Here's the team:
Greninja @_Focus Sash
Trait: Protean
Nature: Timid (+Spd, -Att)
-Mat Block
-Dark Pulse
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot
Stats: 148/103/87/155/87/191
IVs: 31/X/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Blastoise @_Blastoisinite
Trait: Torrent -> Mega Launcher
Nature: Modest (+Spa, -Att)
-Water Spout
-Aura Sphere
-Ice Beam
-Protect
Stats: 155/86/120/150/125/130 (before mega evolution)
155/104/140/205/135/130 (after mega evolution)
IVs: 31/X/31/1/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Talonflame @_Sharp Beak
Trait: Gale Wings
Nature: Adamant (+Att, -Spa)
-Tailwind
-Brave Bird
-Flare Blitz
-Protect
Stats: 185/146/91/80/89/147
IVs: 31/31/31/X/31/31
EVs: 252/252/0/0/0/4
Sylveon @_Choice Specs
Trait: Pixilate
Nature: Modest (+Spa, -Att)
-Hyper Voice
-Psyshock (not used)
-Shadow Ball (not used)
-Baton Pass (not used)
Stats: 172/76/85/178/150/111
IVs: 31/31/31/1/31/31
EVs: 12/0/0/252/0/244
Mienshao @_Air Balloon
Trait: Regenerator
Nature: Jolly (+Spd, -Spa)
-Fake Out
-Low Kick
-Knock Off
-Wide Guard
Stats: 141/177/80/103/80/172
IVs: 31/31/31/1/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Garchomp @_Life Orb
Trait: Rough Skin
Nature: Jolly (+Spd, -Spa)
-Dragon Claw
-Earthquake
-Swords Dance
-Protect
Stats: 184/182/115/90/105/169
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
The Greninja / X / Talonflame core is a staple of triples maison play, and for good reason, as a huge fraction of the time, you are able to buy your team a free Tailwind, and hopefully sweep the opponent's lead three Pokemon in the first two turns with two attacks from your central Pokemon and one from each of Greninja and Talonflame. Following in
Eppie and
SimicCombine's footsteps, after much discussion, I ended up settling on Mega Blastoise as my central nuke.
Blastoise has a few nice advantages. First, Modest Blastoise with 252 Speed EVs just barely outruns the entire post battle 40 maison under Tailwind, reducing the number of special cases you have to keep in mind. Slightly slower sweepers can be outrun by select Choice Scarf Pokemon, and while not normally a big deal, this still plays in Blastoise's favor. Blastoise also has wonderful bulk, even without investment, often letting it tank a few hits, though its mainstay of Water Spout can become worthless when Blastoise's health gets to low. Additionally, Blastoise does decently well against many seeming counters. For example, against a team of Grass-type foes, Blastoise has Ice Beam access while Talonflame can fire off priority Brave Birds, and against Water-types, Blastoise has Mega Launcher boosted Aura Sphere (not ideal, but often good enough) while Greninja has STAB Grass Knot. Protect is key on a small subset of first turns against frail but fast sleep or paralysis inducers, and also lets a low-HP Blastoise turn into a beautiful lure later in the battle. There's an argument to be made in favor of Dark Pulse, as it gets the Mega Launcher boost and helps against Trick Room teams with their loads of Psychic- and Ghost- types and the likelihood that Blastoise will get beaten up before it gets to Water Spout, but I've found Ice Beam useful enough against Dragon- and Grass- types to keep it around.
