Updated the Maison Speed Tiers List to reflect the Battle Maison Pokemon Listing which was ripped by the game by Team Rocket Elite and Kaphotics. Thus the values in this updated speed tier list should all be correct - please tell me if you spot an error! I also updated the formulae I used to calculate the speed tiers because I found I floored the speed value in the wrong places - some Pokemon previously had incorrect speed values, such as Avalugg 4 being listed as 24 speed when it is actually 21.
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Battle Maison Discussion & Records
- Thread starter NoCheese
- Start date
Hmmm just looking at the speed tiers, do you think that IVs should be taken into account? It's just that some of the movesets technically have incorrect Speeds listed because the list assumes 31 IVs for everything, e.g. Aerodactyl 1 will never have 300 Speed because it's only ever used by set 1 trainers, who always use 19 IVs.
Probably the easiest way to fix that would be to remove all sets that stop appearing after battle 40, especially since there isn't really any need for players to adjust their Speed EVs to outrun sets that aren't relevant beyond that point.
Probably the easiest way to fix that would be to remove all sets that stop appearing after battle 40, especially since there isn't really any need for players to adjust their Speed EVs to outrun sets that aren't relevant beyond that point.
I've been trying out Durant a bit without success, with a 300-win streak just being lost. The Whimsicott/Durant combination has only gotten stronger in the Maison - Whimsicott got a newly legal move in Switcheroo, letting it remove Choice Scarf with priority if you want to, and steal Leftovers from Quagsire, Scrafty, and others and stall their PP for a long time with resistances to all of their attacks and Leftovers recovery (which is important for Drapion, as noted later). Durant is the same as before, but with Whimsicott having priority Choice Scarf removal in Switcheroo, you can now run a lot less Speed EVs if you want to as outspeeding Scarfers is no longer needed, and invest more in SDef instead.
The Entrainment combo may have improved, but the biggest hit is the loss of Dragonite, the ultimate one-move sweeper. There is no Pokémon that can reliably sweep the whole Maison for 1000 battles in a row without breaking a sweat; I tried and failed with the following:
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 SDef
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Substitute
At first glance it seems like it could replace Dragonite, but its downfall comes from its numerous weaknesses, most importantly to the Electric type. It invites Pokémon with Static (including the already very dangerous Zapdos2 with Brightpowder) to come in on it after setting up, paralyze it with Static, and then for the last Pokémon to kill it off with only 1-2 paralysis procs needed. In my 120 battles with Mega Gyarados, it got paralyzed by Static twice, with both being close calls.
Mega Gyarados could probably do several hundred battles, but a big weakness to Static, greater suspectibility to BrightPowder hax in general, and several Pokémon that threaten KOs while not being OHKOed by it, most notably Tangrowth and Leafeon with Quick Claw and Lax Incense, respectively. As if risking a loss to one BP/QC proc from one of the two wasn't bad enough, Tangrowth and Leafeon are both Set A Pokémon and ran by Pokémon Rangers; when you get the inevitable battle where the AI has them both as back-ups, Mega Gyarados is not going to have a good time.
Edit: Forgot to mention the possibility of delayed Mega-Evolution - you don't need to Mega Evolve on the Truant Pokémon, and if you are not in Mega form Tangrowth/Leafeon won't KO you right out (they will still break your sub and deal a lot of damage with just a bit of luck, though). It won't save you from 3rd Pokémon Leafeon/Tangrowth, either, if you needed to Mega Evolve on the 2nd Pokémon (which you often do need to, for either the extra power to punch through resists or Mold Breaker) or if your Sub got broken on the 2nd Pokémon.
Drapion @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SDef
- Crunch
- Acupressure
- Protect
- Substitute
After Mega Gyarados failed to deliver, I went looking for a sweeper that just didn't care if it got paralyzed and had to tank a few hits. Drapion, the king of not giving a damn when fully setup was the Pokémon of choice. Unfortunately, its streak was ended by Unaware Quagsire, which it will always lose to unless Durant is alive and can switch in to Entrainment it, or Whimsicott is alive and healthy and can switch in to help stall its PP.
Perhaps surprisingly, CurseRest users (including Unaware Quagsire; that one is only a threat as 2nd/3rd) are set-up fodder for Drapion, as with assistance from Taunt Whimsicott's great resistances and Durant's physical bulk as a back-up stall HP pool, you can skip using Entrainment altogether and stall out the PP of their attacks and let them Struggle to death afterwards. With the Steel nerf, Cobalion does not threaten Drapion anymore - if you run max Attack it's 2HKOed, while with max Defense you will always survive a +1 and +2 Sacred Sword with a Protect in between while 3HKOing it with Crunch. I have not seen it use Metal Burst instead of Sacred Sword when it has Justified boosts, but if it used Metal Burst on its last move and hit through Evasion and Crunch was a crit, it could KO Drapion with it. A non-crit Crunch won't deal enough damage for Metal Burst to KO. Scrafty is the one Pokémon that Drapion cannot kill, but it also can't kill Drapion and loses the PP war if Drapion's PP is maxed.
The lengthy set-up is much less of a weakness than expected. You'd think Drapion would just lose whenever Explosion or HJK shows up, but in practice that hasn't happened:
Ultimately, I was more impressed with Drapion than I was with Mega Gyarados - Drapion loses if it meets the 33% chance Unaware Quagsire, whereas Mega Gyarados loses if Leafeon or Tangrowth proc their hax items, or if Static nails it in a bad matchup. Neither have the ability to take on the whole Maison like Dragonite did. Additionally, I theorymon'd a third possibility, which also isn't going to make it:
Tyrantrum @ Leftovers / BlackGlasses / Lum Berry
Nature: Impish
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 SDef
- Crunch
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Substitute
An alternative Dragon Dancer to Mega Gyarados, this guy is impervious to Static thanks to its Electric resistance resulting in no 2nd Pokémon with Static ever coming in on it at a bad time. Strong Jaw effectively gives it STAB on Crunch for the Dark-type move Mega Gyarados always wanted; howewer, it lacks Mold Breaker and most importantly can't muscle through Dark resists easily like Drapion can. Scrafty4 with Drain Punch completely counters it. Overall, it is probably slightly worse than either Drapion or Mega Gyarados as its counter is more common than Unaware Quagsire and needs no hax to get the job done unlike Leafeon and Tangrowth for Mega Gyarados.
The future looks pretty bleak for Durant even with Whimsicott getting stronger with the lack of an universal one-move sweeper to destroy the Maison with. I'd be very interested if VaporeonIce's theoretical Durant team could change things, but I have difficulty imagining a Durant set-up that isn't Whimsicott+Durant doing any better.
The Entrainment combo may have improved, but the biggest hit is the loss of Dragonite, the ultimate one-move sweeper. There is no Pokémon that can reliably sweep the whole Maison for 1000 battles in a row without breaking a sweat; I tried and failed with the following:
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 SDef
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Substitute
At first glance it seems like it could replace Dragonite, but its downfall comes from its numerous weaknesses, most importantly to the Electric type. It invites Pokémon with Static (including the already very dangerous Zapdos2 with Brightpowder) to come in on it after setting up, paralyze it with Static, and then for the last Pokémon to kill it off with only 1-2 paralysis procs needed. In my 120 battles with Mega Gyarados, it got paralyzed by Static twice, with both being close calls.
Mega Gyarados could probably do several hundred battles, but a big weakness to Static, greater suspectibility to BrightPowder hax in general, and several Pokémon that threaten KOs while not being OHKOed by it, most notably Tangrowth and Leafeon with Quick Claw and Lax Incense, respectively. As if risking a loss to one BP/QC proc from one of the two wasn't bad enough, Tangrowth and Leafeon are both Set A Pokémon and ran by Pokémon Rangers; when you get the inevitable battle where the AI has them both as back-ups, Mega Gyarados is not going to have a good time.
Edit: Forgot to mention the possibility of delayed Mega-Evolution - you don't need to Mega Evolve on the Truant Pokémon, and if you are not in Mega form Tangrowth/Leafeon won't KO you right out (they will still break your sub and deal a lot of damage with just a bit of luck, though). It won't save you from 3rd Pokémon Leafeon/Tangrowth, either, if you needed to Mega Evolve on the 2nd Pokémon (which you often do need to, for either the extra power to punch through resists or Mold Breaker) or if your Sub got broken on the 2nd Pokémon.
Drapion @ Leftovers
Nature: Impish
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SDef
- Crunch
- Acupressure
- Protect
- Substitute
After Mega Gyarados failed to deliver, I went looking for a sweeper that just didn't care if it got paralyzed and had to tank a few hits. Drapion, the king of not giving a damn when fully setup was the Pokémon of choice. Unfortunately, its streak was ended by Unaware Quagsire, which it will always lose to unless Durant is alive and can switch in to Entrainment it, or Whimsicott is alive and healthy and can switch in to help stall its PP.
Perhaps surprisingly, CurseRest users (including Unaware Quagsire; that one is only a threat as 2nd/3rd) are set-up fodder for Drapion, as with assistance from Taunt Whimsicott's great resistances and Durant's physical bulk as a back-up stall HP pool, you can skip using Entrainment altogether and stall out the PP of their attacks and let them Struggle to death afterwards. With the Steel nerf, Cobalion does not threaten Drapion anymore - if you run max Attack it's 2HKOed, while with max Defense you will always survive a +1 and +2 Sacred Sword with a Protect in between while 3HKOing it with Crunch. I have not seen it use Metal Burst instead of Sacred Sword when it has Justified boosts, but if it used Metal Burst on its last move and hit through Evasion and Crunch was a crit, it could KO Drapion with it. A non-crit Crunch won't deal enough damage for Metal Burst to KO. Scrafty is the one Pokémon that Drapion cannot kill, but it also can't kill Drapion and loses the PP war if Drapion's PP is maxed.
The lengthy set-up is much less of a weakness than expected. You'd think Drapion would just lose whenever Explosion or HJK shows up, but in practice that hasn't happened:
- Flame Orb and Toxic Orb can be removed with Switcheroo if the user doesn't Protect on turn 1, and if it does you can Encore their Protect and let them die to their dumb item (switch to Durant and back after an Encore to conserve PP)
- For HJK, there are two users in the Maison: Medicham4 and Mienshao4. The strategy for them is to Memento on them after Taunting them or Encoring Fake Out, taking their Life Orb if possible, and then skipping Protect altogether, as max Defense Drapion just doesn't care about -2 HJK from Pokémon with Truant.
- Explosion Golem4 uses the higher-damaging EQ instead of Explosion, giving Drapion 10 turns.
- Explosion Muk4 always uses Gunk Shot on Whimsicott, allowing Durant to come in for free. As Durant doesn't care about its Explosion, it can be Entrained to bring in Drapion for free, after which it'll most likely blow up shortly after. Howewer, even if it blows you've got a full-health Whimsicott and a healthy Durant to go for another Entrainment on the second Pokémon.
- Explosion Claydol4: same as Golem4
- Explosion Lickilicky - the most dangerous Explosion user, as nothing can switch in on Body Slam. You have to sac Whimsicott while taking its Lax Incense, Entrain it, and hope that it either explodes late (max Def Drapion isn't a very attractive Explosion target with SE Earthquake as an option) or that Durant can switch in on and Entrain the second Pokémon, or that the second Pokémon loses to Drapion outright.
- Explosion Exeggutor - it will always use Trick Room. Encore the Trick Room, Entrain it for free, and Protect the Explosion. You end up with a fully healthy team against the second Pokémon.
