Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[Rainbow-chan]

Hi, new person here. Since I used iVolke's team in the Battle Tree the last few days, I first and foremost want to credit him/her for making such a solid team. On my first attempt at Super Singles it carried me to 78 wins before I lost to a Bright Powder miss on Magnezone3.

I've literally never done facilities before this one and I only really have some general knowledge about competitive set ups, so I'm not sure I handled it as best I could, honestly. I'm really only good at breeding. :(

So Magnezone3 lead the battle but at first I wasn't sure whether it was 3 or 4, so I did what I usually do when I'm not sure and set up a sub. It uses Magnet Rise, confirming set3. If it had been set4 my plan was to take the incoming Flash Cannon and ~47-56% and EQ. If it had Sturdy I would've then gone to Scizor, taken minor damage from FC, mega-evolved and went for BP.

So now it's floating and I have to stall out the electromagnetism. I spend time doing the calcs and planning and finally plan a series of switches. From Garchomp I plan to switch to Scizor on the Flash Cannon, Mega-evolve and go for U-Turn on the expected T-Wave into Tapu Fini to break the Sturdy and then back into Garchomp on the Charge Beam and then sub up to avoid a ton of damage and EQ when Magnet Rise wears off. Seemed like the safest route. So I go to execute...

...and miss U-Turn because of the Bright Powder, getting para'd in the process. I'm not salty about the para honestly, it didn't have much impact on my loss. But my Scizor did take a lot of damage the turn after missing. I don't recall what the second Pokémon was but it was easily cleared. The last one was Mega-Gengar and had my plan gone accordingly I'm confident I would've lived with a sliver of HP on Scizor and could've 2HKO'd. But by the time Gengar showed none of my Pokemon had enough HP to take Shadow Balls.

Sorry I couldn't give a better play by play. I didn't think to save the video.

But mainly thank you to iVolke. Your team was very easy for a newbie like me to use and got me very far. In the hands of someone far more competent I have no doubt it will get very long streaks. It's very syngergetic. :) I plan to try again tomorrow.

 

[Psynergy]

So I've been doing Battle Tree stuff for awhile and managed to get my way up to a 255 streak using the classic Salamence/Aegislash/Chansey setup, pretty similar to a setup I saw used by VaporeonIce in Maison utilizing Growl Chansey.

Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Aerilate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Roost

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 196 HP / 252 Atk / 60 Spe
Brave Nature
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword

Chansey @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Minimize
- Soft-Boiled
- Growl

I actually started this before noticing that GG Unit used the same Pokemon and this is mostly the same, I don't really care about the defensive investment for Salamence and just a simple set hasn't failed me yet, I use Adamant because I don't trust Jolly Mence at all this gen. Aegislash is pretty standard and the spread is technically inefficient, but it was the easiest way for me to get 79 Speed, since this was Brave with a 31 Speed IV. The 7 less HP hasn't been a problem at all though so I don't really have a reason to fix that. Chansey is crazy good and having a high PP move to burn turns with is super nice, I haven't even PP Up'ed Growl and it's worked just fine. Steels are still a pain to deal with especially with the lack of Seismic Toss pre-bank but you can PP Stall those most of the time, and those you can't stall just lose to Salamence and Aegislash. Minimize is otherwise good for burning PP without forcing you to heal as frequently.

Stuff like DD leads are still the most annoying, especially Tyranitar-3 with that Chople Berry which ended my previous streak at 150, but I've been able to deal with most DD leads with proper positioning (i.e. Return the Charizard since Y dies and X will DD and be in range of Shadow Sneak next turn, which is an easy switch bc Zard X will Dragon Rush Mence). NP Azelf is also turbo rude as a lead since Chansey can't wall that one, but thankfully that's not bad to beat with Aegislash provided I can break the Sash first.

