Everyone is always talking about how good Mega Salamence and Aegislash are in Super Singles, and yeah, I'd certainly agree. Or the tried and Tru(Ant) strategy that aims to turn the AI off long enough for a setup + sweep, which is also incredible in its own right. But here, I'd like to explore a core that I believed had a lot of potential to shine, using Pokemon below Ubers and without evasion, etc.
Hi, I'm back at it again to report an ongoing streak with an incredible
1600 Wins in Battle Tree Super Singles. The team I am using revolves around the same core of Gliscor and Toxapex as before, with some tweaks that I'll get to in a bit and a new member I think might even be underexplored. Some might be familiar with these, but I'll share the sets I used below:
Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Impish Nature
EVs: 204 HP / 4 Atk / 148 Def / 84 SpD / 68 Spe
- Protect
- Substitute
- Earthquake
- Toxic
Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Calm Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 108 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Recover
- Scald
- Stockpile
For those unfamiliar, this core revolves around using the incredible typing synergy between Gliscor's Ground/Flying, which is immune to the ground and electric moves that Toxapex's Poison/Water draws out. At the same time, Toxapex not only strongly resists Gliscor's weaknesses of Ice and Water, but can easily shrug off even boosted attacks of these types thanks to Regenerator or Recover. Using their strong sources of passive recovery, there are not many pokemon in Battle Tree which are capable of breaking through these 2 alone. Many Pokemon which are even capable of boosting their offensive capabilities can find themselves stonewalled by Gliscor's combination of Substitute, Protect, and the Poison Heal recovery that allows Gliscor to continuously perform this combination of moves without losing overall HP. Not only so, but it also prevents annoying status like Paralysis, Burn, and Sleep.
Even though this core is already very strong, there are still some Pokemon capable of either outright breaking through this core or heavily denting one or the other. Some examples of these can include:
Latios/Latias -> Even with SpAtk drops from Draco Meteor, these just hurt. Even moreso if Latios has Choice Specs. The only saving grace against these monsters is that against Gliscor they'll want to Draco, which can make them easier to deal with barring crits. But if Latios ever locks into Specs Psychic, then it's pretty much game over. Mega Latios with DD can also be dangerous in its own right due to the potential to boost and flinch Gliscor, preventing a sub. Mega Latias also just hits really hard with Psychic but at least barring a crit, Gliscor could handle it.
Alakazam -> Just cooks this team with psychic. Gliscor would at least have a chance to sub vs mega but specs is very likely to just blow these 2 to smithereens with boosted Psychic
Serperior -> We all know what this snake is capable of. If Gliscor doesnt have a sub and this thing has Contrary, it's likely over. The more threatening set is set 4, since Gliscor can at least sub vs set 3.
Greninja-4 -> If it's protean, Extrasensory threatens to heavily damage Pex and flinch, preventing Toxic. It also has coverage for Gliscor, so PP stalling it isnt possible either.
Other Water/Psychics like Bruxish, Slow twins, and Starmie have Psychic moves that Gliscor just cannot heal off from Poison Heal recovery enough to stall them out.
From these, it's pretty clear what these 2 needed was a psychic resist. There are 3 types to choose from: Dark, Psychic, or Steel. Immediately, Psychic isnt a really a consideration because it would open my team up to scary Dark and Ghost types, which this team doesnt have a resist for. Previously, as an exception, I used Mega Gardevoir and it was at least reasonable in dealing with these special attackers (while not being weak to Dark), though I had to play with much more vigilance due to it being frail, aiming to preserve it whenever possible so that it could take these threats on. Dark type might at least have some interesting options, but there were other bases I needed to cover that I didnt quite feel they handled. They either don't have enough damage output against the remainder of types I don't resist or don't have enough bulk to withstand them. That leaves Steel type. With its many resistances I had not yet covered, I was now ready to experiment or theorycraft which ones would do the job. Below are the ones I've at least considered using:
Celesteela -> Actually attempted this one, but the main issue with it is susceptibility to the electric moves Psychic types often carry. Latios, Azelf, and a few others carry Tbolt or Thunder, and while Celesteela resists Psychic, it would be heavily dented from attempting to PP stall these moves. The other issue is that Celesteela is especially vulnerable to Magnezone trapping via Magnet Pull. Having my only psychic resist destroyed this way would surely open my team up to other nasty special attackers.