- Explosion Skuntank - it will always Poison Jab Whimsicott. Howewer, you don't want to bring in Durant on it as it has Fire Blast and you want Durant kept alive; instead, switch in Drapion on the Poison Jab, and Sub/Protect the instant Explosion as Drapion resists both of its attacks. Your team is in full health for the second Pokémon.
- Explosion Forretress - it will set up hazards on Turn 1. Taunt it to prompt an instant weak Explosion as it is its only attacking move while switching in either Durant or Drapion to tank it easily. Fully healthy team, etc
- Explosion Carbink - ???
Ultimately, I was more impressed with Drapion than I was with Mega Gyarados - Drapion loses if it meets the 33% chance Unaware Quagsire, whereas Mega Gyarados loses if Leafeon or Tangrowth proc their hax items, or if Static nails it in a bad matchup. Neither have the ability to take on the whole Maison like Dragonite did. Additionally, I theorymon'd a third possibility, which also isn't going to make it:
Tyrantrum @ Leftovers / BlackGlasses / Lum Berry
Nature: Impish
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 SDef
- Crunch
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Substitute
An alternative Dragon Dancer to Mega Gyarados, this guy is impervious to Static thanks to its Electric resistance resulting in no 2nd Pokémon with Static ever coming in on it at a bad time. Strong Jaw effectively gives it STAB on Crunch for the Dark-type move Mega Gyarados always wanted; howewer, it lacks Mold Breaker and most importantly can't muscle through Dark resists easily like Drapion can. Scrafty4 with Drain Punch completely counters it. Overall, it is probably slightly worse than either Drapion or Mega Gyarados as its counter is more common than Unaware Quagsire and needs no hax to get the job done unlike Leafeon and Tangrowth for Mega Gyarados.
The future looks pretty bleak for Durant even with Whimsicott getting stronger with the lack of an universal one-move sweeper to destroy the Maison with. I'd be very interested if VaporeonIce's theoretical Durant team could change things, but I have difficulty imagining a Durant set-up that isn't Whimsicott+Durant doing any better.
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First post on the site here after a month or so of lurking. I got Y 3 months ago and got into competitive battling. I'm mostly interested in VGC, so when I saw that the Super Doubles records hadn't filled up yet, I decided to give it a try.
However, to make things interesting I wanted to set some restrictions for myself; no Mega-pokemon, and no Aron.
So I started making what is actually my first Trick Room team.
My run ended after 75 wins, which is pretty bad, but it should be enough to get on the board. My loss was purely due to being lazy, so I could probably get a better result.
Proof: I'll edit this when I have wifi to upload the battle video (no wifi in uni rent rooms)
Team:
Mr. Mime @ Mental Herb
Ability: Filter
EVs: 252 Def, 252 HP, 4 SpA => This
Nature: Relaxed
- Dazzling Gleam
- Wide Guard
- Encore
- Trick Room
(Encore was Quick Guard for the first 30 battles or so, but it proved to be close to useless.)
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP, 204 Atk, 52 SpD
Nature: Brave
- Power Whip
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
(If anyone's wondering, this is my Ferrothorn for VGC, EV'd to ko Rotom-W and to survive some specific attacks. Rocky Helmet was probably a poor item choice for the maison, although it's a fantastic counter to Mega-Kang in VGC)
Clawtizer @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 SpD, 4 HP
Nature: Quiet
- Dark Pulse
- Water Pulse
- Dragon Pulse
- Aura Sphere
(For the first 20ish battles, Dark Pulse was Heal Pulse and the item was Life Orb. I used Heal Pulse too little to justify it, but I'm still not quite sure if I should've swapped the items.)
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 HP, 4 Def
Nature: Quiet
- Fire Blast
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
(Since I don't any Pokemon games but Y and because I don't have wifi all that often, I couldn't get a Heat Wave Chandelure. However, during my run I never really needed Heat Wave over Fire Blast)
Notes
- My leads were Mr. Mime and Ferrothorn. Mr. Mime sets up Trick Room while Ferrothorn often already takes a KO with Gyro Ball.
- The other option for Ferrothorn is to switch out, since the AI will always attack Ferrothorn if there's a fire move available. The switchout to Chandelure activates Flash Fire and sets Chandelure up to sweep under Trick Room.
- Mr. Mimes support role is immense. It can lock in an opponent in a firemove after a switch to Chandelure, to then switch out into Clawitzer. Wide Guard has proven invaluable as well, shielding Ferrothorn from Heat Waves if there are still KOs it can take, or protecting mainly Chandelure from EQs or Rock Slides.
- The Focus Sash on Chandelure is extremely useful to allow it to set up Trick Room again and get another attack off.
- Clawitzer is so good in Legendary battles. Most of the legendaries are special, so it walls those pretty well, and it has excellent coverage.
The first battle I was really in trouble was battle no. 74, vs an opposing Trick Room team. It led with Espeon and Slowbro. I used Trick Room with Mime and Power Whip with Ferrothorn, but Espeon used Shadow Ball, getting the SpD-drop (didn't really matter, just added to the hax), Slowbro used Blizzard, freezing my Mr. Mime, and Ferrothorn missed its Power Whip. However, after I switched out to Clawitzer, it managed to rip through most of the opposing team with Dark Pulse.
Then for my losing match: My opponent, Roller Skater Raoul, led with Staraptor and Togekiss. I briefly looked over the 4 sets for each pokemon, but in a lazy way (in my defense, it was pretty late and I had been playing for a whie). I missed two key things: Staraptor3 had Choice Band and Giga Impact, one of the few things that can OHKO Mr. Mime, and Togekiss4 had Heat Wave. So I went for a Trick Room against 2 speedy pokemon, and Gyro Ball to KO Togekiss, and my leads were promptly KOd by the aforementioned attacks.
In an attempt to salvage the situation, I went for Trick Room with Chandelure and Water Pulse on Staraptor with Clawitzer, while it recharged. I knew that I could KO the Staraptor with another Water Pulse the following turn, under Trick Room. However, Togekiss used Air Slash and made Chandelure flinch. Then Clawitzer got KOd by another Giga Impact and Chandelure eventually fainted to Air Slash.
However, to make things interesting I wanted to set some restrictions for myself; no Mega-pokemon, and no Aron.
So I started making what is actually my first Trick Room team.
My run ended after 75 wins, which is pretty bad, but it should be enough to get on the board. My loss was purely due to being lazy, so I could probably get a better result.
Proof: I'll edit this when I have wifi to upload the battle video (no wifi in uni rent rooms)
Team:
Mr. Mime @ Mental Herb
Ability: Filter
EVs: 252 Def, 252 HP, 4 SpA => This
Nature: Relaxed
- Dazzling Gleam
- Wide Guard
- Encore
- Trick Room
(Encore was Quick Guard for the first 30 battles or so, but it proved to be close to useless.)
Ferrothorn @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP, 204 Atk, 52 SpD
Nature: Brave
- Power Whip
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Gyro Ball
(If anyone's wondering, this is my Ferrothorn for VGC, EV'd to ko Rotom-W and to survive some specific attacks. Rocky Helmet was probably a poor item choice for the maison, although it's a fantastic counter to Mega-Kang in VGC)
Clawtizer @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 SpD, 4 HP
Nature: Quiet
- Dark Pulse
- Water Pulse
- Dragon Pulse
- Aura Sphere
(For the first 20ish battles, Dark Pulse was Heal Pulse and the item was Life Orb. I used Heal Pulse too little to justify it, but I'm still not quite sure if I should've swapped the items.)
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 HP, 4 Def
Nature: Quiet
- Fire Blast
- Trick Room
- Shadow Ball
- Protect
(Since I don't any Pokemon games but Y and because I don't have wifi all that often, I couldn't get a Heat Wave Chandelure. However, during my run I never really needed Heat Wave over Fire Blast)
Notes
- My leads were Mr. Mime and Ferrothorn. Mr. Mime sets up Trick Room while Ferrothorn often already takes a KO with Gyro Ball.
- The other option for Ferrothorn is to switch out, since the AI will always attack Ferrothorn if there's a fire move available. The switchout to Chandelure activates Flash Fire and sets Chandelure up to sweep under Trick Room.
- Mr. Mimes support role is immense. It can lock in an opponent in a firemove after a switch to Chandelure, to then switch out into Clawitzer. Wide Guard has proven invaluable as well, shielding Ferrothorn from Heat Waves if there are still KOs it can take, or protecting mainly Chandelure from EQs or Rock Slides.
- The Focus Sash on Chandelure is extremely useful to allow it to set up Trick Room again and get another attack off.
- Clawitzer is so good in Legendary battles. Most of the legendaries are special, so it walls those pretty well, and it has excellent coverage.
The first battle I was really in trouble was battle no. 74, vs an opposing Trick Room team. It led with Espeon and Slowbro. I used Trick Room with Mime and Power Whip with Ferrothorn, but Espeon used Shadow Ball, getting the SpD-drop (didn't really matter, just added to the hax), Slowbro used Blizzard, freezing my Mr. Mime, and Ferrothorn missed its Power Whip. However, after I switched out to Clawitzer, it managed to rip through most of the opposing team with Dark Pulse.
Then for my losing match: My opponent, Roller Skater Raoul, led with Staraptor and Togekiss. I briefly looked over the 4 sets for each pokemon, but in a lazy way (in my defense, it was pretty late and I had been playing for a whie). I missed two key things: Staraptor3 had Choice Band and Giga Impact, one of the few things that can OHKO Mr. Mime, and Togekiss4 had Heat Wave. So I went for a Trick Room against 2 speedy pokemon, and Gyro Ball to KO Togekiss, and my leads were promptly KOd by the aforementioned attacks.
In an attempt to salvage the situation, I went for Trick Room with Chandelure and Water Pulse on Staraptor with Clawitzer, while it recharged. I knew that I could KO the Staraptor with another Water Pulse the following turn, under Trick Room. However, Togekiss used Air Slash and made Chandelure flinch. Then Clawitzer got KOd by another Giga Impact and Chandelure eventually fainted to Air Slash.
You've just been looking at the wrong sweepers, my friend! You go around looking for Pokemon with "good attacking stats" or "unresisted one-move coverage." I have no need for such luxuries!
Behold, my all-powerful Entrainment Durant team, with a combined Base Stat Total of 1114 (an average of 371.3, though one of them essentially has a BST of 0):
Sableye (level 1) @ Focus Sash
Nature: Naughty (if you're a fan of Naughty By Nature; otherwise, it doesn't matter)
Ability: Prankster
EVs: Are for losers
- Taunt
- Trick
- Embargo
- Toxic
Durant @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Traunt
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spd
- Entrainment
- X-Scissor
- Shadow Claw
- Doesn't matter
Smeargle @ Leftovers
Nature: Modest
Ability: Moody
EVs: 4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Spd
- Protect
- Substitute
- Stored Power
- Miracle Eye
Level 1 Sableye and offensive Smeargle, woooo!
Sableye is supposed to die. Using its level 1 magnetism, the AI will be very drawn to attacking it and not very drawn to setting up Prankster Double Teams (here's looking at you, Tornadus) or using Protect to activate their Flame Orbs, allowing you to use Embargo. Taunt is hella obvious; you don't want Protect ruining your party. Trick takes away Choice items, giving the AI more turns to sit there watching themselves die. Embargo blocks the use of Bright Powder, Lax Incense, and Quick Claw. Toxic allows Sableye to defeat such dangerous threats as Spiritomb 4 (can only attack with Sucker Punch) and Shiftry 4 (can only hit Sableye with Sucker Punch), who will stay in and hilariously faint against a Level 1 Sableye.