Greninja's set is standard, and it does a fine job of setting Mat Block and then attacking until either it or the opposition is KOed. Talonflame likewise has a standard set, but I use the bulky max HP spread rather than the more traditional max Speed one. With Gale Wings, three of your moves have priority, and the fourth usually only gets used against slowish Steel-types that Talonflame outruns without investment, so seems a shame to waste EVs on Speed. Though reducing bulk does have the advantage of making Talonflame a better lure, and so protecting Blastoise's HP and Water Spout power, I still feel that this isn't worth it. First of all, Greninja and Talonflame are strong lures already, and most of the time, the dangerous faster-than-Mat-Block Electric-types open with an attack on Greninja or Talonflame anyway. Secondly, Talonflame really likes to brawl, and takes a ton of recoil damage. It ends up surviving a lot of attacks at less than 31 HP, the amount it gains from a Max HP spread. What this means is that the extra HP really do come into play a bunch, which is particularly important when facing things like Trick Room teams where the battle is made substantially easier the more priority Brave Birds I am able to fire off. Finally, because I have a powerful backup central sweeper, I'm much more willing to risk Blastoise's health. If something bad does happen to Blastoise, my main strategy still works fine, as Sylveon can come in and start sweeping. Very few foes can handle an onslaught of Water Spouts followed by Specs Pixilate Hyper Voices, so it's much less valuable to weaken Talonflame just to try to deflect attention from Blastoise. Note that Talonflame is on the right since it usually is the first of my pokes to faint, so that's often the spot in which Sylveon will enter the battle. Since the AI always fills the right spot first when it has more spots to fill than remaining Pokemon, this helps ensure that Sylveon will be well positioned for finishing off its foes.
Sylveon is an amazing central sweeper in its own right (a very casually built Sylveon team previously took me to over 400 wins), and I originally planned this team to pair Sylveon with Mega Gardevoir. But helpful discussion with
SimicCombine,
Eppie, and
turskain convinced me that a teaming up with Blastoise would be even better, and that as teammates, it makes more sense to use Blastoise as the lead. Here, Sylveon does two things. First, in the event Blastoise gets quickly KOed (rare, but it does happen on occasion), Sylveon can step in and do the same job, firing off Hyper Voices that are almost as powerful as full-strength Water Spouts. Better still, Sylveon is pretty bulky, letting it tank some hits, and Hyper Voice does not lose power as Sylveon takes damage, so even at 1 HP, Sylveon is still able to smash through foes. This sweeper redundancy really increases the reliability of the team. Most of the time, though, Blastoise is not the first Pokemon on my team to get KOed, but Sylveon remains my go-to first substitute, normally coming in on the right side for a knocked out Talonflame. Though this leaves the foe on the far left safe from Hyper Voice, that's usually not a problem, as even bulky resistant Pokemon have extreme trouble tanking Water Spout + Hyper Voice, and once the far left foe is isolated, it's easy to mop up. Also remember that against an isolated far left foe, Sylveon can shift to the middle to move into range, while Blastoise will still be able to reach it after the shift with Aura Sphere. I never used a move other than Hyper Voice for the entire streak, but wouldn't have lost had I changed that up in the final battle. Shows the danger of a good heuristic in the rare situation where it breaks down. Autopilot kills.
As the whole team was built around pairing Mega Blastoise and Sylveon with Mat Block + Tailwind support from Greninja and Talonflame, the last two slots were up in the air for a long time. I originally went with Aron and Heatran, which did decently, but left me dangerously low on physical attackers, and vulnerable against things Aron couldn't effectively hurt, like Ghost-types. Though my final two Pokemon don't need to come in very often, when they do, it's important that they can handle a lot of threats, and I worried that Aron and Heatran were generically good but not the best fit for this team. While I used them for the first 321 battles of this streak, I felt sure I could do better.
SimicCombine and Eppie both strongly recommended Garchomp, who complements the Electric-type weakness of the three leads (not normally a big issue), provides a powerful physical attacker (important), and can sometimes even play the role of a third spread-sweeper with potent STAB Earthquakes (somewhat important). Unfortunately, however, Garchomp's Earthquakes can be hard to synergize with a team full of grounded teammates. Since I wasn't going to give up on Sylveon, I was stumped for a while on a good solution. Finally, I found one that hasn't really gotten much Maison use at all. Mienshao. Mienshao learns Wide Guard, letting it protect its teammates while Garchomp Earthquakes. It also shuts down all the Blizzards that foes love to aim at Garchomp. Better still, Mienshao can Fake Out. With multiple powerful spread sweepers, sometimes, just buying an extra turn for them can win the battle on its own, and Fake Out is ideal for that. Sadly, High Jump Kick's accuracy makes for an unreliable attack, but Low Kick makes a decent substitute. I thought about Razor Fang + Fling as a way to double up on flinch turns, but decided I'd rather be able to survive Earthquakes while Faking Out, so went with Air Balloon instead, and used the Fling movespot for Knock Off, which lets me hit the Ghost- and Psychic-types who would otherwise laugh at Mienshao's attacks. Even without Garchomp in play, Mienshao supports its teammates wonderfully, so I almost always send out Mienshao before I send out Chomp, unless of course two slots open simultaneously. Mienshao's biggest weakness is that it is extremely frail, so many foes can OHKO him. It's possible that I should switch to a Hasty or Naive nature and run a mixed set of Fake Out / Aura Sphere / Knock Off / Wide Guard, since the perfect accuracy and cross-field strike ability of Aura Sphere are really valuable, but for the moment, I'm worried enough about the loss of attacking power that I'm sticking with the Jolly spread.
