Hi! I’m an ultra moon battle tree player and I use a lot of inspiration from this thread or straight up teams from the thread when playing. The team I took inspiration from for this streak, which is an ongoing streak of
400 wins, is lolnub’s team consisting of mega salamence, kartana, tapu fini, and snorlax. I really liked the synergy between salamence, kartana, and fini, with mence taking on fire and fighting types for kart, kart taking on bulky waters for mence, and fini covering every weakness on the frontline except fairy and rock. I also liked using snorlax because I hadn’t used him in doubles before and he impressed me with his great bulk on the physical and special side, his ability to take on trick room, and his ability to 2HKO many pokemon without much attack investment.
I used this team for a while with a few tweaks in evs (the most substantial one was much more defense and less attack on snorlax) as well as changes in movesets, like tailwind on kartana over smart strike, trick over ice beam on fini, and fire punch, heavy slam, return, and recycle on snorlax. However, I noticed the team’s weaknesses made it very difficult to use sometimes, and the fact that lolnub was able to reach over 800 wins with it amazes me. The team’s major weakness was fast pokemon, especially crobat, which can prevent kartana from tailwinding via taunt and threaten to put either of my leads to sleep. It also crits fini with cross poison way too often! Electric types were also a massive threat because they threaten a 2HKO on both my leads and usually outspeed them. Mence can barely touch them, Fini gets murked by electrics, snorlax is threatened with paralysis if misty terrain isn’t up, and kartana barely counts as a resist. They could be handled through tailwind, but kartana can be double targeted and quickly zapped before it’s able to get it off. I began to feel like snorlax wasn’t pulling its weight enough. Its special defense was good, but not good enough in the initial losing battles. It was also slow and wasn’t particularly useful against fast teams, as its bulk entices the AI to double target its partner while it can usually only 2HKO other pokemon in return.
In the first losing battle, which I would win 99 times out of 100, I was haxed ridiculously with a flinch and a double crit on fini and snorlax taking on moltres-1 and latias-1. In the second, I straight up lost to Kikujiro- I had no chance against all of his fast electrics, not to mention zapdos-2 dodging attacks left and right. In the second battle, I felt I could have easily won if I had something to take on electrics- snorlax sadly just wasn’t good enough.
I considered several options when deciding who should replace snorlax. Ideally, I would have something to take on trick room, preferably a ground type not weak to ice, grass, fire, or fighting so that I didn’t stack weaknesses but also gained an immunity to the dreaded thunderbolts and thunders. But such a ground type does not exist >:( except camerupt and numel, which are just bad. I considered gastrodon, but that stacks a grass weakness, storm drain isn’t needed for this team, and it’s pretty passive. I considered lighting rod users like alolan marowak, rhyperior, and raichu, but I felt they would be either too slow or too frail. Then, the answer hit me! Everyone’s favorite pink blob,
clefable chansey, who is criminally underrepresented in doubles this generation (in the battle tree), would save this team. It packs higher defenses than snorlax, slow speed for trick room, and ways of mitigating its slowness with fun priority moves. It also has natural cure, which has saved me when I had to let it take a hit with ice moves or electric moves while misty wasn’t up. So that brings me to version 2 of the team!
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 140 Atk / 116 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Protect
- Flamethrower
We all know what this is capable of! It’s fast and bulky and strong. It’s not quite as good in doubles as in singles because it shouldn’t set up, but it gets the job done. One thing I noted is that I barely ever clicked flamethrower, but it did come in handy occasionally for mega metagross, steelix, and magnezone. I believe I came up with this EV spread but someone has probably thought of it before me. Here are some calculations-
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Goodra: 165-195 (100 - 118.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Honchkrow: 207-244 (100 - 117.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tornadus: 165-195 (107.1 - 126.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
116 SpA Aerilate Salamence-Mega Hyper Voice vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Blaziken: 156-186 (100.6 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
116 SpA Aerilate Salamence-Mega Hyper Voice vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Passimian: 176-210 (100.5 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0+ Def Darmanitan: 181-214 (100.5 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
116 SpA Salamence-Mega Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Scizor-Mega: 180-212 (101.6 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
116 SpA Salamence-Mega Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Steelix-Mega: 92-110 (50.5 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
116 SpA Salamence-Mega Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross-Mega: 82-98 (52.9 - 63.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Helping Hand Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Jolteon: 139-164 (99.2 - 117.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO (not optimal)
140 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Helping Hand Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Regice: 186-219 (99.4 - 117.1%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO (not optimal)
Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Sacred Sword
- Protect
- Tailwind
Kartana is good, but it wishes it can fit smart strike in its moveset somewhere for fairies and ice types. It also wishes it can take on electric types better, as it is a grass type (grass types beat electric types, right? Wrong.) I felt that beast boost was situational and couldn’t activate until after turn one, which is usually the scariest turn because you don’t know the sets and you haven’t secured an advantage yet. I considered using scarf kartana, but that still wouldn’t handle the troublesome thundurus and zapdos, and sash + tailwind was very handy. I do think that tailwind is mandatory for speed trainers and electric types, and protect is necessary for fake out and to hopefully get tailwind up, so I think it was correct to make some changes in version 3 of this team.