So the question is "Why Sableye?" Other than the obvious fact that Sableye is awesome, its Ghost typing is a huge advantage, blocking the opponent from using Explosion or High Jump Kick. The two HJK users after battle #40, Medicham and Mienshao, CANNOT HIT SABLEYE, thanks to its awesome Dark/Ghost typing giving it an immunity to Normal, Psychic, and Fighting. Since nothing will use Explosion on Sableye or Durant, Smeargle gets to come in safely. Sableye fainting is typically good (less chance for Roar to mess you up; don't have to use up as many turns of Embargo/Taunt to bring in Durant), but in some circumstances, you want to keep it alive. More on that later.
Durant wants to be able to OHKO Magic Bounce Espeon (you just assume all Espeon are Magic Bounce and switch in Durant immediately).
Offensive Smeargle is hilarious. It forgoes a set-up move, opting instead to sit there being a pain in the ass while Moody gradually boosts its stats. After an extremely long time, Stored Power will have an absurd base power (and some SpAtk boosts behind it), allowing it to slaughter anything. The SpAtk EVs are obviously essential, because Smeargle has base 20 Special Attack. But when fully invested and with a Modest nature, even Smeargle can become a nuclear bomb with Stored Power. The base power gets high enough that it doesn't care about Quagsire, and even Cresselia can be OHKO'd with enough boosts. Miracle Eye lets Stored Power hit anything, so even Dark-types aren't safe. But you need to use a LOT of PP to get there, and 16 Protects isn't nearly enough. That's where Miracle Eye's second function comes in. It doesn't matter if the opponent breaks Smeargle's Sub, since you can just set up another one. So a typical move cycle is Protect (opponent attacks), Substitute (opponent loafs), Miracle Eye (opponent breaks Sub), Miracle Eye (opponent loafs); rinse and repeat. Eventually the Def/SpDef/Evasion boosts will get high enough that they won't be breaking your Sub very often, so you can just sit there spamming Miracle Eye, restoring the Sub when necessary. Miracle Eye has 40 PP, giving it an insane 64 PP when maxed out.
Second and third Pokemon Dark-types are annoying, because you have to take a turn to use Miracle Eye in order to hit them. But it's rare that they actually do anything to you thanks to the Def/SpDef/Evasion boosts, so in my experience, it didn't really matter.
The AI can do stuff to get out of the lock (U-Turn, Explosion, Volt Switch), but they'll often wait a few turns to do so (especially because Smeargle is super frail and Explosion isn't necessary to take it out most of the time). By then, the Moody ball is already rolling, and you can often buy enough time with just Sub and Protect to get the boosts you need to win even without fully boosting.
Moody boosts everything, so Smeargle hardly even cares if the second or third Pokemon have traditionally threatening items or abilities. Bright Powder/Lax Incense? Sorry, I have boosted accuracy. Focus Sash/Sturdy? They only have a 1 in 3 chance to hit you with max evasion; knock them down to the Sash on turn 1 and just keep setting up Subs until they miss/fail to break it, then finish them off. Same thing with Quick Claw; they need both luck and power to actually hit you and break the Sub.
This team's biggest weakness is Taunt. Durant won't get hit by it, but Smeargle can, meaning you need to Protect every time a Taunt user can attack. This gives you 32 turns of set-up, which sounds like a lot, but you have no control over Moody. With only 32 turns, you can wind up with some stat drops in the wrong places (typically Speed and Special Attack). The same is true of users of sound-based moves, but you can usually stall out the PP on those.
I used my 543 team for the first 40 battles (there are more Taunt users in battles 1-40), then used this team after that. I lost at battle 102 to a surprisingly terrible combination of factors. The AI led with Aggron 4, a terrible Pokemon that happens to use Taunt. I sacrifice Sableye (as usual), Entrainment, bring in Smeargle, "set up" for a little under 30 turns (leaving a few Sub/Protect PP left), but wound up with several speed drops (I think I was -3 or something). I knew I had max SpAtk, so I decided to kill the Aggron (which I did, in one hit). The AI sends in Politoed, who outspeeds and hits with Focus Blast, despite me being at like +5 evasion. The last Pokemon is Wailord, who I know has Fissure. I use Protect to try to boost my speed (since Wailord is slow), but my speed ends up dropping again instead. I go in for the kill with Stored Power, but it outspeeds and KOs Smeargle with Fissure. Durant's got nothin' on Wailord.
This was a particularly unlikely combination of factors (speed drops due to not having enough turns to set up because of Taunt, a miracle Focus Blast hit on the Sub followed by a Fissure hit), but against many Taunt users, the team could be played to win the battle. The trick is to start attacking with Smeargle before your PP have been worn down too much. Stored Power will typically be strong enough as is, and after using 8 Protect PP, you'll usually have boosts in some desired stats. By taking out the Taunt user, the AI has to bring in their next Pokemon. Against a Smeargle with a total of 16 boosts, most Pokemon will have real problems doing anything, even without Truant. That gives you time to set up and take the AI out. Against some Taunt users that do pitiful damage to Durant (e.g. Crobat, Aggron), you can just switch in Durant right off the bat, knowing they'll go for an attacking move. Then you use Entrainment, set up using half of the Protect PP, and if the opponent brings something out that puts you in a bad spot, just go back to Sableye and use Entrainment on the new threat.
The thing about this team is that, due to the nature of Smeargle, it doesn't always NEED Entrainment. There's only one case I can think of where I wouldn't use it; against Machamp 4 and Throh 4 (both have Protect/Flame Orb), Sableye can use Trick on turn 1, but then they OHKO (b/c no Sash) and can Protect against Durant. If you Taunt on turn 1, the Orb activates, burning them to death over time. If you Embargo on turn 1, you can Taunt on turn 2 and the Orb will still activate once Embargo wears off. So you're best just using Trick and going straight to Smeargle. The AI has a tendency to use Protect when it has it, so you'll often be able to get away with setting up until you get enough evasion that they miss.
I don't actually know if this team "works"; I believe its loss was avoidable by taking proper precautions against Taunt (and I think the particular combination of opponents that made Smeargle beatable after set up, along with the hits on low accuracy moves, were rare), but it's possible that Moody gives bad results more often than more "standard" teams do. But it will be a very long time before I test this again (even though I think it can go much further), because it is the slowest team in the universe. Seriously, it makes Acupressure Drapion look downright speedy. Most times, you get a total of +1 per turn (+2 in one stat, -1 in another). As you accumulate more boosts, you can get +0 total (because you boost a +5 stat, only giving it a +1 while taking a -1 from another stat). An average battle took like ten minutes. Maybe if I could actually keep track of all the boosts, I would know when I'm safe to sweep and start earlier, but doing so would take a ton of mental energy and would probably only take longer in the long run. I would love to see what this team can do with the knowledge I gained from my loss, but honestly, it will be a while before I consider trying it.
If you're just trying to get the Starf Berry or whatever, use something else; even other Entrainment teams are WAY faster than this. But if you want to start your slow descent into madness, watching Pokemon with horrendous base stats totally annihilate teams of the most dangerous and powerful Pokemon found in the Maison, feel free to give them a try. If nothing else, I like that I have a level 1 Sableye and an offensive Smeargle who have the "Expert Battler Ribbon" for beating the Chatelaine. Maybe they can't do much better than this, or maybe they're actually the most powerful team the Super Singles line has ever seen. The world may never know.
First, I absolutely love the creativity on that team, VaporeonIce, though yeah, I don't know who would have the willpower and patience to try to play for the top of the leaderboard with that. The required bookkeeping for tracking Moody boosts makes me shudder, and waiting zillions of turns while it sets up...oof.
As for TruAnt teams more generally, it might be reasonable to try out Durant with two fairly strong independent sweepers, rather than trying to build a hyper-consistant set up of one single Pokemon.
I had a 546 streak with Durant - Cloyster - Garchomp last generation. Though lacking a little of the amazing consistency of yadazhai's Whimsicott - Durant - Dragonite, it had its charms. First, it played much faster than typical Durant teams. The quick set up with Shell Smash was a real time-saver over the course of a long streak, and it also helped me set up some even in the face of self-destructive foes. Secondly, I had two sweepers who covered each other reasonably well who could normally set up and sweep even when Entrainment was disrupted. Even if my plan A failed, I had a viable plan B, with Pokemon that matched up well against many of the big Entrainment-disrupting threats. Switching in Garchomp, for example, tends to put you in a very good position against a lead foe that tries to Volt Switch Durant.
Though I had good success with this, yaazhai proved pretty cleanly that making your Dragonite setup be as reliable as possible was a better strategy in the Subway. However, with the the loss of mono-attacking Dragonite's perfect coverage, and the increase in types of Pokemon, items, and abilities (particularly with the new access to hidden abilities) that you face this generation, it might be time to try out a more balanced Entrainment team. Garchomp, sadly, is weakened because of the Fairy type, but there aren't actually a lot of Faeries in the Maison, and he still plays beautifully with Cloyster. I'm in the middle of another run with Kanga - Suicune - Dragonite, but once that's done I might trot out my Durant and see what it can do. Or I might not, as I've long wanted to be a little silly with Clefable, just for fun, and having finally bread a nice Unaware one, it may claim priority. Of course, I could be really silly and combine the two, as a TruAnt allied Clefable with Protect / Cosmic Power / Stored Power / Moonblast would be kind of hilarious.
EDIT: Actually, thinking more on Clefable, one of the silly non-Entrainment builds I've been considering is Cosmic Power / Rest / Substitute / Moonblast on Bold Clefable, with a held Lum Berry / Chesto Berry / Leftovers. Reflecting on that, the "better" (still probably more silly than good) Entrainment receiver is probably Protect / Cosmic Power / Substitute / Moonblast with Leftovers. Note that even at +6 / +6 Stored Power isn't wildly superior to Moonblast, being less than twice as powerful as STAB Moonblast, and not hitting Dark-types at all. Might as well drop that for the extra life and status/crit protection with Substitute, and take advantage of ridiculously bulky subs, while knowing that even though Moonblast is not amazingly powerful, nothing is immune to it, and nothing can really set up against you. (Yay Unaware!) Again, not what I'd call a serious team, but it will beat a fair number of foes. Sufficiently bulky Resters will require painful stalling out, sadly, but at least there's an extra slot left for a synergistic partner.
As for TruAnt teams more generally, it might be reasonable to try out Durant with two fairly strong independent sweepers, rather than trying to build a hyper-consistant set up of one single Pokemon.
I had a 546 streak with Durant - Cloyster - Garchomp last generation. Though lacking a little of the amazing consistency of yadazhai's Whimsicott - Durant - Dragonite, it had its charms. First, it played much faster than typical Durant teams. The quick set up with Shell Smash was a real time-saver over the course of a long streak, and it also helped me set up some even in the face of self-destructive foes. Secondly, I had two sweepers who covered each other reasonably well who could normally set up and sweep even when Entrainment was disrupted. Even if my plan A failed, I had a viable plan B, with Pokemon that matched up well against many of the big Entrainment-disrupting threats. Switching in Garchomp, for example, tends to put you in a very good position against a lead foe that tries to Volt Switch Durant.
Though I had good success with this, yaazhai proved pretty cleanly that making your Dragonite setup be as reliable as possible was a better strategy in the Subway. However, with the the loss of mono-attacking Dragonite's perfect coverage, and the increase in types of Pokemon, items, and abilities (particularly with the new access to hidden abilities) that you face this generation, it might be time to try out a more balanced Entrainment team. Garchomp, sadly, is weakened because of the Fairy type, but there aren't actually a lot of Faeries in the Maison, and he still plays beautifully with Cloyster. I'm in the middle of another run with Kanga - Suicune - Dragonite, but once that's done I might trot out my Durant and see what it can do. Or I might not, as I've long wanted to be a little silly with Clefable, just for fun, and having finally bread a nice Unaware one, it may claim priority. Of course, I could be really silly and combine the two, as a TruAnt allied Clefable with Protect / Cosmic Power / Stored Power / Moonblast would be kind of hilarious.