Because Garchomp is normally my last Pokemon out, he gets by far the least use on my team, but does a good job tying everything together. Sometimes, though, when multiple foes fear Earthquake, I'll bring him in early on one of the sides instead of Sylveon, as Blastoise can Protect while Garchomp quakes. Chomp's Earthquakes and Dragon Claws offer tons of power and wonderful STAB coverage, and thanks to his 4x Ice-type weakness, he sometimes can use Protect to play the lure role. I originally ran Lum Berry, but realized that late in battle, when Garchomp normally comes out, foes don't normally try to status him, so I'm better off with another item. I went with turskain's suggestion of Life Orb for maximum attacking power, but I'm still torn as to whether I should run Yache Berry instead.
Play and Threats:
Most of the time, battles are extremely smooth. Mat Block + Tailwind + Water Spout on the first turn, and Water Spout + two attacks on the second hopefully sweep all of the foe's three leads, and from a six to three advantage, it's normally trivial to wrap up the battle. While rare, I sometimes even get to live the dream and win battles in two turns total, which always brings a grin. I normally bring in Sylveon after my first faint, then Mienshao, and lastly Garchomp, though occasionally the order will change based on specific foe weaknesses or immunities. For the most part, the team is extremely easy to play.
Powerful attackers that can attack me before Mat Block goes up are worrisome, but not normally a huge problem. Many of these powerful attackers are Electric-types, and since my entire front line is Electric-weak, and Blastoise is far bulkier than Talonflame or Greninja, normally my wingers draw these attacks, leaving Blastoise healthy for its Water Spout. Greninja will survive thanks to its Sash, so it can still Mat Block the other first turn attacks, while Talonflame gets priority on Tailwind, so even if it is KOed on the first turn, barring oddities like Fake Out + Thunder, it will still have done its most important job. Even in the rare situations where Blastoise does eat a big Thunder, Sylveon is waiting in the wings to step in and fill the sweeper role nicely.
Quick Claw Pokemon are much more of a threat, since they are bulky enough to survive a first turn Water Spout, meaning they have the potential to attack before me on both the first and second rounds of the battle. Leafeon4's Quick Claw Leaf Blade won't KO Blastoise, but it will substantially neuter Water Spout, forcing Blastoise to rely on its single target attacks or play the role of a Protect lure until it is KOed. Even worse is Muk4, since it can and will use Explosion on the very first turn of battle. Though Tailwind will still go first, Muk's Quick Claw Explosion can devastate my entire front row, leaving me substantially weakened for the rest of the battle. Donphan4 isn't as evil as it is in singles, but the threat of Quick Claw Fissure is real (even though it usually prefers to Seed Bomb Blastoise or Stone Edge Talonflame). Urasring is the least irritating to face, but is still not a favorite. Though I'm often stuck just hoping Quick Claw doesn't activate on the first turn of battle, on the second turn it is almost always correct to Brave Bird a low Quick Claw foe, since the priority means you'll outspeed (and KO) them even if Quick Claw activates. Custap Berry users (particularly with Explosion like Skuntank4) should similarly be treated to a second round Brave Bird if they are low enough that the berry will trigger.