Mega Mawile -> Gives the team some offensive presence and useful priority in Sucker Punch. Its steel fairy typing would be quite solid too especially with the useful lead intimidate, but is also weak to zone trapping. To make matters worse, the magnet rise set can just Thunder Wave on the turn I click Sucker, so dealing with it is no guarantee. Finally, I basically need to mega evolve turn 1 or else it has subpar bulk and even resisted hits are dealing significant damage
Mega Scizor -> This Pokemon would have had potential if not for being weak to any Gyarados with Intimidate. Though Gyara-4 can be heavily chipped with U-Turn, set 3 would get a DD with little impunity. SpDef investment would also be a must for the likes of Greninja but at least it isn't weak to the other coverage options that Psychic types tend to run. Still, it faces an issue with Magnezone trapping, who can freely click twave before Scizor is capable of using U-Turn to escape. Despite these shortcomings, Mega Scizor would make many of the annoying Pokemon less so, especially with its ability to potentially win with a SD sweep. Priority Bullet Punch would be quite useful too, so Scizor would be worth at least trying out
Mega Aggron -> This was a more interesting option presented to me by someone else. It could utilize a setup set like Curse + Rest, and with Spdef investment could be used to break even special attackers with coverage via Filter plus having boosts to OHKO them back. However, I'd be risking crits against opposing setup pokemon like Gyarados and Haxorus (Mold Breaker hurts) just to name a couple. Also, I think you can guess what Pokemon this is weak to (depending on its chosen attacking moves) by this point. It really doesnt help that Magnezone is one of the MOST common pokemon, especially thanks to that damned Colress. Lacking reliable recovery doesnt help its case either since every time Rest is used, it gives 3 chances for the opponent to crit.
Aegislash -> Finally a good steel type that is never afraid of being trapped. It also helps that it has immunity against 2 of the OHKO moves (Guillotine, Horn Drill), while also having a ridiculous number of resists. There are still a couple issues though, namely Greninja-4 (who would have to be Protean) and Gyara-4. The former is significantly easier to deal with. Even if it's Protean, Gren would have to crit Pex to prevent it from having multiple attempts to hit Toxic through the chance for Extrasensory to flinch. Gyarados, on the other hand, is much more problematic since it has super-effective Crunch while having DD, making King's Shield a risk to use. It doesn't help that Gyara has intimidate, limiting Aegislash's options to deal with it offensively.
I had only one Steel type left to consider. The thorniest, prickliest of the steels, in fact. Enter the legend, and probably what could be the greatest pokemon to pair with Gliscor and Toxapex: Ferrothorn.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Impish Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Protect
- Gyro Ball
So this set was a bit experimental but I thought it was a solid place to begin. But let's start with the bread and butter of this team, Leech Seed. I know folks are going to call out the 90 Accuracy, BUT it was made that way for a reason by GameFreak, and after using it myself I understand why. Not only does it restore your own HP with what is in many cases roughly equal to a Poison Heal recovery, but also wears down the opponent AT THE SAME TIME. This is truly powerful when you can have enough bulk to make slow subbing a non issue in most cases (which is like a second protect) and using Protect in tandem to pull off some truly amazing passive recovery. Not only so, but it also takes advantage of the fact that the AI rarely switches. I would say that overall, Leech Seed is a low risk high reward move to use, in light of these traits.
Ferrothorn might well be the best user of this move, and the reason is because not only does it have enough bulk to attempt to land multiple times, but when it does hit, its teammates can allow it to quickly gain its HP back through the combination of baiting out resisted moves and using Protect, and this is in the worst case. To demonstrate what I mean, take this calc:
252 Atk Tough Claws Mega Metagross-4 Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 4+ Def Ferrothorn: 88-104 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 45.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Metagross needs 2 consecutive high rolls (about a 1/64 chance) after 2 lefties AND leech has to miss twice (barring crits of course). The gist here is that even though Metagross threatens Ferrothorn, there is still a well over 90 percent chance that it's getting the Leech Seed, and this assumes that I HAVE to stay in vs this thing and that Ferro doesnt already have a sub. If Ferro does get the leech, then even if it is at low HP you can protect, then suddenly it's able to recover a significant portion back by going Pex on Brick Break then back to Ferro on resisted Zen Headbutt, rinse and repeat.