Still going with this streak and I'm definitely aiming to go as far as I can with this, but with 200 I'm satisfied so I don't mind a loss too much at this point. I've got an excellent Multi teammate in Ace Trainer Poppy with Metagross-4 and Hydreigon-3, which is pretty much a perfect setup with a good Mega and good Z-Move user with essentially perfect type synergy. Really don't think I could ask for a better AI teammate so I do want to continue from my 50 streak at some point (I've learned from previous Multi attempts that the AI knows when Bullet Punch is guaranteed to kill so that's cool). I also managed to get Anabel with Raikou-4 and Latios-2 which is a potentially cool option with Reflect and Air Balloon lead. Would've preferred Latios-2 as a lead with Snorlax-3 but given how rare Anabel apparently is I can't be too picky, and she's honestly probably not as good as Poppy regardless.

And about 100 battles later, this streak is over. 358 win streak is a decent finish, given that I initially only wanted the 200 and now have about 4000 BP and at least one of every competitive item (Mega Stones included) is good enough for me.

5CTG-WWWW-WWW4-Q4JV

Battle video of the loss linked above, against lead Kommo-o-1, Tyranitar-3 and Zoroark-3. Turn 1 I go for the KO on Kommo-o and it turns out to be Kommo-o-1 and Taunts me, I don't think much of it and then in comes Tyranitar-3. I realize this is not a great situation so I switch into Chansey and aim to Growl stall the Dragon Dances, though I don't get much room to Toxic here in between which is bad. Eventually Crunch gets the Defense drop and that pretty much seals it for Chansey. I then go to Aegislash and hope to bring it down with Sacred Sword + King's Shield drops, and this almost works out until it Earthquakes on my King's Shield instead of going for Crunch. I use this as an opportunity to go into Salamence and buy another chance for Aegislash to King's Shield the DD boosts, and this works. Though now I only have a weakened Aegislash and then Zoroark comes in. At this point I realize my only hope is that this is Zoroark-3 and it spams Sucker Punch like Sucker Punch mons tend to do against Aegislash, and that I restore enough HP so that Night Slash can't kill. Lucky for me it is Zoroark-3, but unfortunately this doesn't work and Zoroark Night Slash crits me once before it burns its Sucker Punches (presumably because they're the same power so it chooses randomly in this situation) and Aegislash goes down.

It wasn't really something I'd blame on misplaying, this wasn't even a situation where I could say I should've set up more because Taunt Kommo-o would've stopped any plans of that, and generally you don't think "let me PP Stall Taunt so that I can set up on this" since it seems logical to just kill the Taunter and try setting up on the next mon. There's a a few "what if" situations but the more I analyze it the more I realize that there wasn't a ton I could've done to stop that without knowing what I was facing. Maybe I should've used Charm instead of Growl, though the higher PP and concern of Substitute setup sweepers (Feraligatr) made me content with sticking with Growl, so I'm not faulting myself for that. If I tried to go for the Aegislash plays right when Tyranitar showed up I could've possibly saved Salamence to beat Zoroark, but the last time I tried doing that I immediately lost my 150 streak to Tyranitar. If Zoroark didn't crit then there's a chance that Aegislash lived, but the fact that it Night Slashed then instead of Sucker Punching probably cost me the run regardless. All that being said though, given that Tyranitar-3 is easily the biggest threat to this team, I can't say I'm too disappointed with losing here. I tried my best but ultimately the game had just enough going for it to end my streak there. I'm not as invested with these facilities as others so I'm unsure if I'll try again anytime soon, though I'll probably see how far I can get with a Doubles and/or Multi streak before trying Singles again.

 

[Yomegami]

While I've been messing around in the Battle Tree for a while now, I've yet to tackle the Super line. I've just been testing teams out in the easier normal lines first. For now I've just been focusing on Singles, though once that starts getting boring I might try Doubles.

As you might expect I don't have anything impressive to write about. However, I'm finding this team to be really fun for some reason, and as such I thought I'd write about it and see if anyone has any suggestions to make it a little better. It's currently holding a streak of 7 in the normal Singles line, though I'm probably going to take it to Super Singles once I'm done optimizing it.

Claw (Persian-Alola)
Ability: Fur Coat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Foul Play
- Taunt
- Parting Shot
- Switcheroo

First on the list is Alolan Persian, which I was drawn to for its potential to open up setup opportunities for sweepers (a poor man's Durant, if you will). The idea is to eventually give it a Choice Scarf, but for now I am indeed running it without an item. That way, Switcheroo becomes a poor man's Knock Off, allowing me to remove annoying items from enemy Pokemon without giving them something potentially helpful in return (whether they help Persian is a different matter, but that's what lookups are for). Taunt further helps Persian disrupt defensive Pokemon, and Parting Shot coupled with Persian's high speed makes it easier for the other two members to do their jobs. Foul Play is mostly filler, but in a pinch it could help me stop an out-of-control enemy sweeper.