First turn status moves on Blastoise can also be problematic. Burns obviously don't bother it, but sleep, confusion, and paralysis can all cause big trouble, particularly if they land before Blastoise is able to use its first turn Water Spout. Against possible confusion, it's typically best to play the first turn as normal and just switch out Blastoise for Sylveon on the second turn if Blastoise gets confused, but against a predicted Thunder Wave or Hypnosis, it's often correct for Blastoise to Protect on the first turn. You lose your first turn Water Spout, which can hinder the ability to cleanly sweep the foe's front three on the second turn, but in exchange, you pretty much guarantee you'll get to act before any status moves on the second turn, and can often use Greninja and Talonflame's attacks to help ensure that the status-using foe, if perhaps not its teammates, will be KOed before it gets to act. When it's unclear whether a status move will be used or which of your Pokemon will be targeted, run the usual worst-case scenario analysis. Do I lose more from passing on first turn Water Spout and Protecting, or would I lose more from having Blastoise put to sleep? The answer to this of course depends heavily on the set of foes you are facing.
Obviously, Wide Guard can be frustrating for a team built around spread attacks, but normally, you can play around it. Firstly, there aren't many Pokemon with the move. Of the foes you face after battle 40, only Bastiodon4, Mienshao4, and Regigigas4 carry Wide Guard. Secondly, these foes are pretty erratic in their use of the move, meaning you can often get away with attacking with Water Spout anyway. It's completely anecdotal, but it seems to me that the AI is much more likely to use Wide Guard on the second turn of battle than the first, so one can often safely slip in a first turn spread attack. More importantly, however, is that your Pokemon cover the three Wide Guard users pretty well. Bastiodon hates Aura Sphere, and Mienshao is easily OHKOed by Brave Bird. Regigigas is bulky and can sometimes cause further trouble with Confuse Ray, but STAB Grass Knot hits its massive weight hard, while Aura Sphere hits its weakness, so it's not too bad either. As always for toss up situations, I try to worst case scenario analyze things when deciding whether to open with a spread attack into a possible Wide Guard or instead use single target attacks until the Wide Guarder is KOed. Note that if you choose to use single target attacks on the opening turn, you usually have to on the second turn too, since if you set up Tailwind and Mat Block, all you have to KO with on the first turn are Blastoise's Ice Beam and Aura Sphere, which can only OHKO non-Sturdy Bastiodon. Later in the battle, if Sylveon is in, Wide Guard is even more annoying since Sylveon normally locks into Hyper Voice which can be walled indefinitely, and Bastiodon4 can even be Soundproof, making it completely immune. When Sylveon is in play, its teammates really need to focus everything on KOing Bastiodon immediately.
One might think that Pokemon with Water Absorb and similar abilities would be big threats for a team looking to fire off massive Water Spouts, but for the most part, they are not a problem. First, many of them are covered easily by Greninja and Talonflame. For example, lots of these Pokemon are bulky Water-types, or even more happily, Water / Ground-types, making them very vulnerable to Grass Knot. Dry Skin Toxicroak is easily dispatched by Brave Bird. Cradily is weak to both Ice Beam and Aura Sphere. Finally, those that aren't easy pickings for other attacks can normally be ignored for a turn or two until the foes have been thinned out a bit. Cradily is not much of a threat to anything, and Vaporeon really doesn't hit this team too hard. Sure, it can KO Talonflame, but then it just gets beat on by Sylveon for the remainder of the battle. Obviously, when I'm facing multiple possible Water Absorbers, a first turn Water Spout is usually a bad idea. In such a situations, an opening switch to Sylveon will sometimes guarantee an easy second turn KO of the foe's lead three, while other times, I can just count on two turns of Aura Sphere / Ice Beam plus Talonflame and Greninja's second turn attacks to get the job done. I also love to switch to Sylveon when I expect a lead Fake Out, particularly from something heavily water resistant like Ludicolo. So long as I don't autopilot too badly, Water Absorb isn't hard to play around.