Here's another calc from a Pokemon that I considered to be a threat to the other steel type options:
252 Atk Mega Gyarados-4 Crunch vs. 252 HP / 4+ Def Ferrothorn: 57-67 (31.5 - 37%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
Here, Ferrothorn would have to miss
3 consecutive Leech Seeds for this to become scary (0.1% chance). The point here is that the 90 percent accuracy is more than mitigated, especially because even against low HP pokemon like Alakazam, Ferrothorn still ends up with an HP SURPLUS after spending for Sub when leech is combined with lefties.
Oh, and the slow sub is the icing on the cake. Yeah, you heard that right. If there's something Ferro is able to sub on, it definitely CAN and can still gain most of its HP back from taking the first hit. You also guarantee having a sub into the next pokemon save for Iron Ball Avalugg (cant underspeed it lmao). Having Ferro pre-subbed is also really powerful because you can even choose to sub tect stall low PP moves that are either fighting or fire (hilariously beating some Heatran and both Delphox 3/4 since they cannot threaten Ferro once these are gone) or getting another attempt to hit leech.
This Ferrothorn set synergizes really well with the other teammates, especially with having leech recovery to further amp up Toxapex's ability to Regen stall or giving Gliscor essentially a second poison heal. The steel grass typing also gives Ferro a resist to 2 types that threaten Pex, and an additional water resist for Gliscor. Iron Barbs isnt used too often but really helps secure a KO against Metagross in exchange for some chip damage for example. It can also come in clutch vs something like a gyara-4 if Gliscor is in, absorbing the waterfall and inflicting chip in return. Ironically, Ferro's dual fire weakness can also be a strength. I know that sounds backwards, but crucially against Pokemon like ZardX or Tflame-4, those Pokemon almost never boost in front of Ferro because they love double weaknesses and see a kill. Only ever seen zardX DD once in all the roughly 2800 games I've played and that's when Ferro had a sub. All of these traits combined help address many of the shortcomings of this team, at least more than any of the other Steel types I'd considered. Even foes like Greninja and Sharpedo-3, the former of which can flinch and the latter of which does absurd damage thanks to strong jaw, can be dealt with by Ferrothorn in the vast majority of cases.
Overall, the strategy of this team is to wear threats down with the combination of Leech Seed, Toxic, or both, while using the combination of solid defensive type synergy, strong passive recovery, and protect to stall out problematic moves. The game states which are best to achieve are having a sub on Ferro or Gliscor when the next Pokemon enters the field, but having +3 on Toxapex can be useful (though I rarely use the boosts, more on this later). Exploiting the AI tendencies is the name of the game, while also having reliable ways to remove most of the variance throughout a match.
Now it's time to talk about some threats to this team. I'd say there are 3 levels of threats
Threat level
DANGER:
Pokemon that are likely to become game ending
1. Bewear-3: Beware of the Bewear set 3... Coverage against every Pokemon on my team? Check. A way to boost its attack sky high, making even resisted Hammer Arm unmanageable? Double check. The icing on the cake? A stupid quick claw to thwart Gliscor's attempt to neutralize it via PP stalling. Triple check. Seriously, do not mess with this bear. I've got pretty lucky the 3 times I fought it in this streak because if care isnt taken or it clicks the wrong move, this Pokemon can take this team to the cleaners. It's best to attempt Toxic ASAP, even if it means risking crit or paralysis, though the set ambiguity of it possibly being nuclear normalium Z giga impact is also makes it scary. This pokemon singlehandedly made me consider using Baneful Bunker on Toxapex over Stockpile. The one saving grace is that Bewear-3 is one of the least common Pokemon to face.