The EV spread is simple. Max speed lets Persian outrun everything it can and max HP lets it take hits better. I might invest a little more in Defense to make Persian capable of surviving stronger physical hits coupled with Fur Coat, though.

Besides Choice Scarf I suppose I could give it Darknium-Z for Z-Parting Shot and replace Switcheroo with something else, but the ability to get rid of annoying hax items is just too appealing for me. On the other hand, all the Z-Crystals and Mega Stones in Super Singles might put a bit of a damper on using Switcheroo. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Shelter (Toxapex) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Toxic
- Haze
- Recover

The next member is Toxapex, which a bunch of people have used before me. The moves are all standard, and I opted for a physically defensive EV spread largely because that's what seemed standard at the time. It's working well enough for this team, at any rate. A never-missing Toxic and Haze are excellent for stopping evasion users, Haze is good for shutting down setup Pokemon in general, massive natural bulk and Recover makes it easy for it to wall things, and Scald is there so Toxapex isn't complete Taunt bait.

Persian having access to Taunt itself makes it easier for Toxapex to avoid getting Taunted, and Parting Shot helps it take less damage and thus wall things easier. It also has excellent defensive synergy with the last member of this team.

Shinrin (Tapu Bulu) @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Horn Leech
- Brick Break

Tapu Bulu is the setup sweeper of choice for this team, chosen for its defensive synergy with Toxapex. I believe Flying is the only typing not resisted between the two, and Toxapex is usually bulky enough to wall those anyway. I've used Bulu on a few test teams before this one, and I've found it to be pretty good at what it does (though take my words with a grain of salt, because again I've yet to tackle Super Singles). Substitute blocks status, OHKO moves, and weaker attacking moves, and Bulk Up is the boosting move of choice for its increase to defense in addition to attack, making Bulu even bulkier.

The high amounts of passive recovery from the Leftovers and Grassy Terrain combo give Bulu more Substitutes and quite a bit of longevity, and Horn Leech gives it even more healing. I thought about using Leech Seed to make it even more ridiculous, but I ultimately felt the additional coverage provided by Brick Break was more important. Grassy Terrain affecting everything on the field has been a bit of a pain sometimes, but you win some you lose some.

The EV spread lets Bulu outrun max speed neutral nature base 65s and hit a jump point in attack, with the rest in HP for general bulk. I've thought about allocating some EVs to Special Defense to make setting up on specially-oriented attackers easier, though I'm not sure if I really want to drop speed further for that. For better or worse I'm stuck with the Adamant nature, unless somebody's feeling generous enough to give me a Careful Bulu.

----

As far as this team's normal run goes, I had an...interesting fight on Battle 5. I lead Persian against a Wishiwashi1. What I should had done was either used Foul Play or Parting Shot to Toxapex. What I actually did was Switcheroo'd the Sitrus Berry away. My reward was a critical Ice Beam that froze Persian. I wound up saccing Persian in an attempt to unfreeze it, going to Toxapex, and stalling it out.

Up next was Excadrill1. I should had gone to Bulu right away, but I dumbly left Toxapex in thinking "Oh, it doesn't have Earthquake." Word to the wise: Drill Run still freaking hurts. Thankfully I didn't lose Toxapex, and I promptly switched to Bulu on the next turn. I set up a few Bulk Ups, and knock the Excadrill out afterwards, though I didn't have a Substitute up.

The final Pokemon is Toxapex1. I try setting up a Substitute, but Bulu being x4 weak to Poison put a damper on that plan. So I went to my own Toxapex, thinking I could burn it and outlast it from there. What followed was a ridiculous stall fight in which I ran out of Scalds before burning the opposing Toxapex (meanwhile it burnt mine somewhere around the fifth/sixth Scald; even if the Battle Tree doesn't manipulate the hax rates it sure feels like it sometimes), and they didn't do enough damage to knock it out. The next plan was to sack my Toxapex to the Venoshocks, bring Bulu in, and knock out the last bit of health from it. Then it ran out of Venoshocks first. At that point I brought Bulu in and knocked it out.