EDIT: Actually, thinking more on Clefable, one of the silly non-Entrainment builds I've been considering is Cosmic Power / Rest / Substitute / Moonblast on Bold Clefable, with a held Lum Berry / Chesto Berry / Leftovers. Reflecting on that, the "better" (still probably more silly than good) Entrainment receiver is probably Protect / Cosmic Power / Substitute / Moonblast with Leftovers. Note that even at +6 / +6 Stored Power isn't wildly superior to Moonblast, being less than twice as powerful as STAB Moonblast, and not hitting Dark-types at all. Might as well drop that for the extra life and status/crit protection with Substitute, and take advantage of ridiculously bulky subs, while knowing that even though Moonblast is not amazingly powerful, nothing is immune to it, and nothing can really set up against you. (Yay Unaware!) Again, not what I'd call a serious team, but it will beat a fair number of foes. Sufficiently bulky Resters will require painful stalling out, sadly, but at least there's an extra slot left for a synergistic partner.
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Oh, I never tracked the Moody boosts. I generally just waited until it had been about 30-35 turns of boosting, or until I saw that Smeargle's special attack went up by only one stage (meaning it had been at +5 and was now at +6) and started on the rampage. Once or twice, lowered stats surprised me ("Wait, why did Stored Power miss? Oh, I have reduced accuracy"), but the AI is still completed incapable of doing anything about it; after that many turns, if one stat is at +0 or lower, it's extremely likely that everything else is boosted; the evasion and defensive boosts generally mean that, at that point, the AI can't capitalize on Smeargle missing or weak power. But yeah, I would just do something else while using Protect, Sub, Miracle Eye, Miracle Eye, then just spamming Miracle Eye after I'd used 6 or 7 Protects (at which point the AI was generally missing, using a status move, or failing to break Smeargle's Subs in one hit) and putting up Sub whenever I noticed the Sub was down. It doesn't really require any attention (unless your opponent has Taunt and you have to start attacking quickly), but it still requires a ton of time.
Regarding Clefable, the great thing about stalling out Rest users is that they save most of their non-attacking PP for last, meaning that, once you've stalled out their attacks, you can switch to another sweeper and get to +6 while the opponent sits there spamming Sleep Talk while they're awake. That set seems pretty good to me, but I think you'd be doing a lot of stalling with it, particularly against stuff like Venusaur 4 that resist Moonblast and can recover some health. Also, Psych Up users make you hate yourself (Gothitelle and Cobalion are the big two that come to mind), but they can be stalled out as well as anything else. You'd just have to watch out for Mold Breaker users, since they ignore Unaware and can boost (though only one rare Excadrill set and and Haxorus 4 actually boost, and Clefable can take out Haxorus quickly enough)
Regarding Clefable, the great thing about stalling out Rest users is that they save most of their non-attacking PP for last, meaning that, once you've stalled out their attacks, you can switch to another sweeper and get to +6 while the opponent sits there spamming Sleep Talk while they're awake. That set seems pretty good to me, but I think you'd be doing a lot of stalling with it, particularly against stuff like Venusaur 4 that resist Moonblast and can recover some health. Also, Psych Up users make you hate yourself (Gothitelle and Cobalion are the big two that come to mind), but they can be stalled out as well as anything else. You'd just have to watch out for Mold Breaker users, since they ignore Unaware and can boost (though only one rare Excadrill set and and Haxorus 4 actually boost, and Clefable can take out Haxorus quickly enough)
Another good Entrainment attacker to use if you can guarantee no Toxic Spikes is Moody Glalie with Sub/Protect/Frost Breath/Taunt. Nothing's immune to Ice and you can prevent Psych Up/Roar/Whirlwind (do you have to stall everything out of Roar/Whirlwind PP with Smeargle?). It can be weak and slow, but nothing's setting up in its face thanks to Frost Breath always critting.
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VaporeonIce, that's an impressive team for sure, but I can't help but think that Moody's stat drops, as in the lost battle you describe, would be Smeargle's downfall. When Drapion gets 10 Acupressures, it's usually set, but Smeargle can be in a terrible situation with -2 Speed/-2 Accuracy even after 30+ turns as seen in the loss - and that was only ~60 battles in with it. Smeargle is also killable even with multiple Def/SDef boosts, with no Battle Armor for crit immunity or any semblance of bulk. Once it's on the field after 30 turns of setup against a bad opponent with unlucky boosts, it may get outsped and crit after Speed drops with no chance to re-sub, QC'd and crit, or crit with Aerial Ace, or eat Sacred Swords after two mystery Musketeers come in on it while it has Speed drops, or get hit with a super-effective Storm Throw. The speed drops also make losing to Walrein/Wailord possible as seen in the loss. I'm not sold on Smeargle as an universal sweeper just yet, though Lv1 Sableye as a suicide lead for it is ingenious.
Speaking of Sableye, I theorymon'd and tried a regular Lv50 one as an alternative Durant partner; not dying on cue due to lacking Memento is a problem that Lv1 Sableye helps a lot with, but doesn't fully solve. The enemy may actually miss essential KOs regardless of your lack of bulk with its numerous inaccurate attacks, allowing its Taunt to wear off while it takes an additional turn to kill Sableye. For that reason, I ran Gravity on it - it still didn't solve the problems with Lv50 Sableye or handle Speed Boost Blaziken4 with Flame Charge, but I think using Gravity over Embargo on Lv1 Sableye can be worth it to ensure the enemy will never miss when killing it. It also counters BrightPowder/Lax Incense without risking a possible miss on Trick/Embargo as a bonus.
After realizing Whimsicott/Drapion could now deal with Cursers and a lot of other things without needing Durant in the mix, I theorymon'd up a gimmicky crippling team that dropped Durant altogether and instead utilized an offensive crippler that could also double as a sweeper and take down Quagsire and other threats.
Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 220 Spe, 252 HP, 36 Def
- Taunt
- Charm
- Switcheroo
- Memento
Drapion @ Leftovers
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP, 196 SDef, 56 Def
- Crunch
- Acupressure
- Substitute
- Rest
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Thunder Wave
- Confide
Gyarados is the big gimmick here, with it being able to serve as a poor man's Stoutland with Intimitate, Thunder Wave and Confide, while also beating Cobalion, Quagsire, and some nasty set-up sweepers like Volcarona with DD/Waterfall and Mega Evolution. EVs are lacking on bulk, but max Speed is needed for both crippling and sweeping and max Attack is needed for damage. I'm not sure how viable this is, but it looks fun and fast enough to give it a shot.
Speaking of Sableye, I theorymon'd and tried a regular Lv50 one as an alternative Durant partner; not dying on cue due to lacking Memento is a problem that Lv1 Sableye helps a lot with, but doesn't fully solve. The enemy may actually miss essential KOs regardless of your lack of bulk with its numerous inaccurate attacks, allowing its Taunt to wear off while it takes an additional turn to kill Sableye. For that reason, I ran Gravity on it - it still didn't solve the problems with Lv50 Sableye or handle Speed Boost Blaziken4 with Flame Charge, but I think using Gravity over Embargo on Lv1 Sableye can be worth it to ensure the enemy will never miss when killing it. It also counters BrightPowder/Lax Incense without risking a possible miss on Trick/Embargo as a bonus.
After realizing Whimsicott/Drapion could now deal with Cursers and a lot of other things without needing Durant in the mix, I theorymon'd up a gimmicky crippling team that dropped Durant altogether and instead utilized an offensive crippler that could also double as a sweeper and take down Quagsire and other threats.
Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 220 Spe, 252 HP, 36 Def
- Taunt
- Charm
- Switcheroo
- Memento
Drapion @ Leftovers
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP, 196 SDef, 56 Def
- Crunch
- Acupressure
- Substitute
- Rest
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
- Waterfall
- Dragon Dance
- Thunder Wave
- Confide
Gyarados is the big gimmick here, with it being able to serve as a poor man's Stoutland with Intimitate, Thunder Wave and Confide, while also beating Cobalion, Quagsire, and some nasty set-up sweepers like Volcarona with DD/Waterfall and Mega Evolution. EVs are lacking on bulk, but max Speed is needed for both crippling and sweeping and max Attack is needed for damage. I'm not sure how viable this is, but it looks fun and fast enough to give it a shot.
Does anyone have a good team built around Mega Charizard-X?
I presume most of the Pokemon which stop appearing past 40 are non-legendary set 1 and 2 Pokemon; I'll look into it and fix it up later. Thanks for the response.
I have been trying the Maison of late & just recently hit 50 on Super Rotations with the streak still alive.
The team I am using is a standard set-up offence team with a cleric on the team to keep the team in a good conditions and remove crippling status. Not much else to say here other than the fact that it is proving to be very effective with great prediction. I have had a few close calls particularly on the 44th where a Regigigas took out my Mega Kanga to confusion hax and I only barely scraped through, but I am happy to get my first Maison Trophy at least now, onward to hopefully greater things.
TEAM
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy (Parental Bond)
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Return
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
This is a standard Kangaskhan with maximum Attack and Speed with extra EV's thrown into Special Defence so the Porys get an Attack Boost instead when they have Download. Adamant is used for maximum power. Mega Kangaskhan is unsurprisingly incredible in Maison rotation and she is no exception on this team. I have not really been using Crunch and the main goal is simple: Use Power-Up Punch at an available opportunity then smash everything to the dust. It has carried me through heaps of battles on its own and I hope it will continue to do so.
Aegislash (M) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Stance Change
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 12 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- King's Shield
I got lazy with the EV spread and copied it from a Smogon Analysis while it still had this set on it.
Good old Swords Dance + King's Shield Aegislash. Bad in OU but in Maison Rotation, it is anything but with the right support. I maxxed out Attack on this while giving it a lot of HP since it needs it. I threw EV's into Speed for some reason and put the rest into Special Defence for the Porys and Download. This is a great partner for Kangaskhan since it can take the Fighting-type attacks aimed at Kangaskhan while Kangaskhan can take the Ghost-type attacks aimed at Aegislash. Spooky Plate is used to give Shadow Sneak a bit of a boost although Air Balloon is probably better. Leftovers would be on it if I could but it is not because...
Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Nature: Bold
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpA
IV's: 31 HP / x Atk / 31 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Wish
- Protect
I know Sylveon is 100% better but I cannot be bothered getting the relevant equipment to get the Sylveon... Also this one is a White Florges not that it really matters...
... Leftovers went to the team's cleric. As opposed to a Dual Screener like Klefki, I went for a cleric since burns, paralysis, poison and the like are absurdly common, which means a cleric is always a good idea. Florges is no Sylveon but it is still an acceptable replacement. I went for maximum physical bulk with leftover EV's into Special Attack so Moonblast did some extra damage. Her role is self explanatory from curing status to healing wounds with Wish to putting in some damage with Moonblast. Not much else to say but she is one of the keys to helping me obtain the Rotation Trophy! :)
Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
If one of my first three fall, I need a fourth member to pick up the slack. Gyarados was the one for that role with Intimidate allowing it to cut the attack of the Pokémon that took out one of the first three and Dragon Dance making it incredibly threatening fast. Its role is self explanatory: set up Dragon Dance then destroy everything with Water/Ground/Rock coverage. The Life Orb recoil can be a bit of a pain at times but Florges' wish-passing helps offset that. EV's are geared towards maximum sweeping power with the rest thrown into HP. When the chips are down I can generally lean on this guy to pull through.