Threat level WARNING:
These are Pokemon that have a decent chance to remove at least one Pokemon from play, or would require substantial hax to win
1. Salamence-4: Easily most threatening on lead. It forces Ferrothorn to Protect on turn 1 since this can also be mence-3 with Fire Blast. Most likely, Ferrothorn will end up on low HP without a sub because unresisted double-edge does too much damage for Ferrothorn to end up with enough HP to sub (fairly small chance that it could sub). If leech hits, Ferro is guaranteed to at least survive barring crits. Otherwise, Ferrothorn is getting sacked so that Gliscor can attempt a sub. Thankfully in this case, Mence will likely end up KO'ing itself to recoil while Gliscor is safe behind sub. Overall, if this appears on lead, there's about a 1/240 chance for this to become game-ending.
2. Vikavolt-4: If this thing appears, I go for leech seed immediately. Gliscor cannot be sent in due to the risk of Guillotine. I've rarely lost a Pokemon to it but it can definitely remove at least one of my Pokemon, and comes in second here because (at least on paper) has a decent chance to do so. It really doesnt help that Bug Buzz goes around Gliscor's sub and deals good damage. Should Ferro go down, my only hope is to get a sub and hit toxic asap, pray it doesnt get spdef drops or crits.
3. Talonflame-4: This bird is pretty dangerous thanks to having high base power STAB moves and SD. Brave bird hits especially hard since I've no resist. Thankfully it never uses SD on Ferrothorn unless it is Acrobatics (no Flare Blitz, set 3 is actually laughable) because, as mentioned before, it wants to click the double SE FBlitz. Go Toxapex first and immediately Toxic. There is still a good chance for this to SD twice, in which case Ferrothorn is likely getting sacked, depending on what the trainer can use. I've contemplated on whether or not it would be better to simply click Scald from Pex over Toxic. This was actually one of the reasons I decided against Gliscor lead. It can burn with FBlitz or SD on protect.
4. Tornadus-1/4: Easily the most dangerous thing about this Pokemon is the z move. It needs to be played around with care because there is no flying resist, so Z Hurricane is dealing massive damage to anyone. Pex has a good chance to get KO'd after eating a hurricane, for instance. If it's on lead, I click leech seed with Ferro since focus blast won't get a KO. Worst case, I can sack Ferro on the Z move if needed. Luckily it can also be damage scouted since set 2 is modest. Tornadus-4 is a different beast altogether. Because it has Taunt, PP stalling really isnt an option. The best thing to do is simply attack. It loves to click Rain Dance or Taunt over attacking, but the worst case is that it uses Rain Dance first since if it goes for Taunt first, Rain Dance is a free turn and now you're only Taunted for 1 more. Scald from Pex is a 3 hit KO, but Gyro Ball is 2 hits. I generally just ignore Focus Blast if Ferro is out and it is Torn-4.
5. All other OHKO Pokemon: These are only problematic if a sub doesnt exist, easily most threatening on lead. Of these, Glalie-3 can easily be the scariest, especially if it has Moody. These will likely result in Ferrothorn being sacked, but the saving grace is that the AI doesnt like OHKO moves that much. The biggest enabler Pokemon would be Arena Trap Dugtrio-2 with Fissure, but should it hit Ferro then Gliscor is guaranteed a sub
6. Terrakion: The worst part about this thing is set ambiguity. If I know it can't be set 3, then this is not at all a problem. There are 2 trainer types, however, that can have all 4: Gentlemen and Hiker. Generally, I leave Ferrothorn in on it to OHKO with Gyro since the risk of it using Swords Dance is greater than the risk of losing Ferrothorn to a crit or Expert Belt Close Combat. The only exception to this might be the Veteran trainers who have this on set 3/4 where Latios/Latias can appear. Even if Ferro goes down, I can often end up with a sub on Gliscor, which can be instrumental to winning in this case.