It wasn't catastrophic or anything, but that could have gone a lot smoother. After the fight I opted to use PP Ups on Toxapex's moves to help prevent something like that from ever happening again. I didn't save the replay since it was a normal Singles fight and I wasn't thinking of it at the time.

And that's all I have to say for now. I'll probably report more about it once I get to Super Singles, but I was having fun with it in normal Singles and that drove me to post about it here. Comments and constructive criticism is appreciated.

 

[Jumpman16]

I'm elated to see someone else has seriously considered Persian-A for the Tree—I've kicked it around myself considering the fact that, for some numbers:


252 Atk Weavile Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Fur Coat Persian-Alola: 46-55 (26.7 - 31.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
(46, 46, 48, 48, 48, 49, 49, 51, 51, 51, 52, 52, 52, 54, 54, 55)


252 Atk Weavile Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 46-55 (26.7 - 31.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
(46, 46, 48, 48, 48, 49, 49, 51, 51, 51, 52, 52, 52, 54, 54, 55)

Oh look, it's the literal same damage output comparing the historically frail Persian with inarguably *the* gold (and silver, lol, look how fucking witty I am) standard for Defense as we know it, because Fur Coat is a top-10 ability.

Tapu Bulu is the setup sweeper of choice for this team, chosen for its defensive synergy with Toxapex. I believe Flying is the only typing not resisted between the two, and Toxapex is usually bulky enough to wall those anyway.

Careful here—it misses Psychic, Normal, Ghost and Rock as well. Those can generally be handled well, and only Psychic and Flying of those five hit your team for SE damage

(meanwhile it burnt mine somewhere around the fifth/sixth Scald; even if the Battle Tree doesn't manipulate the hax rates it sure feels like it sometimes)

For some numbers:

1-((1-0.3)(1-0.3)(1-0.3)(1-0.3)(1-0.3))=83.2%

You have an 83.2% of being burned by the time you've taken five Scalds (76% for four). Feeling like this is hax is almost literally like praying to roll, say, a three with a standard die, and suspecting hax on the 83.3% of the time you will be "disappointed".

You have a very creative mind for this game and are absolutely willing to think outside the box, which are characteristics that are invaluable not just here but in real life. Combine this with a dash of logic and the truth of hard numbers and the sky is the limit for you as you climb.

It wasn't catastrophic or anything, but that could have gone a lot smoother. After the fight I opted to use PP Ups on Toxapex's moves to help prevent something like that from ever happening again.

Parenthetically, I despise how difficult they've made it to obtain PP Ups in this game (I want my Challenge Rock back from BW/B2W2). I've used a grand total of three pokemon outside my ingame team for the Tree, and every single battle I worry that only having used two PP Ups so far for certain moves is going to screw me. How are the rest of you coming about getting PP Ups/Maxes—Wonder Trade ID manipulation for Daily Loto "luck", Festival Plaza prizes, Pick Up grinding with certain level pokes, losing intentionally in the non-Super Battle Tree (PP Up after 10 wins)? Looking forward to hearing from ReptoAbysmal specifically here lol

 

[Lassi]

Hello, a newbie here who finally signed up to post a streak of 200 wins in super singles. Well actually, I'm here to thank iVolke for sharing his marvelous team.

Garchomp @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

Scizor-Mega @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 180 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Brick Break
- Roost
- Swords Dance

Tapu Fini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 240 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moonblast
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot

Full credit for the team goes to iVolke. The only change I made was Brick Break over U-Turn for Scizor. The first attempt with this team came to an end at 130~140 wins, as I was destroyed by Ferrothorn4. It came out against non-boosted Scizor, and I tried maxing out Scizor while it spammed Curse. +6 Bullet Punch couldn't do much damage against +3 Ferrothorn, so I switched my strategy; I went for PP stalling Seed Bomb and Gyro Ball. Well, to my horror, Gyro Ball with +6 Atk, -6 Spd was too much for Scizor to withstand. After Scizor was down, it was pretty much over. I might have completely misplayed the game, perhaps should have went for Garchomp as soon as I saw Ferrothorn.