Trick Room can be quite threatening, since I'm a little thin on priority attacks with this team. Against a full squad of slow trick roomers, like teams used by Hex Maniac Mara, it's very important to take full advantage of my first turn attacks before Trick Room is up. Tailwind in particular is counterproductive, so Talonflame absolutely needs to attack, and because many Trick Roomers tend to use first turn set up moves (including Trick Room itself) rather than attacks, it's usually right for Greninja to attack too. It's pretty hard to KO three bulky trick roomers at once, so Mara is usually able to get Trick Room active, but if I can gain a six to four advantage after the first turn, even under Trick Room, I'm well positioned. Even if I can only KO one, sometimes both of the surviving foes will use Trick Room, resulting in one setting it up and one taking it down, which of course turns potentially tough battles into jokes. Once Trick Room is up, Talonflame becomes hugely valuable, because the priority on Brave Bird lets it pick off weakened foes before they can act. Fake Out from Mienshao is likewise very helpful. Otherwise, proper play becomes much more reliant on prediction and stall. While it's not always smart to try to stall out all five turns of Trick Room, by taking advantage of the AI's tendancy to go for KOs, it's often possible to have my lowest health Pokemon Protect, lure a ton of attacks, and have its teammates attack unimpeded. Play against Trick Room is often hardest against a "mixed" foe, where one Pokemon is a slow Trick Room user while its teammates are more normal-Speed Pokemon. I usually play aggressively to stop the Trick Room, since with a Tailwind blowing, even "normal" foes are going to go before me under Trick Room conditions, but choosing to have Talonflame and/or Greninja attacking the first turn rather than using their standard Mat Block + Tailwind can leave me more vulnerable later in the battle against a mixed team. Accordingly, if I do have to attack with Talonflame against such a foe to prevent a Trick Room, I'll almost always Tailwind on the second turn, unless all of the foes can still be outrun naturally. Against a typical opponent, things go much, much more smoothly with Tailwind up, so I'd much rather use the move late than never. But like all decisions, this is situation dependent, and the late Tailwind play can sometimes be a wasteful mistake, as it was on my final battle.
Most battles with this team are pretty straightforward, with simple decision trees. Thus, I don't have a lot of fancy strategic advice to give. That said, there are a few general points to keep in mind. First, remember that you don't always need to pound away with Water Spout. Your big goal is to wipe out as many of your first three foes as possible in the first two turns, and sometimes, that's easy to do by just attacking away with single target moves. This is particularly true against Grass-type foes, where all three of your leads can hit them super effectively with single target moves. I'm easily in the double digits on battles won where I never used a spread move at all. Second, remember the "Shift" command. It's not super common, but there are times you want to set up Garchomp out of reach of a foe and then shift him into range, or move Sylveon into range of something on the far left, and Shift lets you do this. Shift plays especially well with center Blastoise, because even shifted to an edge, Blastoise can still reach the far side of the field with Aura Sphere. Third, and this should go for all battle Maison battles, stay alert. Things can be going wonderfully well, and then you can forget an ability or move your foe carries and suddenly find yourself in a deep hole. As this team plays through battles quickly, it's easy to "get in the zone" and play through a ton of battles in a row while only half paying attention. This is a clear recipe for eventual disaster, and indeed, led to my loss here.
How I Lost:
I lost to Hex Maniac Anastasia, with a lead threesome of Metagross / Slowking / Musharna and Froslass / Mr. Mime / Slowbro in reserve. This was a classic "mixed" Trick Room team, so clearly threatening, but everything seemed to be going fine early, since I had all of my Pokemon alive (though low from a Metagross3 Explosion) while Anastasia lost her full lead threesome. But then the wheels came off, and dual screen Mr. Mime3 wrecked me. Well, actually, my poor play did, but it was poor play regarding Mr. Mime in particular. I'd have been fine, but first, midway through the battle I needlessly used Tailwind rather than just Brave Bird away. Then I completely forgot that Mr. Mime could have Soundproof, and so wrongly sent out Sylveon instead of Mienshao. Worse, I could still have come out okay had I recognized this risk immediately after the misdeployment and chosen to lock into an unexciting but functional Shadow Ball (the first time I would have used the move) but I stuck with my autopilot play, merrily used Hyper Voice expecting the KO, and swore loudly when the Soundproof immunity flashed on the screen. To really rub things in, I still very nearly stole the win, coming within a few slivers of health on Mr. Mime of getting there despite my foolishness. BAH!
Lesson: Autopilot ends streaks. It's so obvious, and yet I almost always forget it at some point. Really, I should etch it onto my 3DS or some such….
Embarrassing Loss Video:
D4BW-WWWW-WWW9-A34H