7. Decidueye-4: Paired with the correct Pokemon, this can bring a streak to an end. It's worth pointing out that this is really rare since it would have to be a special attacker, and if so, faster than Gliscor. Also, if I can reliably resist the Pokemon, it would need at least +4. In all the games I've played, I had Decidueye-4 become a problem twice. Once against Kukui where it set up 2 NP and passed to Primarina-3 (Gliscor PP stalled) and the other where it passed a +2 to Charizard-Y. The correct move is to go Gliscor immediately and maintain a Substitute
Threat level CAUTION:
Pokemon that are fairly well accounted for, but can remove one or more pokemon with substantial hax OR setup unfavorable situations that other Pokemon can exploit
1. Drampa-4: With access to Glare, Gliscor cannot come in safely and Focus Blast means that Ferro is taking a lot of damage. If on lead, then at least Pex or Ferro are getting paralyzed, which can make for some pretty annoying situations. Once out of Dracos, can swap from the paralyzed Pokemon into Gliscor safely, who gets a sub
2. Volcarona-4: Hurricane has the 30% chance to confuse Toxapex, though if Pex comes in immediately to Toxic it isnt too threatening. Paying close attention to crit ranges and confusion is paramount to dealing with this without losing anything. Ferrothorn can eat a hurricane if needed, which baits heat wave for Pex to reset confusion
3. Chandelure: Due to the risk of Infiltrator, Toxapex should immediately switch in to get Toxic ASAP. Set 4 is most dangerous, but similar to volc-4, Ferro can eat a shadow ball if needed, protect, then swap back to Pex on heat wave. Havent lost anything to this, but it can get out of hand if it boosts too much. Worst case, Gliscor can EQ it and get the KO after a few turns of Toxic
4. Gengar-4: Mega Gengar hits Ferro pretty hard and can score SpDef drops. Pretty sure that hitting Gyro first is the better play since Gengar will want to Destiny Bond at low HP. I've also leech stalled it, which is more risky due to potential drops and/or crits but haven't yet had Ferro outright removed by it. If Pex is in, always go Gliscor since EQ will get the KO and if Gengar-4, it will Tbolt, giving safe entry to Gliscor who can EQ it.
Other Pokemon which require specific plays:
Mamoswine-3: On lead, just stay in. AI can go for Avalanche at random, and so it's better to risk Ferro. I tend to go for Sub first in case of Fissure. Even if it turns out to be set 4, leech seed can help Ferro get some HP back
Ribombee (lead): Just. Gyro Ball. It. If allowed to get even one Quiver Dance, it can baton pass into something threatening and Gliscor would be less likely to save it because of the speed boost.
I think that about wraps it up for threats. Below are some notable battles I had from the current streak. A disclaimer though, I did not record the first 500 games live, which already makes this streak suspicious. To make matters worse, I did the games over the span of 2 days using a combination of no-life for those days and 600% emulator speed. Though I regret this decision, I have a few battles that I saved from those first 500 that are worth mentioning.
Another quick disclaimer, I used PkHex to create the team and modify the Effort Values on Gliscor, whose changes will be explained at the end. The team was validated using both the functionality on PS (under Gen 7 Battle Spot Singles) and validation within PkHex.
The proof of my streak can be found on my channel
here, some 1100 battles with all livestreams for the current streak denoted as "Attempt #2". Without further ado, here are some of the most memorable games!
1. Battle 79. Lead Shiinotic was no big deal, as I'd go Pex and Toxic. It spored, so when Pex woke up I went Ferrothorn for the easy sub. Next comes the dreaded Walrein-4 but with Ferro's sub I wasnt afraid. I stalled it out of OHKO moves and Sleep Talk then swap to Gliscor for some reason (maybe to preserve PP?). The AI then switches into... Mismagius-4! This was quite a problem because thanks to Walrein being unable to attack and the AI switching on the last turn of perish, it could have multiple attempts to remove a Pokemon. I went through 2 cycles of this with Gliscor, never allowing it to break the sub. After the first Perish with Gliscor I went Pex and immediately back to Glis, which I realize now was risky since it opened up the opportunity for Mean Look (AI swaps back to Mismagius immediately on the turn Glis comes back in). Luckily it clicks Protect instead as Gliscor subs. I end up going Ferrothorn to sub on the harmless Walrein after the second Perish since Mismagius' power gem never breaks Ferro's sub in one hit. After that, I leeched Walrein before it ran out of Rest (should not have done since Ferro already used a good number of moves stalling walrein) and it struggled to death eventually. Mismagius then KO's itself with Perish Song. Scary combo that would show up later...