===
So yeah that is the team I am using. Fire-types tend to be pretty annoying alongside hax-related sets but so far, nothing has really stuck out as a major thorn in my side. Hopefully I can get myself on the leader-board one day in the future and if my streak ends I will be sure to report on it (provided it is good enough to get on the leader-board with relevant proof). :)
The team I am using is a standard set-up offence team with a cleric on the team to keep the team in a good conditions and remove crippling status. Not much else to say here other than the fact that it is proving to be very effective with great prediction. I have had a few close calls particularly on the 44th where a Regigigas took out my Mega Kanga to confusion hax and I only barely scraped through, but I am happy to get my first Maison Trophy at least now, onward to hopefully greater things.
TEAM
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy (Parental Bond)
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Return
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
This is a standard Kangaskhan with maximum Attack and Speed with extra EV's thrown into Special Defence so the Porys get an Attack Boost instead when they have Download. Adamant is used for maximum power. Mega Kangaskhan is unsurprisingly incredible in Maison rotation and she is no exception on this team. I have not really been using Crunch and the main goal is simple: Use Power-Up Punch at an available opportunity then smash everything to the dust. It has carried me through heaps of battles on its own and I hope it will continue to do so.
Aegislash (M) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Stance Change
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 12 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- King's Shield
I got lazy with the EV spread and copied it from a Smogon Analysis while it still had this set on it.
Good old Swords Dance + King's Shield Aegislash. Bad in OU but in Maison Rotation, it is anything but with the right support. I maxxed out Attack on this while giving it a lot of HP since it needs it. I threw EV's into Speed for some reason and put the rest into Special Defence for the Porys and Download. This is a great partner for Kangaskhan since it can take the Fighting-type attacks aimed at Kangaskhan while Kangaskhan can take the Ghost-type attacks aimed at Aegislash. Spooky Plate is used to give Shadow Sneak a bit of a boost although Air Balloon is probably better. Leftovers would be on it if I could but it is not because...
Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Nature: Bold
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpA
IV's: 31 HP / x Atk / 31 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Wish
- Protect
I know Sylveon is 100% better but I cannot be bothered getting the relevant equipment to get the Sylveon... Also this one is a White Florges not that it really matters...
... Leftovers went to the team's cleric. As opposed to a Dual Screener like Klefki, I went for a cleric since burns, paralysis, poison and the like are absurdly common, which means a cleric is always a good idea. Florges is no Sylveon but it is still an acceptable replacement. I went for maximum physical bulk with leftover EV's into Special Attack so Moonblast did some extra damage. Her role is self explanatory from curing status to healing wounds with Wish to putting in some damage with Moonblast. Not much else to say but she is one of the keys to helping me obtain the Rotation Trophy! :)
Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
If one of my first three fall, I need a fourth member to pick up the slack. Gyarados was the one for that role with Intimidate allowing it to cut the attack of the Pokémon that took out one of the first three and Dragon Dance making it incredibly threatening fast. Its role is self explanatory: set up Dragon Dance then destroy everything with Water/Ground/Rock coverage. The Life Orb recoil can be a bit of a pain at times but Florges' wish-passing helps offset that. EV's are geared towards maximum sweeping power with the rest thrown into HP. When the chips are down I can generally lean on this guy to pull through.
===
So yeah that is the team I am using. Fire-types tend to be pretty annoying alongside hax-related sets but so far, nothing has really stuck out as a major thorn in my side. Hopefully I can get myself on the leader-board one day in the future and if my streak ends I will be sure to report on it (provided it is good enough to get on the leader-board with relevant proof). :)
I have been trying the Maison of late & just recently hit 50 on Super Rotations with the streak still alive.
The team I am using is a standard set-up offence team with a cleric on the team to keep the team in a good conditions and remove crippling status. Not much else to say here other than the fact that it is proving to be very effective with great prediction. I have had a few close calls particularly on the 44th where a Regigigas took out my Mega Kanga to confusion hax and I only barely scraped through, but I am happy to get my first Maison Trophy at least now, onward to hopefully greater things.
TEAM
Kangaskhan (F) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy (Parental Bond)
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Return
- Crunch
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
This is a standard Kangaskhan with maximum Attack and Speed with extra EV's thrown into Special Defence so the Porys get an Attack Boost instead when they have Download. Adamant is used for maximum power. Mega Kangaskhan is unsurprisingly incredible in Maison rotation and she is no exception on this team. I have not really been using Crunch and the main goal is simple: Use Power-Up Punch at an available opportunity then smash everything to the dust. It has carried me through heaps of battles on its own and I hope it will continue to do so.
Aegislash (M) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Stance Change
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD / 12 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- Sacred Sword
- King's Shield
I got lazy with the EV spread and copied it from a Smogon Analysis while it still had this set on it.
Good old Swords Dance + King's Shield Aegislash. Bad in OU but in Maison Rotation, it is anything but with the right support. I maxxed out Attack on this while giving it a lot of HP since it needs it. I threw EV's into Speed for some reason and put the rest into Special Defence for the Porys and Download. This is a great partner for Kangaskhan since it can take the Fighting-type attacks aimed at Kangaskhan while Kangaskhan can take the Ghost-type attacks aimed at Aegislash. Spooky Plate is used to give Shadow Sneak a bit of a boost although Air Balloon is probably better. Leftovers would be on it if I could but it is not because...
Florges (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flower Veil
Nature: Bold
EV's: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpA
IV's: 31 HP / x Atk / 31 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Moonblast
- Aromatherapy
- Wish
- Protect
I know Sylveon is 100% better but I cannot be bothered getting the relevant equipment to get the Sylveon... Also this one is a White Florges not that it really matters...
... Leftovers went to the team's cleric. As opposed to a Dual Screener like Klefki, I went for a cleric since burns, paralysis, poison and the like are absurdly common, which means a cleric is always a good idea. Florges is no Sylveon but it is still an acceptable replacement. I went for maximum physical bulk with leftover EV's into Special Attack so Moonblast did some extra damage. Her role is self explanatory from curing status to healing wounds with Wish to putting in some damage with Moonblast. Not much else to say but she is one of the keys to helping me obtain the Rotation Trophy! :)
Gyarados (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
EV's: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IV's: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / x SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
If one of my first three fall, I need a fourth member to pick up the slack. Gyarados was the one for that role with Intimidate allowing it to cut the attack of the Pokémon that took out one of the first three and Dragon Dance making it incredibly threatening fast. Its role is self explanatory: set up Dragon Dance then destroy everything with Water/Ground/Rock coverage. The Life Orb recoil can be a bit of a pain at times but Florges' wish-passing helps offset that. EV's are geared towards maximum sweeping power with the rest thrown into HP. When the chips are down I can generally lean on this guy to pull through.
===
So yeah that is the team I am using. Fire-types tend to be pretty annoying alongside hax-related sets but so far, nothing has really stuck out as a major thorn in my side. Hopefully I can get myself on the leader-board one day in the future and if my streak ends I will be sure to report on it (provided it is good enough to get on the leader-board with relevant proof). :)
You should try fake-out on Mega-K. It is insanely powerful(you kill pokes with it often), ensures you reach mega form, and gives you free damage.
Fake Out doesn't seem like a particularly good choice in Rotation battles. Mega Kangaskhan is essentially trying to beat four Pokemon by itself; the chip damage from Fake Out often won't make too much of a difference. It's awesome in Singles, where you get to choose the target and can inflict heavy damage on fast and frail Pokemon, helping to ensure a KO. But in Rotations, you don't get to pick the target, meaning you could wind up using Fake Out on a Ghost-type or something with Flame Body or Static (less of a problem with a cleric, but you still risk giving a dangerous opponent a free set-up turn, e.g. Volcarona 4). Earthquake is a much better choice; it gives Mega Khan a good option against Workers who run a lot of Rock- and Steel-types, and after a Power-Up Punch, it will often be so powerful that it will KO Pokemon who aren't weak to it, giving you a good non-contact move to spam if the opponent's team is right for it. If nothing else, it's a move that works for the whole battle, while Fake Out won't do anything after turn 1 (you'll never switch out Mega Kangaskhan in rotation).
Also, Mega Evolution happens at the beginning of the turn, so it's already a sure thing. You don't get the extra speed on the first turn, but there are only a few opponents for whom that matters, and I don't think they're worth risking the AI rotating to a bad target (e.g. "whoops! Steadfast Lucario just got a speed boost"), particularly when Earthquake gives you valuable coverage against Pokemon that Aegislash isn't good against (Rhyperior and Carracosta, for example).
At last, I am a member of the 5 trophies club!
Below are the teams and strategies I used for each trophy. Note that some of it may not be accurate since I'm mostly writing it from memory.
General strategy: Bulky Offense
Video: RBVG-WWWW-WWW6-435R
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Steel Wing
-U-turn
This guy was my lead, and he hit things hard. My strategy was simple: spam Brave Bird until it faints. Most battles I didn't even have to use my other two mons since Clawfire took care of all the opposition. Brave Bird should be obvious: it hits things really hard, and it gets priority due to Gale Wings. Flare Blitz and Steel Wing are there for coverage (although I only remember ever using Steel Wing once), and U-turn is used if the matchup is really bad. (As in, Clawfire can't hurt the foe but it can OHKO).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Return
-Crunch
Let's face facts: Mega Kangaskhan is incredibly broken. After a single Power-up punch, Liz and Amy sit at +2 attack, and can OHKO practically the entire Maison bar Steel-types. Even without a boost, Return still hits very hard. Sucker Punch is to kill faster things, and Crunch is there instead of EQ so I have something to hit Gengar, Drifblim, Mismagius, et al. with.
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
The fallback mon, this guy basically soloed the Chatelaine. And it's not hard to see why: Belly Drum + Sitrus Berry + Aqua Jet = the end of the world. I'm running 248 HP instead of 252 so that Winona'd (Dig through this thread if you want the backstory of the nickname; it's in there somewhere) will have an even number of HP, which is crucial for the Sitrus Berry to activate.
Video: RBVG-WWWW-WWW6-435R
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Steel Wing
-U-turn
This guy was my lead, and he hit things hard. My strategy was simple: spam Brave Bird until it faints. Most battles I didn't even have to use my other two mons since Clawfire took care of all the opposition. Brave Bird should be obvious: it hits things really hard, and it gets priority due to Gale Wings. Flare Blitz and Steel Wing are there for coverage (although I only remember ever using Steel Wing once), and U-turn is used if the matchup is really bad. (As in, Clawfire can't hurt the foe but it can OHKO).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Return
-Crunch
Let's face facts: Mega Kangaskhan is incredibly broken. After a single Power-up punch, Liz and Amy sit at +2 attack, and can OHKO practically the entire Maison bar Steel-types. Even without a boost, Return still hits very hard. Sucker Punch is to kill faster things, and Crunch is there instead of EQ so I have something to hit Gengar, Drifblim, Mismagius, et al. with.
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
The fallback mon, this guy basically soloed the Chatelaine. And it's not hard to see why: Belly Drum + Sitrus Berry + Aqua Jet = the end of the world. I'm running 248 HP instead of 252 so that Winona'd (Dig through this thread if you want the backstory of the nickname; it's in there somewhere) will have an even number of HP, which is crucial for the Sitrus Berry to activate.
General strategy: Tailwind Hyper-Offense
Forgot to save the video :(
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs a very different role in Doubles than in singles. In Doubles, his sole job is to set up Tailwind. Gale Wings (almost) guarantees that, although I have noticed that he is a Fake Out magnet. I've noticed that he either gets OHKO'd turn 1, or survives the whole match, so if he can survive turn 1, he can start smashing things with Brave Bird and Flare Blitz.