After the loss, I thought Brick Break might have been the answer. +6 Brick Break wrecks +3 Ferrothorn (and other non-boosted bulky steels, obviously). The change proved worthy to me, as Scizor became able to set up against most steels and sweep through (whether it curses or not).

As iVolke and Lazskini mentioned, the typing synergy is amazing. Safe pivots are almost always available although non of them are 'classic tanks'. With the absence of PP stalling and intimidating, battles end like a breeze. The streak is still alive, and I would like iVolke to know that his team is capable of 200+ streaks and deserves true spotlight.

Finally lost the streak with 350 wins.

Loss: ZB3W-WWWW-WWW4-QBFZ

The team doesn't deserve the loss, only my carelessness does. The 351st match against Placido didn't seem too special as he led with Regirock2.
First misplay: Should have scouted the set with Substitute. Regirock1 cannot do much harm against Garchomp, but Regirock2 is able to KO Garchomp with critical hit Explosion. Somehow, the Regirock2s I have faced during my streak didn't lead with Explosion, so I went with Sword Dance. To my horror it exploded, but I got away with it as Garchomp survived.
Second misplay: Should have switched to Fini as soon as I saw Articuno. +2 Garchomp KOs Articuno with Devastrating Drake so I went for it without much thinking. Wow Ice Shard. This is what happens when you don't pay attention to movesets.
Third misplay: Should have sent out Scizor. Non boosted Bullet Punch 2-hit KOs Articuno2, without giving it time for Mind-Sheering. Can't even remember why I went for Fini. Fini damages the bird before going down and Scizor finally takes care of it. The loss became evident as Moltres was ready to cook Scizor.

The countless misplays make me embarrassed, but oh well :( It does feel lightened to start at the bottom with Bank release just around the corner (missed you Suicune & Gliscor).
Glad that I can finally grab those berries :) (Why do we have to lose to get them in the first place??)

 

[MKL122788]

So, the possibilities have been talked about in the pokebank thread, but it seems as though Machamp can come through pokebank from generation 1 with No Guard and Fissure.

I am wondering what kind of shenanigans this might end up causing as far as battle tree viability goes.

 

[Siggu]

So, the possibilities have been talked about in the pokebank thread, but it seems as though Machamp can come through pokebank from generation 1 with No Guard and Fissure.

I am wondering what kind of shenanigans this might end up causing as far as battle tree viability goes.

I have an idea:

Eevee @ Eevium Z
Ability: Anticipation
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Last Resort
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
- Double-Edge

Anticipation works as a scout so that you can get an idea of which set the opposing Pokemon is using.

Double-Edge is pretty much just for breaking Sturdy and allowing Machamp to OHKO those Pokemon with any of its moves (except Fissure, of course)

Machamp @ Figy Berry / Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fissure
- Dynamic Punch
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge / Thunder Punch / Substitute

+2 Jolly Machamp outspeeds up to Scarfed Base 89 Pokemon, which is not bad, while the boosted defenses allow it to survive (as a benchmark for the added bulk) a Scarf Tapu Lele's Psychic.

With its boosted bulk, a Figy Berry can help it get out of KO range. Alternatively, Leftovers seems like a good idea.

Fissure is obvious, while the other three moves are naturally meant to deal with Sturdy users or Flying-types.
Dynamic Punch is enough to 2HKO even physically defensive Skarmory.
Ice Punch deals with Intimidate Salamence, as well as Gliscor.

Meanwhile, I don't really have an idea for the fourth move. Stone Edge and Thunder Punch patch up coverage a little, but a Substitute of its own can work alongside Leftovers, in case of unfavourable conditions such as Tailwind pop up.

Of course, there's also the matter on who to put as third to clean up everything.

 

[Adamant_Torterra]

I have an idea:

Eevee @ Eevium Z
Ability: Anticipation
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Last Resort
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
- Double-Edge

Anticipation works as a scout so that you can get an idea of which set the opposing Pokemon is using.