2. Battle 317, this Mismagius-4 shows up again, this time on lead. I immediately sub as it protects (thank god it didnt mean look). Mega Pidgeot with Tailwind comes out as I go Gliscor from Ferro on last turn of Perish. Pex comes in and stalls it down with Toxic, and Lax 4 comes in next. Easy Gliscor win vs Lax4, but then Mismagius comes back in after Gliscor's sub goes down to Lax Body Slam on the turn I clicked Protect! Then Mismagius clicks Mean Look.... I thought this one would be over, but I immediately go for Toxic as it uses Power Gem. It does eventually go for Perish Song but it was 1 turn too late due to Toxic. Had Gliscor perished, Lax could have won with Fissure. Another AI quirk I hadn't realized is that if EQ is used and there is a Levitate Pokemon on the team, the AI can switch it in randomly. Oops.
3. Battle 486, with lead Mamoswine-3. I learned from last time and just immediately sub with Ferro as it used Hail. Once Hail ran out, I used leech seed and stalled it down. Garde-3 comes out next, which is easy leech for Ferro. Bisharp with Taunt was annoying but Gliscor beat it with Sub for metal burst + EQ. Nothing notable, just applying my learnings on that Mamoswine that ended a run.
4. Battle 610 against Kiawe. Lead Talonflame-4 (big scary). I immediately go Pex for the Toxic as it Flare Blitz. All according to plan. I click Toxic and it clicks Swords Dance. Okay, not the worst thing in the world. I go back to Ferrothorn to eat the +2 Brave Bird without risking Pex to a crit (losing Pex would be a disaster if this guy has Salazzle) but it clicks SD again. Kiawe was done messing around. Well, I protect with Ferro for more toxic and back to Pex on the +4 Flare Blitz. Ouch that hurts. At this point, I had no choice but to sack Ferro on +4 BB. I go Gliscor next (why did I do this, Pex would have been better due to not being full from Regen!). Next comes out the Salazzle (Nasty Plot) and it uses Fake Out as I go Pex. Scald is a 2hko, so I go for it as it sets up one Nasty Plot. After that, the scariest thing Kiawe could have comes out, and it's an angry Kangaskhan-4, who luckily caught Gliscor's first Toxic. Swap stall with Pex + Protect on Gliscor was enough to bring it down
5. Battle 697 against Punk Girl. She leads with Zoroark disguised as a Glalie. Uh-oh, if this is Glalie-3 that could be very bad. Well, as I protect on the potential Glalie-4 clicking Explosion, it reveals itself to be Zoroark instead. I do my best to get that sub + leech but the next thing that comes in is Contrary Malamar, after the Zoroark uses U-Turn. I stayed in with Ferro, clicking Leech. This was a mistake because it granted Malamar the opportunity to get +2, which it did. I go Gliscor on the second Superpower and then forgot about Z move. In my defense, the base move Foul Play would have done less than Psycho Cut, so I wasn't worried about Z. As I attempt to go for sub, it clicks the Z move! Gliscor goes down and I had to stall out the rest of the Superpower. At that point it was +3, but even then not a threat to Ferrothorn due to lacking Night Slash. I got the sub, then stalled it down with leech. Zoroark goes down too, making sure sub stayed on my side. Glalie-3 then comes in and at this point I doubted that thanks to Glalie using Protect, Ferro wouldnt have enough PP to stall out all the Sheer Cold. I go for Gyro Ball (good chance to OHKO) but miss the KO, second one finishes it off after it fails to break the sub. This was a risk for sure, and had Glalie been Moody, things could have gone very wrong (foreshadowing....)
6. Battle 815 against a lead Charizard X. As usual, I went Pex right away to get the Toxic. It clicks DD on that turn, so not risking crit, I go Ferro to eat the Dragon Rush, which connects. I then Protect then go back to Pex as it goes Flare Blitz. Back to Ferro on Dragon Rush, but after eating 2 from +1 ZardX, Ferro isnt doing so well. Mamoswine comes in after Toxic finishes the Zard. Unfortunately I had no choice but to stay in Ferro, sacking it to Mamo in fear that going Glis on a potential Avalanche from set-3 would end the run. Gliscor stalls it down with sub tect, LO recoil puts it in range of KO with EQ. It would have been impossible for Gliscor to end up with a sub thanks to LO. Next comes in probably one of the worst things I could see: Starmie. Could have been even worse, this one didnt have ice beam so no King's Rock. Phew, only had to dodge a crit now. Pex gets Toxic and with swap stall + Protect I was able to beat it.