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Terrible puns aside, Fun Guy is the main attacker of my team. I got the idea of Tailwind + Breloom from Laga, specifically this RMT. But anyway, Breloom is, I think, one of the most overlooked mons to use in the Maison. Generally, the first turn I have Clawfire use Tailwind, and have Fun Guy use Protect since he's not the fastest mon outside of Tailwind. On turn 2, I hit back! I opted for Force Palm over Mach Punch since Fun Guy outspeeds most other mons in Tailwind, and he appreciates the power boost that it gives. Bullet Seed hits 187.5 base power with 5 hits, which is incredible, and Spore should need no explanation. Physically defensive Weezing that resists both STABs? Spore. Aerodactyl? Spore. Focus Sash mons? Spore. Walrein? Well, I'd probably just kill it. It's also fun to spam Spore and crap all over Sleep Clause against Fairy Tale Girl Sylvia (the one who says "Shh... just rest now and close your eyes. You won't ever need open them again" if she beats you).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Liz and Amy need no explanation. They just kill everything in sight with Return. Need I say more?
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Torrent (Just kidding!)
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I love using Greninja in the Maison. Protean screws with the AI so much it's hilarious. Ribbit-kun may not hit the hardest, but he definitely gets the job done. He also has the speed to work well outside of Tailwind, which is very nice for those times that Clawfire gets hit with Fake Out. I opted for Surf over Hydro Pump since it hits both opponents. You also may be wondering why I'm not running Mat Block; the reason for that is partially 4MSS and partially because I don't like long battles so I prefer to just kill things before they can move instead of blocking their attacks.
Forgot to save the video :(
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs a very different role in Doubles than in singles. In Doubles, his sole job is to set up Tailwind. Gale Wings (almost) guarantees that, although I have noticed that he is a Fake Out magnet. I've noticed that he either gets OHKO'd turn 1, or survives the whole match, so if he can survive turn 1, he can start smashing things with Brave Bird and Flare Blitz.
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Terrible puns aside, Fun Guy is the main attacker of my team. I got the idea of Tailwind + Breloom from Laga, specifically this RMT. But anyway, Breloom is, I think, one of the most overlooked mons to use in the Maison. Generally, the first turn I have Clawfire use Tailwind, and have Fun Guy use Protect since he's not the fastest mon outside of Tailwind. On turn 2, I hit back! I opted for Force Palm over Mach Punch since Fun Guy outspeeds most other mons in Tailwind, and he appreciates the power boost that it gives. Bullet Seed hits 187.5 base power with 5 hits, which is incredible, and Spore should need no explanation. Physically defensive Weezing that resists both STABs? Spore. Aerodactyl? Spore. Focus Sash mons? Spore. Walrein? Well, I'd probably just kill it. It's also fun to spam Spore and crap all over Sleep Clause against Fairy Tale Girl Sylvia (the one who says "Shh... just rest now and close your eyes. You won't ever need open them again" if she beats you).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Liz and Amy need no explanation. They just kill everything in sight with Return. Need I say more?
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Torrent (Just kidding!)
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I love using Greninja in the Maison. Protean screws with the AI so much it's hilarious. Ribbit-kun may not hit the hardest, but he definitely gets the job done. He also has the speed to work well outside of Tailwind, which is very nice for those times that Clawfire gets hit with Fake Out. I opted for Surf over Hydro Pump since it hits both opponents. You also may be wondering why I'm not running Mat Block; the reason for that is partially 4MSS and partially because I don't like long battles so I prefer to just kill things before they can move instead of blocking their attacks.
General strategy: Tailwind Hyper-Offense
Video: TPZG-WWWW-WWW7-K842
Left:
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs the exact same role in Triples that it does in Doubles: Set up Tailwind turn 1, after that spam Brave Bird.
Middle:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake Fake Out
-Return
-Crunch
See above.
Right:
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Breloom is, in my opinion, a Pokemon that was designed to work best in Doubles and Triples. Just like in Doubles, I go for Protect on turn 1, so that Fun Guy can show his true power when Tailwind is up. One thing to note is that I hardly ever got the Paralysis from Force Palm. RNG crapping on me, or just that it OHKO'd most stuff? I have no idea.
Backup #1:
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
"Greninja in Triples without Mat Block? This guy must be crazy!" To which I respond, Mat Block is unnecessary because of 4MSS, and again because I would rather attack than draw out the length of already-long triple battles. Surf is useful if Ribbit-kun is in the center because it can hit all 3 opponents. Dark Pulse is long-range, which is very useful, and Ice Beam and Grass Knot are for general coverage.
Backup #2:
Azanor (Lucario) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Aura Sphere
-Flash Cannon
-Vacuum Wave
-Nasty Plot
Although Special attacking Lucario is generally considered outclassed by the Physical sets, I found that this guy worked very well in Triples. Namely, having a long-range STAB move in Aura Sphere (Also unaffected by Double Team shenanigans!) was very nice. Flash Cannon is mainly there to hit fairies, although smacking Froslass around is also nice. Vacuum Wave is to pick off fast threats such as Aerodactyl if they're at low HP. Also, I will give a cookie to anyone who gets the nickname reference.
Backup #3:
Blade (Bisharp) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Defiant
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Iron Head
-Night Slash
-Brick Break
-Swords Dance
I initially bred Blade because in a past VGC competition I would always lose hard against Intimidate teams, and I wanted a Dark-type attacker. In the Maison, he performs pretty well in Triples due to his good coverage and speed. Iron Head and Night Slash are for STABs I know perfectly well how much better Knock Off is than Night Slash, but it's a transfer only move and I don't have the patience to breed perfect mons or the know-how to RNG them in gen 5.
Video: TPZG-WWWW-WWW7-K842
Left:
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs the exact same role in Triples that it does in Doubles: Set up Tailwind turn 1, after that spam Brave Bird.
Middle:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-
-Return
-Crunch
See above.
Right:
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Breloom is, in my opinion, a Pokemon that was designed to work best in Doubles and Triples. Just like in Doubles, I go for Protect on turn 1, so that Fun Guy can show his true power when Tailwind is up. One thing to note is that I hardly ever got the Paralysis from Force Palm. RNG crapping on me, or just that it OHKO'd most stuff? I have no idea.
Backup #1:
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
"Greninja in Triples without Mat Block? This guy must be crazy!" To which I respond, Mat Block is unnecessary because of 4MSS, and again because I would rather attack than draw out the length of already-long triple battles. Surf is useful if Ribbit-kun is in the center because it can hit all 3 opponents. Dark Pulse is long-range, which is very useful, and Ice Beam and Grass Knot are for general coverage.
Backup #2:
Azanor (Lucario) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Aura Sphere
-Flash Cannon
-Vacuum Wave
-Nasty Plot
Although Special attacking Lucario is generally considered outclassed by the Physical sets, I found that this guy worked very well in Triples. Namely, having a long-range STAB move in Aura Sphere (Also unaffected by Double Team shenanigans!) was very nice. Flash Cannon is mainly there to hit fairies, although smacking Froslass around is also nice. Vacuum Wave is to pick off fast threats such as Aerodactyl if they're at low HP. Also, I will give a cookie to anyone who gets the nickname reference.
Backup #3:
Blade (Bisharp) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Defiant
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Iron Head
-Night Slash
-Brick Break
-Swords Dance
I initially bred Blade because in a past VGC competition I would always lose hard against Intimidate teams, and I wanted a Dark-type attacker. In the Maison, he performs pretty well in Triples due to his good coverage and speed. Iron Head and Night Slash are for STABs I know perfectly well how much better Knock Off is than Night Slash, but it's a transfer only move and I don't have the patience to breed perfect mons or the know-how to RNG them in gen 5.
General strategy: Bulky offense; maximum coverage on each mon
Video: LDLW-WWWW-WWW6-5HKP
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Tailwind
-U-turn
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
I led with the same 3 mons I used for Singles, since they work well in Rotations. Not too much changed, except that Liz and Amy run EQ instead of Sucker Punch and Clawfire runs Tailwind instead of Steel Wing.
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I chose Ribbit-kun as my backup mon due to his excellent coverage, and because Protean messes up the AI so much it's hilarious. Again, nothing too much that's new.
I think Rotations is much more enjoyable than Singles, because there's an element of prediction, and confusion (which runs rampant in the other battle modes) has little impact on rotations.
Video: LDLW-WWWW-WWW6-5HKP
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Tailwind
-U-turn
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
I led with the same 3 mons I used for Singles, since they work well in Rotations. Not too much changed, except that Liz and Amy run EQ instead of Sucker Punch and Clawfire runs Tailwind instead of Steel Wing.
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I chose Ribbit-kun as my backup mon due to his excellent coverage, and because Protean messes up the AI so much it's hilarious. Again, nothing too much that's new.
I think Rotations is much more enjoyable than Singles, because there's an element of prediction, and confusion (which runs rampant in the other battle modes) has little impact on rotations.
This was... definitely an interesting run. At times, the AI was an absolute genius. At times, its stupidity nearly cost me the match. But anyway...
General strategy: Hit hard as many times as possible before you faint
Forgot to save the video, but the battle log is under Raikou's analysis.
My lead:
DUCK.pkmn [Model name Porygon]
Software version: Z
Software extension: choice_specs.itm
Static optimization: +SpA, -Atk [ID: Modest]
Dynamic optimization: 0xFC [252] SpA, 0xFC [252] Spe, 0x4 HP
Special optimization: Adaptability
Functions:
-TRI_ATTACK.exe
-DARK_PULSE.exe
-THUNDERBOLT.exe
-ICE_BEAM.exe
Computer jargon aside (Sorry, couldn't resist), Specs Porygon-Z is incredible. With a modest nature, it hits 205 SpA, which is bumped up to 307.5 with Specs. Adaptability-boosted Tri-attacks coming off that sort of power is nothing short of terrifying. I think I used the other moves maybe once or twice each because Tri-attack is so powerful. I just wish Porygon-Z was a bit faster, because in a few battles the opponents ganged up on it, and it suffered a fatal error and had to shut down before it could execute TRI_ATTACK.exe.
AI lead:
Raikou @ Air Balloon
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Probably Timid
EVs: Unsure, although max speed is likely
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Shadow Ball
-Protect
Unlike Duck.pkmn who hits like a nuke but is rather slow, Raikou is incredibly fast but doesn't hit that hard. The AI's use of Protect, like others have noticed, ranged from genius to suicidal, but in the battle against the Chatelaine, it was a genius. The battle went something like this:
I send out Duck, AI sends out Raikou. Chatelaines send out Latias and Landorus.
Latias uses Dragon Pulse on Duck for about 50%, Landorus uses Focus Miss on Duck, but it misses. Duck OHKOs Landorus with Ice Beam, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias for about 40%. Chatelaine sends out Thundurus.
Thundurus KOs Duck with Wild Charge, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias. Latias is in red. I send out Liz and Amy.
Liz and Amy get OHKO'd with a crit Wild Charge from Thundurus. Raikou KOs Latias with Shadow Ball. Chatelaine sends out Cobalion. Thundurus is at around 60% from recoil damage.
Raikou uses Volt Switch, KOs Thundurus, and switches to Latias, who takes about 15% from Cobalion's Sacred Sword.
Latias outspeeds Cobalion and does 70% with Psychic, Cobalion fails to KO with Iron Head. Latias KOs with Psychic, earning me the last trophy!
Yeah. Volt Switching into a resist, KOing Thundurus in the process? The AI is a genius. Or at least it was in this case; I've lost count of the number of times it attacked the wrong enemy.
