa @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Focus Blast
- Bug Buzz
- Ice Beam

Haven't been making much progress in this team so I don't have much to share regarding the spreads. I gave Oricorio HP Fighting to cover Dark- and Normal-types, and Calm Mind so it isn't completely useless while waiting for Quiver boosts. The Weakness Policy also allows me to setup a sweep much earlier, since Oricorio usually doesn't get OHKO'd.