7. Battle 1092 against Hiker. He led Terrakion with Expert Belt Close Combat. Again, I stay in Ferro since risking SD when Gliscor is already very good into Hiker was the worse play. Gliscor + Pex stalled it out of Stone Edge, after which I end up with sub on Glis. Aggron-3 comes in next. However, I get greedy and try to PP stall it, not realizing that Pex isn't really that necessary and despite Twave could pretty much beat it instead, which would save Gliscor's resources. It eventually goes down to EQ and out comes Curse Rest Hippowdon. Yikes. I had to manage Gliscor's PP well, but I forgot that I could bait out EQs with Pex until it already had a bunch of Curse up. Additionally, I didnt count the number of EQs it used, so when it ran out of Crunch, it began to click its 4 remaining Curse, which I used as an opportunity to freely stall some EQ. Well, Hippowdon used Rest once, signaling that it was potentially out of EQ but I didnt confirm it and instead go Pex. It clicks EQ and Pex goes down. Whoops. Gliscor at this point didnt have enough non attacking moves to stall out the Rest. What I had to do at this point was use Toxic only on the turns it slept to avoid doing damage. This would allow Hippowdon to waste 1 rest when it woke up. Eventually, I was able to get the toxic off and luckily Hippo ran out of moves. Had Toxic not hit the turn it did, I probably would have lost the battle, as I was one struggle away from dying. At least I learned a better way of dealing with this thing...
8. Battle 1221, lead was Shadow Ball Raikou. Pretty standard, go Gliscor and hit Toxic, then swap stall with Pex, coming back to Gliscor on Tbolt to end up at full, then on the last turn of Toxic, sub. Tornadus-4 comes in next. That's pretty scary, because rather than immediately taunt, it clicks Rain Dance. Not good. I go Ferro on the Taunt to bait Focus Blast so Pex can come in safely. I go for the 3hko with scald from Pex in the rain but Pex gets confused and hits itself. Luckily, taunt had just run out, giving Ferro a free turn to reset. Pex comes back and burns Tornadus with scald, and at this point I knew it wasnt a threat anymore. While Pex was out, Azelf-3 comes in and goes for Nasty Plot as I go into Ferrothorn. It goes for another on the first Gyro, so I knew after that I didnt need to worry about crits, etc.
9. Battle 1323. Lead Salazzle, so going Pex first was standard. It was Z, so I was able to get 3 stockpile no problem. Next comes in Noivern who immediately crits with Psychic as I go for toxic, so I couldnt stay in. I had to swap stall between Pex + Ferro. When Noivern went down, Pex was still on the field and in next came in GLALIE-3!!! Big Uh-Oh!! if it had been Glalie-4 I am sure it would have come out next before noivern due to SE Freeze Dry. With no other choice, I had to try to beat it with Pex, as swapping in my only answer (Ferrothorn) could have lost me the game if it hit Sheer Cold. To make matters worse, this thing was Moody and it didnt take long for its special attack to get to +6. Somehow, Pex was able to break its sub (didnt get spdef boosts) before it got KO'd by Sheer Cold. Crap. At this point, I really had to pray that Glalie neither KO'd with Sheer Cold nor went for the Frost Breath, because at +6, it'd prevent Ferro from getting the sub it needed, and even if it did get sub due to low roll, Ferro's HP would likely be too low to get another. It thankfully went for Protect first as Ferro got the sub, which stalled it down to struggle for the win. I thought my streak was over at this point, but ended up winning due to some crazy luck.