My backup:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Fake Out
-Return
-Crunch
Yes, I finally taught Fake Out to Liz and Amy, and it is awesome. Generally I Fake Out whichever mon the AI is less likely to attack on the first turn, and then spam Return after that. Other than that, though, nothing has changed; Liz and Amy are still the awesome, broken Mega Kangaskhan that we all know andhate love.
AI backup:
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest or Timid
EVs: Likely max SpA and Speed
-Draco Meteor
-Psychic
-Trick
-Some other move that it never used
Latias is... interesting. The problem is that it often locks itself into Draco Meteor, which of course means that it gets to -6 SpA rather quickly. The first hit is like a nuke, though, and that's often all it takes. One nice thing about it is that since it was choice-locked, it eased my prediction quite a bit.
Also, my multis streak is actually still ongoing, so I'll post again if/when it breaks.
One final note: On a scale of 1 to Mega Kangaskhan, how broken would Boomburst Porygon-Z be?
General strategy: Hit hard as many times as possible before you faint
Forgot to save the video, but the battle log is under Raikou's analysis.
My lead:
DUCK.pkmn [Model name Porygon]
Software version: Z
Software extension: choice_specs.itm
Static optimization: +SpA, -Atk [ID: Modest]
Dynamic optimization: 0xFC [252] SpA, 0xFC [252] Spe, 0x4 HP
Special optimization: Adaptability
Functions:
-TRI_ATTACK.exe
-DARK_PULSE.exe
-THUNDERBOLT.exe
-ICE_BEAM.exe
Computer jargon aside (Sorry, couldn't resist), Specs Porygon-Z is incredible. With a modest nature, it hits 205 SpA, which is bumped up to 307.5 with Specs. Adaptability-boosted Tri-attacks coming off that sort of power is nothing short of terrifying. I think I used the other moves maybe once or twice each because Tri-attack is so powerful. I just wish Porygon-Z was a bit faster, because in a few battles the opponents ganged up on it, and it suffered a fatal error and had to shut down before it could execute TRI_ATTACK.exe.
AI lead:
Raikou @ Air Balloon
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Probably Timid
EVs: Unsure, although max speed is likely
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Shadow Ball
-Protect
Unlike Duck.pkmn who hits like a nuke but is rather slow, Raikou is incredibly fast but doesn't hit that hard. The AI's use of Protect, like others have noticed, ranged from genius to suicidal, but in the battle against the Chatelaine, it was a genius. The battle went something like this:
I send out Duck, AI sends out Raikou. Chatelaines send out Latias and Landorus.
Latias uses Dragon Pulse on Duck for about 50%, Landorus uses Focus Miss on Duck, but it misses. Duck OHKOs Landorus with Ice Beam, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias for about 40%. Chatelaine sends out Thundurus.
Thundurus KOs Duck with Wild Charge, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias. Latias is in red. I send out Liz and Amy.
Liz and Amy get OHKO'd with a crit Wild Charge from Thundurus. Raikou KOs Latias with Shadow Ball. Chatelaine sends out Cobalion. Thundurus is at around 60% from recoil damage.
Raikou uses Volt Switch, KOs Thundurus, and switches to Latias, who takes about 15% from Cobalion's Sacred Sword.
Latias outspeeds Cobalion and does 70% with Psychic, Cobalion fails to KO with Iron Head. Latias KOs with Psychic, earning me the last trophy!
Yeah. Volt Switching into a resist, KOing Thundurus in the process? The AI is a genius. Or at least it was in this case; I've lost count of the number of times it attacked the wrong enemy.
My backup:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Fake Out
-Return
-Crunch
Yes, I finally taught Fake Out to Liz and Amy, and it is awesome. Generally I Fake Out whichever mon the AI is less likely to attack on the first turn, and then spam Return after that. Other than that, though, nothing has changed; Liz and Amy are still the awesome, broken Mega Kangaskhan that we all know and
AI backup:
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest or Timid
EVs: Likely max SpA and Speed
-Draco Meteor
-Psychic
-Trick
-Some other move that it never used
Latias is... interesting. The problem is that it often locks itself into Draco Meteor, which of course means that it gets to -6 SpA rather quickly. The first hit is like a nuke, though, and that's often all it takes. One nice thing about it is that since it was choice-locked, it eased my prediction quite a bit.
Also, my multis streak is actually still ongoing, so I'll post again if/when it breaks.
One final note: On a scale of 1 to Mega Kangaskhan, how broken would Boomburst Porygon-Z be?
And there you have it; the teams that I used to get the 5 trophies! Now I finally get my name on the OP. :P
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Great work lucariomaster2! I also used t-flame, m-kang and belly-jet azu in my quest for 50 in singles, ended up making it to 110 with them. Also, I'm definitely stealing the name DUCK.pkmn!
Thanks! I seem to remember I actually got the idea of which mons to use in Singles from you. :P
I believe the only Pokemon with Roar/Whirlwind after battle #40 are Swampert 1, Venusaur 2, Hippowdon 1, and Skarmory 4; Venusaur 2 and Swampert 1 can only be used by two trainers and Hippowdon 1 by only one trainer, so Skarmory 4 is the only opponent you'll commonly face. Skarmory 4 has no attacking moves, so you can just Taunt it with Sableye, switch to Durant as it Struggles, use Entrainment, switch back to Sableye as it loafs, Taunt it when its Taunt runs out and keep switching to only have Durant in on its Struggle turns; it will eventually take itself out with recoil damage (and you can attack it with Durant while it's Taunted to speed up the process; just make sure that it doesn't faint after Durant attacks, or you'll be stuck loafing for a turn). The rest of them will all be Taunted and have Earthquake to hit Durant, so after they KO Sableye, you can just leave Durant in and let them KO Durant, then Smeargle will be your last Pokemon left and Roar/Whirlwind won't do anything. They might decide to use Whirlwind on Durant after the Taunt wears off, but that's fine; you can just keep switching Smeargle out for Durant (on the AI's non-loafing turn) so that if they attack (which they probably will, because Smeargle is frail), it will hit Durant. If they don't attack, you've wasted one of their Roar/Whirlwind PP, but I'm pretty sure they'll attack often enough that Durant will faint before you have to resort to PP stalling.
Unfortunately for Glalie, Ice is resisted pretty hard by some Pokemon that have recovery moves, including the dreaded Walrein:
+6 252+ SpA Glalie Frost Breath vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Thick Fat Walrein on a critical hit: 25-30 (13.5 - 16.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever
Of course, without the need for Miracle Eye, Glalie can afford to use a coverage move (Dark Pulse or Shadow Ball). But if it resorts to an attacking move, it won't have as many turns to set up.With Moody, you want as many turns to set up as possible to help undo any damage resulting from the stat drops. When I used Smeargle, I would typically use Miracle Eye 25 or 30 times (in addition to any Subs/Protects I used) before attacking (and easily could have used it more; I just didn't feel it was necessary). If you use up all of your Subs + Protects before attacking, you don't have any left to protect you if the second mon has something to break your Sub and the third has Sturdy/Focus Sash + a move that will KO with a crit. I talked about Smeargle not caring about anything when it's fully set up, which it doesn't, but it does need to have those extra PP just in case. On top of that, even with a coverage move, Glalie can't beat Unaware Quagsire.
It's too bad; Glalie would have been a cool alternative.
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The Maison moveset list says Darmanitan4 (Choice Scarf) has an Impish nature. Is that true? I thought it was Jolly.
Taunt in the 4th slot shuts down recovery, beats opposing Taunters to the punch, and can also be used to stall for more boosts instead of killing the first Pokemon. Taunt has fewer PP than Miracle Eye, but Glalie's higher base stats make it less reliant on evasion to keep its Substitute intact (+0 Glalie takes the same from neutral defensive hits as +3 Smeargle). Plus, you aren't able to sit around and boost for too many turns against leads with Choice items or ones that boost their own attacking stats, so the extra PP doesn't come into play all that often.
Most Ice resists with recovery moves aren't offensively threatening to Glalie, so you can whittle them down without too much difficulty. You even get to make that infamous Walrein Struggle itself to death after you stall its 10 Sheer Cold/Fissure PP. If Quagsires 1, 2, and 4 come out against a 100% Glalie behind a Sub, they'll likely lose due to the time-honored AI tradition of trying non-attacking moves when you already have a Substitute up. A 2nd/3rd mon Quagsire 3 that is Unaware and goes 3/3 on Stone Edge would do Glalie in, but those odds are just under 11% times the probability that I'm fighting a trainer that brings Quagsire 3 to battle in the first place. Even then, it'd probably be possible to dump some EVs into Special Attack to ensure Glalie can 3HKO Unaware Quagsire 3, which would enable Glalie to survive at ~20% health and no Sub barring a crit or a miss.
I didn't even realize it got Taunt (though I guess I should have). It's a really cool option; blocking opposing Taunts is great, as is hitting Lapras 4 and Walrein 4 and forcing them to use their extremely limited attacking PP. Quagsire 4 is the only one that will appear after battle #40 (so there's no need to worry about Quagsire 3), and you can eventually take it down with Frost Breath (it almost always 4HKOs, and thanks to the 100% crit chance, you don't care about Amnesia). Taunt's 32 PP should typically be enough; the only concern is using it against opponents who have very few attacking moves, leading them to Struggle before you have the boosts you need. If you don't get enough boosts, you risk having reduced speed when Lapras or Mismagius come in, giving them time to use Perish Song before you use Taunt.
Also, you absolutely are able to boost for a ton of turns against opposing stat boosters and Choice item users. Choice items are one of the biggest reasons I chose Trick on Sableye; you need to get rid of them ASAP. Taunt stops opposing stat boosters on turn 1 (and they'll attack Sableye anyway), they'll KO Sableye on turn 2, and you hit them with Entrainment on turn 3. They can't do anything against Smeargle/Glalie once they have Truant, so they're not a concern anymore. To be perfectly clear, Moody can't afford to not have enough turns to set up; it puts the risk of lowered stats too high to maintain a consistent streak. The only time a Moody team should be "attacking early" is when their other Pokemon are still alive and you can switch out and use Entrainment again (and all three should be alive, because you can't risk switching Durant in and having it faint). Glalie can't really get away with attacking early anyway, because it's pretty weak if it's not at +6 (where Smeargle can still hit like a truck using Stored Power's base power alone). Attacking early will usually work out, but the risks are too high to get the big streaks I believe (but haven't yet shown) these teams are capable of. That's not to say I don't think Glalie is capable; you've made me think that it probably is. But it really can't afford to attack before it has a ton of boosts.
Set-up time requirements and the risks when you don't get all the turns you need is definitely the biggest problem with Moody, yes. To that end, perhaps Octillery could be an option due it requiring less turns to set up - 75/75/75 defenses aren't god-awful like Smeargle's and actually become respectable with just one boost in Def/SpD, making its low speed and unlucky speed drops less dangerous, and it can run Water Spout and Energy Ball (for Quagsire and Water Absorb) off of 105 base SpA as its attacking moves to be able to hit hard with just one SpA boost in a tight spot.
Seems my memory was slightly wrong; I didn't use Azumarill in Triples. Fixed my post.
At last, I am a member of the 5 trophies club!Below are the teams and strategies I used for each trophy. Note that some of it may not be accurate since I'm mostly writing it from memory. Replay codes coming soon!
General strategy: Bulky Offense
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Steel Wing
-U-turn
This guy was my lead, and he hit things hard. My strategy was simple: spam Brave Bird until it faints. Most battles I didn't even have to use my other two mons since Clawfire took care of all the opposition. Brave Bird should be obvious: it hits things really hard, and it gets priority due to Gale Wings. Flare Blitz and Steel Wing are there for coverage (although I only remember ever using Steel Wing once), and U-turn is used if the matchup is really bad. (As in, Clawfire can't hurt the foe but it can OHKO).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Sucker Punch
-Return
-Crunch
Let's face facts: Mega Kangaskhan is incredibly broken. After a single Power-up punch, Liz and Amy sit at +2 attack, and can OHKO practically the entire Maison bar Steel-types. Even without a boost, Return still hits very hard. Sucker Punch is to kill faster things, and Crunch is there instead of EQ so I have something to hit Gengar, Drifblim, Mismagius, et al. with.