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 68 SpA / 4 SpD / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Scald
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
Yes, I copied Eisenherz’s tapu fini spread and slapped a choice specs on it. But it works! Despite the lack of special attack investment, it still hits hard and 2HKOS or OHKOs most things. Modest finis aren’t easy to come by and I didn’t feel like changing the spread because it’s good for his zapfini team, which I have used before. Its bulk has also come in handy for electric types, as it can usually take one thunderbolt or thunder before retaliating. Misty terrain is a great counter to paralysis, blizzards, burns, and ice beams thrown at the frontline. The first three moves are standard but I wanted to test out trick, which did come in handy occasionally, such as for evasion spammers like regigigas and stat boosters like registeel. Is trick worth a moveslot over grass knot or ice beam? Maybe not, but it’s fun :P seeing cress-2 locked into specs double team will make your day.
Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Ally Switch
- Helping Hand
Not a single doubles team on the leaderboard has chansey on it. How can this be allowed? Well, not anymore. Chansey conquers
all most. The blob walls nearly every attack not named close combat, especially with a bold nature and HP investment, which differs from chanseys in singles play. One might think chansey is passive, but this is no ordinary chansey. The most selected moves here are
ally switch and
helping hand, which are incredibly useful for achieving OHKOs with a teammate or allowing chansey to take on attacks aimed at allies, such as a frozen beam aimed at mence, an electric bolt aimed at fini, or even a blast of focus aimed at kartana. I tried using heal pulse over ally switch at some point, but chansey is too slow to use it effectively. I have seismic toss on this set in case of taunt or chansey needing to 1v1 or even 2v1 something, which hasn’t come up yet. Knock off is very rare in the tree (I’ve only seen it on lickilicky), which is great for chansey holding on to its eviolite. Its speed tier is more useful than snorlax because it can still take on trick room teams while being able to outspeed even more mons during tailwind, hitting 142 speed, which outspeeds some decently fast mons like nidoking and toxicroak. Here are some examples of chansey’s bulk-
252 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey on a critical hit: 259-306 (72.5 - 85.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Life Orb Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 296-351 (82.9 - 98.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 262-309 (73.3 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Pinsir-Mega Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey on a critical hit: 302-356 (84.5 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 122-144 (34.1 - 40.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Alakazam-Mega Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 112-132 (31.3 - 36.9%) -- 73.5% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 158-186 (44.2 - 52.1%) -- 14.1% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Thundurus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 128-152 (35.8 - 42.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Battle Videos-
Battle 130- GGHG-WWWW-WWXE-GY9N (Magnezone, Garchomp, Gallade, Altaria)
Magnezone is a massive threat because of brightpowder, thunder wave, and it possibly targeting mence or kartana. It crits fini here but kartana doesn’t flinch from chomper, making the game far easier. I was using snorlax over chansey here because the game was from a past streak.
Battle 357- Q93G-WWWW-WWXE-GY9Q (Dragonite, Crobat, Honchkrow, Togekiss)
Crobat can hypnosis or taunt- both are bad. It can also avoid being OHKOd by double-edge, and it doesn’t need its razor claw to crit cross-poison somebody. Fortunately, ally switch chansey allows mence to escape possible hypnosis
Battle 382- 2LFG-WWWW-WWXE-GY9T (Thundurus, Raikou, Regice, Cobalion)
I was sure I was going to lose this one! Thundurus can focus blast kartana or thunderbolt mence. Raikou can also attack either one. Ally switch chansey fails me on turn two, but then saves the game on later turns, allowing mence to win. It even got frozen but natural cure, which seems useless on a misty terrain team, kicks in. Have I mentioned electric types are a threat?