10. Battle 1594, lead Walrein-4... already off to a great start, eh? well it hits the OHKO move on Ferro before it can sub, RIP. Gliscor stalls it down to get the guaranteed sub when Mismagius-4 comes in. That unholy duo. I had to maintain Gliscor's sub but when it reached perish count 2, I had to go Pex. The reason for this was that Mismagius could swap back into Walrein and I'd need a way to get Gliscor's sub asap. Instead the AI switches into Hydreigon-4. Thank goodness it wasnt that taunt set... I used Toxic from Glis immediately (though I realize now stalling out of Dragon Rush would have been better to not risk flinching) and went Pex on dragon rush, Glis comes back in on EQ. At this point I realized I had to get that sub because Mismagius was coming back in. After another Perish cycle, going Pex on perish 2 so it could go back into Gliscor on perish 1 before Mismagius could come back in, I went for Toxic (risking crit, but had to since Glis wouldnt have enough moves) and it hit. Missy eventually goes down and I stall Walrein to struggle by doing no damage to it.
Battle 1598. This battle was probably the closest I'd come to losing since 1092 and it was insane. The lead was the devil bear itself, beware of the Bewear-3. I'd prepared a strategy for this monster, so I open up with a Protect on Ferro as it clicks SD. I thought "awesome you fell into my trap", because I had thought that after reaching +2 it would see a KO and therefore wouldnt go for seconds. In fact, if I went Pex on +2 Hammer Arm it'd see a guaranteed kill with Tpunch and so I could go back to Ferro on Tpunch (which didnt do so much even at +2). I thought I had a decent chance to stall it out of Hammer Arm before it got too threatening. Well my entire strategy broke when Office Worker Jana proved me wrong by clicking a second Swords Dance as I go Pex. At this point, I thought the game was lost. I was up against probably the closest thing to a Dark Souls boss (cue Vordt's theme) for this team, +4 Bewear with coverage moves for everyone. My only hope at this point was to get rid of as many Hammer Arm as I could before Ferro inevitably goes down to +4 tpunch. What I had to do was swap Ferro into +4 Tpunch to bait out Hammer Arm, then use Protect. Pex comes in on Hammer Arm but is too chipped to do it again safely, so I swap stall between Gliscor and Pex for Regen until Pex is healthy enough, then back go Ferrothorn on Tpunch. Unfortunately I was so panicked that I forgot to count Thunderpunch PP. I swapped between Gliscor and Pex to stall them and when it ran out of Tpunch, by some crazy luck it clicked Hammer Arm instead of Ice punch. Ok, maybe this is winnable after all. Well now all Pex had to do was to avoid crits and Quick Claw after coming on ice punch. Thankfully no activations, random Ice Punch freezes or crits. Had that bear setup another SD, got quick claw at the wrong time, frozen or crit at the wrong time, I would have lost on the spot because the next pokemon were CM stored power rest Musharna, and CM boltbeam blissey. Yeah.... this battle ended up taking 118 turns to win, probably my longest fight. Really wish I didnt have to risk everything due to not counting PP... AGAIN.
Changes I've either made or considered making:
1. Gliscor's EV spread was changed at some point to include more speed to outrun any Decidueye, though I went a little further for Magnezone because of how common it is. The main reason for this was that if my play is to go Glis immediately on Decidueye, it could either be fast LO or the baton pass set. What I did not want to happen was for Glis to be locked in via Spirit Shackle and then crit with LO Leaf Blade before getting a sub.
2. Another change to Gliscor's spread was made to include slightly more Defense so that it could (barring a crit) sub against +2 Talonflame-4. As a result of these changes, its spread went from 204 HP/136+ Def/156 SpD/12 Spe to 204 HP/4 Atk (leftover EVs)/148+ Def/84 SpD/68 Spe
3. A change under consideration is to change Stockpile on Toxapex to Baneful Bunker. Having additional Protection allows for another turn of sludge recovery, which can crucially get Pex out of some damage ranges, while also making Pokemon like Bewear-3 less threatening (poison procs on Tpunch, after which Pex + Gliscor swap stall). While it could be risky to use on setup Pokemon, if they already have been inflicted with Toxic, then Baneful Bunker is still a good way to stall another turn. The only downside would be PP stalling Pokemon like CM Suicune, whose strategy could be reworked anyway. It could even help vs Salamence-4 making finishing it off more reliable since Pex can just click Recover while Poison + recoil wears it down.
Anyway, it's been an amazing run to 1600. I plan on taking a break for some time but I'll be back for more to push for even greater heights!