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
The fallback mon, this guy basically soloed the Chatelaine. And it's not hard to see why: Belly Drum + Sitrus Berry + Aqua Jet = the end of the world. I'm running 248 HP instead of 252 so that Winona'd (Dig through this thread if you want the backstory of the nickname; it's in there somewhere) will have an even number of HP, which is crucial for the Sitrus Berry to activate.
General strategy: Tailwind Hyper-Offense
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs a very different role in Doubles than in singles. In Doubles, his sole job is to set up Tailwind. Gale Wings (almost) guarantees that, although I have noticed that he is a Fake Out magnet. I've noticed that he either gets OHKO'd turn 1, or survives the whole match, so if he can survive turn 1, he can start smashing things with Brave Bird and Flare Blitz.
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Terrible puns aside, Fun Guy is the main attacker of my team. I got the idea of Tailwind + Breloom from Laga, specifically this RMT. But anyway, Breloom is, I think, one of the most overlooked mons to use in the Maison. Generally, the first turn I have Clawfire use Tailwind, and have Fun Guy use Protect since he's not the fastest mon outside of Tailwind. On turn 2, I hit back! I opted for Force Palm over Mach Punch since Fun Guy outspeeds most other mons in Tailwind, and he appreciates the power boost that it gives. Bullet Seed hits 187.5 base power with 5 hits, which is incredible, and Spore should need no explanation. Physically defensive Weezing that resists both STABs? Spore. Aerodactyl? Spore. Focus Sash mons? Spore. Walrein? Well, I'd probably just kill it. It's also fun to spam Spore and crap all over Sleep Clause against Fairy Tale Girl Sylvia (the one who says "Shh... just rest now and close your eyes. You won't ever need open them again" if she beats you).
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Liz and Amy need no explanation. They just kill everything in sight with Return. Need I say more?
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Torrent (Just kidding!)
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I love using Greninja in the Maison. Protean screws with the AI so much it's hilarious. Ribbit-kun may not hit the hardest, but he definitely gets the job done. He also has the speed to work well outside of Tailwind, which is very nice for those times that Clawfire gets hit with Fake Out. I opted for Surf over Hydro Pump since it hits both opponents. You also may be wondering why I'm not running Mat Block; the reason for that is partially 4MSS and partially because I don't like long battles so I prefer to just kill things before they can move instead of blocking their attacks.
General strategy: Tailwind Hyper-Offense
Left:
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Leftovers
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 HP, 4 Def
-Tailwind
-Protect
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
Clawfire performs the exact same role in Triples that it does in Doubles: Set up Tailwind turn 1, after that spam Brave Bird.
Middle:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
See above. Earthquake is really useful in Triples since Clawfire is immune and Fun Guy can use Protect.
Right:
Fun Guy (Breloom) @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Nature: Hasty
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Spore
-Force Palm
-Bullet Seed
-Protect
Breloom is, in my opinion, a Pokemon that was designed to work best in Doubles and Triples. Just like in Doubles, I go for Protect on turn 1, so that Fun Guy can show his true power when Tailwind is up. One thing to note is that I hardly ever got the Paralysis from Force Palm. RNG crapping on me, or just that it OHKO'd most stuff? I have no idea.
Backup #1:
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
"Greninja in Triples without Mat Block? This guy must be crazy!" To which I respond, Mat Block is unnecessary because of 4MSS, and again because I would rather attack than draw out the length of already-long triple battles. Surf is useful if Ribbit-kun is in the center because it can hit all 3 opponents. Dark Pulse is long-range, which is very useful, and Ice Beam and Grass Knot are for general coverage.
Backup #2:
Azanor (Lucario) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Aura Sphere
-Flash Cannon
-Vacuum Wave
-Nasty Plot
Although Special attacking Lucario is generally considered outclassed by the Physical sets, I found that this guy worked very well in Triples. Namely, having a long-range STAB move in Aura Sphere (Also unaffected by Double Team shenanigans!) was very nice. Flash Cannon is mainly there to hit fairies, although smacking Froslass around is also nice. Vacuum Wave is to pick off fast threats such as Aerodactyl if they're at low HP. Also, I will give a cookie to anyone who gets the nickname reference.
Backup #3:
Blade (Bisharp) @ Iron Plate
Ability: Defiant
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Iron Head
-Night Slash
-Brick Break
-Swords Dance
I initially bred Blade because in a past VGC competition I would always lose hard against Intimidate teams, and I wanted a Dark-type attacker. In the Maison, he performs pretty well in Triples due to his good coverage and speed. Iron Head and Night Slash are for STABs I know perfectly well how much better Knock Off is than Night Slash, but it's a transfer only move and I don't have the patience to breed perfect mons or the know-how to RNG them in gen 5.
General strategy: Bulky offense; maximum coverage on each mon
Clawfire (Talonflame) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
Nature: Lonely
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Tailwind
-U-turn
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Earthquake
-Return
-Crunch
Winona'd (Azumarill) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 248 HP, 8 Spe
-Belly Drum
-Play Rough
-Waterfall
-Aqua Jet
I led with the same 3 mons I used for Singles, since they work well in Rotations. Not too much changed, except that Liz and Amy run EQ instead of Sucker Punch and Clawfire runs Tailwind instead of Steel Wing.
Ribbit-kun (Greninja) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Dark Pulse
-Grass Knot
I chose Ribbit-kun as my backup mon due to his excellent coverage, and because Protean messes up the AI so much it's hilarious. Again, nothing too much that's new.
I think Rotations is much more enjoyable than Singles, because there's an element of prediction, and confusion (which runs rampant in the other battle modes) has little impact on rotations.
This was... definitely an interesting run. At times, the AI was an absolute genius. At times, its stupidity nearly cost me the match. But anyway...
General strategy: Hit hard as many times as possible before you faint
My lead:
DUCK.pkmn [Model name Porygon]
Software version: Z
Software extension: choice_specs.itm
Static optimization: +SpA, -Atk [ID: Modest]
Dynamic optimization: 0xFC [252] SpA, 0xFC [252] Spe, 0x4 HP
Special optimization: Adaptability
Functions:
-TRI_ATTACK.exe
-DARK_PULSE.exe
-THUNDERBOLT.exe
-ICE_BEAM.exe
Computer jargon aside (Sorry, couldn't resist), Specs Porygon-Z is incredible. With a modest nature, it hits 205 SpA, which is bumped up to 307.5 with Specs. Adaptability-boosted Tri-attacks coming off that sort of power is nothing short of terrifying. I think I used the other moves maybe once or twice each because Tri-attack is so powerful. I just wish Porygon-Z was a bit faster, because in a few battles the opponents ganged up on it, and it suffered a fatal error and had to shut down before it could execute TRI_ATTACK.exe.
AI lead:
Raikou @ Air Balloon
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Probably Timid
EVs: Unsure, although max speed is likely
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Shadow Ball
-Protect
Unlike Duck.pkmn who hits like a nuke but is rather slow, Raikou is incredibly fast but doesn't hit that hard. The AI's use of Protect, like others have noticed, ranged from genius to suicidal, but in the battle against the Chatelaine, it was a genius. The battle went something like this:
I send out Duck, AI sends out Raikou. Chatelaines send out Latias and Landorus.
Latias uses Dragon Pulse on Duck for about 50%, Landorus uses Focus Miss on Duck, but it misses. Duck OHKOs Landorus with Ice Beam, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias for about 40%. Chatelaine sends out Thundurus.
Thundurus KOs Duck with Wild Charge, Raikou uses Shadow Ball on Latias. Latias is in red. I send out Liz and Amy.
Liz and Amy get OHKO'd with a crit Wild Charge from Thundurus. Raikou KOs Latias with Shadow Ball. Chatelaine sends out Cobalion. Thundurus is at around 60% from recoil damage.
Raikou uses Volt Switch, KOs Thundurus, and switches to Latias, who takes about 15% from Cobalion's Sacred Sword.
Latias outspeeds Cobalion and does 70% with Psychic, Cobalion fails to KO with Iron Head. Latias KOs with Psychic, earning me the last trophy!
Yeah. Volt Switching into a resist, KOing Thundurus in the process? The AI is a genius. Or at least it was in this case; I've lost count of the number of times it attacked the wrong enemy.
My backup:
Liz and Amy (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy -> Parental Bond
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Power-up Punch
-Fake Out
-Return
-Crunch
Yes, I finally taught Fake Out to Liz and Amy, and it is awesome. Generally I Fake Out whichever mon the AI is less likely to attack on the first turn, and then spam Return after that. Other than that, though, nothing has changed; Liz and Amy are still the awesome, broken Mega Kangaskhan that we all know andhatelove.
AI backup:
Latias @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest or Timid
EVs: Likely max SpA and Speed
-Draco Meteor
-Psychic
-Trick
-Some other move that it never used
Latias is... interesting. The problem is that it often locks itself into Draco Meteor, which of course means that it gets to -6 SpA rather quickly. The first hit is like a nuke, though, and that's often all it takes. One nice thing about it is that since it was choice-locked, it eased my prediction quite a bit.
Also, my multis streak is actually still ongoing, so I'll post again if/when it breaks.
One final note: On a scale of 1 to Mega Kangaskhan, how broken would Boomburst Porygon-Z be?
And there you have it; the teams that I used to get the 5 trophies! Now I finally get my name on the OP. :P
Nice! Just wondering about the triples team, why didn't you use Air Balloon or Dread Plate on Bisharp? Also I recommend you at least try AV on Greninja, it may seem weird but the AI plays terribly around it and makes it into quite the tank.
And Boomburst PZ...*Insert bomb here*...
What I meant about opposing stat-uppers is that your Sub/Protect PP becomes more of a limiting factor when setting up because even if you're at +6 defenses, any hit that lands is likely to KO your Sub - once you only have 5 or so Sub PP remaining, it doesn't matter how many PP remain for the third non-attacking move since you'll want to KO the lead ASAP in case there are Dark types on deck.
I actually got a streak in the 120s in the Battle Subway with a Whimsicott/Durant/Glalie team, and 30 or so turns of set-up was always enough. The loss was an embarrassing bit of playing while intoxicated where I'd gone into a set of 7 without Durant's Choice Scarf and was unable to get Entrainment off against Choice Scarf Heatran. My rule of thumb was generally to have 20 combined Protect/Taunt/Sub PP left before attacking (wanted more Taunts left against Fishermen and more Sub/Protect against Battle Girls), provided Accuracy wasn't in the negative. Even if Special Attack was still around +0, Glalie could tank its way through a lot of things. Once its defenses are around +3, its Sub could survive pretty much any neutral hit, and most of the moves that break it (Close Combat, Stone Edge, Fire Blast) could be played around due to low PP and/or accuracy.
There were also things I thought would be a bigger threat in theory, but weren't due to general AI stupidity. I quickly learned that it was often easier to immediately attack the 2nd mon than to try to Taunt/Protect assuming it would make a rational move. That way, you'd get stuff like a Tyranitar using Dragon Dance twice as you 3HKO it and keep your Sub intact.
The main issue with using Octillery is that no matter which coverage move you choose, there will likely be some stat booster that you can't break without a critical hit, like the Calm Mind Latis with Energy Ball or Calm Mind Suicune with Ice Beam.