Threats :O
Most threats are the same as in lolnub’s writeup, and the team plays similarly. Electric types are still very difficult to deal with. Ally switch and tailwind help with them, but ally switch isn’t completely reliable- rarely, chansey will be targeted with a thunderbolt or even doubled up on during an ally switch and another teammate will have to eat it. You had better hit flamethrower + sacred sword on magnezone or else something is catching some yellow magic. I briefly tried using dragon claw on mence over protect to help with electric types, but it didn’t help much, and protect was more useful. The speed trainers were very annoying, especially noivern, weavile, crobat, and electrode, as they either threaten taunt, fake out, or OHKOs. Get tailwind up somehow or face the consequences. Flinches were annoying but rare- watch out for scarfchomp’s fire fang and mega sceptile’s rock slide, mostly. I will never forgive that damn moltres-1 for going on a flinch-crit rampage. Trick room could be threatening, but nearly all setters can be 2 shot by mence and kartana, and fini and chansey deal with it rather well. Other than that, the team is pretty good and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a hyper-offensive team with great type synergy and a backup pink blob (chansey offense, anyone?)
HOWEVER...
I have made some changes to the team. While looking for backup ground-types to deal with electrics, I noticed
excadrill, which has fantastic type synergy with papa mence and fini, resisting poison, electric, rock, dragon and fairy. Mence is immune to Its earthquakes, which destroy electric types. Its iron heads destroy fairies, and mold breaker can target the rotoms in addition to being a more useful ability than beast boost. Rock slide terrifies me due to its accuracy, but it is the best coverage option and I don’t think I’ll click it often. Although it is weak to water and can’t defeat water types with ice beam aimed at mence, fini and chansey deal with that very well. Chansey’s bulk will also allow it to take eqs from my own excadrill if needed. Therefore, I have decided to replace kartana with excadrill. I have also made some other changes, such as changing mence’s nature to hasty, which I think is a more useful nature as its physical bulk is already so high. I replaced
flamethrower with
tailwind, as driller’s earthquake allows me to take on steels with more ease, and tailwind can allow excadrill and fini to make up for their lackluster speeds. I added more special attack on fini to deal better with articuno-2 (this thing once went for sheer cold turn one on mence instead of ice beam as I swapped to fini- seriously??)
Here is version three of the team-
Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 Atk / 44 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Hyper Voice
- Double-Edge
- Protect
- Tailwind
More attack was added to guarantee the OHKO on flygon, politoed, and offensive latios with double-edge, as well as the OHKO on jolteon and regice-1 with helping hand boosted double-edge.
Excadrill @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Protect
- Rock Slide
Earthquake KOs nearly every electric type and most fire types, despite the spread damage penalty. Iron head shreds fairies and flinches are nice. Rock slide is for thundy and zapper, mostly.
252+ Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Raikou: 182-216 (110.3 - 130.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Excadrill Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Togekiss: 162-192 (101.2 - 120%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Excadrill Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Vanilluxe: 176-210 (98.8 - 117.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Whimsicott: 176-210 (105.3 - 125.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rotom-Wash: 138-164 (87.8 - 104.4%) -- 25% chance to OHKO (guaranteed after a hyper voice)
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 82-98 (49.6 - 59.3%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO (pray for no miss)
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Helping Hand Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Sceptile-Mega: 145-172 (100 - 118.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mold Breaker Excadrill Helping Hand Rock Slide vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 144-170 (93.5 - 110.3%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 220 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 4 SpD / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Trick
68+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Helping Hand Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Articuno: 93-111 (47.2 - 56.3%) -- 80.1% chance to 2HKO
124+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Helping Hand Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Articuno: 99-117 (50.2 - 59.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
124+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp-Mega: 204-240 (94.8 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
124+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Scald vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Steelix-Mega: 170-204 (93.4 - 112%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Ally Switch
- Soft-Boiled
- Helping Hand
(Unchanged)
Thank you for reading! I would love some feedback from the community on possible improvements. I think the team (with excadrill) has potential for at least a thousand wins, which is my goal. Big shoutout to lolnub for inspiration for the team.