Double-Edge is pretty much just for breaking Sturdy and allowing Machamp to OHKO those Pokemon with any of its moves (except Fissure, of course)

Machamp @ Figy Berry / Leftovers
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fissure
- Dynamic Punch
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge / Thunder Punch / Substitute

+2 Jolly Machamp outspeeds up to Scarfed Base 89 Pokemon, which is not bad, while the boosted defenses allow it to survive (as a benchmark for the added bulk) a Scarf Tapu Lele's Psychic.

With its boosted bulk, a Figy Berry can help it get out of KO range. Alternatively, Leftovers seems like a good idea.

Fissure is obvious, while the other three moves are naturally meant to deal with Sturdy users or Flying-types.
Dynamic Punch is enough to 2HKO even physically defensive Skarmory.
Ice Punch deals with Intimidate Salamence, as well as Gliscor.

Meanwhile, I don't really have an idea for the fourth move. Stone Edge and Thunder Punch patch up coverage a little, but a Substitute of its own can work alongside Leftovers, in case of unfavourable conditions such as Tailwind pop up.

Of course, there's also the matter on who to put as third to clean up everything.

Reasonably, the only coverage you need is against flying/levitating/sturdy Pokemon. Forretress/Skarmory/Sawk/Crustle/Carbink/Shuckle are the only ones that aren't weak to fighting from the sturdy pokes and Sawk is not gonna take a hit anyway. In the tree the levitators are Weezing/Flygon/Latis/Mismagius/Bronzong/Rotoms/Lake Trio/Cress/Eelektross/Hydreigon/Vikavolt. That means the types that fighting doesn't already cover are all fliers, poison, psychic, ghost, dragon/psychic, bug/electric. Rock hits neutrally on all of those, so Ice Punch and TPunch are only for things that are weak to them and resist fighting and aren't weak to rock or quad weak- Lando/Gliscor/Flygon/Latis/Rotom-Mow/Flying Dragons for Ice, Gyarados/Pelipper for Thunder. Therefore, TPunch can be ruled out unless the small amount of extra damage on water/flying is needed.

You mention the extra damage on Sala, but it actually only matters for Mega Salamence- two of the other three sets have Yache, and all of those three die to Stone Edge (though two of those DON'T die to Ice Punch). For TPunch, it just gets 100% OHKO where Stone Edge gets 88% OHKO on two of the sets- one with toxic, the other with hurricane. All Gyaras die to Stone Edge except for the Mega which dies to DPunch. Stone Edge also hits Shuckle and Crustle harder

So long story short, TPunch is out and Stone Edge is stronger than Ice Punch on a ton of fliers so go with those two.

 

[hotdogturtle]

Furthermore, Ice Punch and Fissure are illegal together anyway. Ice Punch is an egg move, but Fissure is a gen 1 TM meaning that you need to transfer a battle-ready Machamp from RBY. Incidentally, if they ever put GSC on the VC, then the combo will become legal.

...This is my excuse for finally posting in this thread after lurking here since page 1. I still haven't put much effort into the Tree, but I'll be more motivated after Bank gives us all available Pokemon.

 

[Ames]

I had personally been thinking that simply running it with a Scarf would be enough to warrant a position in a Tree team. Just use it to knock out mons as fast as possible and let two team mates with better stats and synergy clean up.

 

[SilverLining]

Now that Bank is out, let the true games begin.

 

[Meleeace1478]

Special and Mythical pokemon still banned in the battle Tree.

 

[paperquagsire]

After a long time lurking around this thread, I finally decided to contribute my semi-decent team and my relatively short run of 60 in super singles.

Silvally @ Wide Lens
Ability: RKS System
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 31 HP / 30 Atk / 31 Def / 13 SpA / 4 SpD / 31 Spe
- Parting Shot
- Thunder Wave
- Snarl
- Return

Silvally was a major help to this team, Wide Lens boosted accuracy so that my snarls always hit, lowering special attack. and it made thunder wave much more reliable, even though I didn't use it much. Return was filler in a worse case scenario where he actually needs to kill something, and it ended up saving me once or twice. Parting shot was to switch to Slowbro and help him take a hit even better. He would have performed much better with a perfect SpD and SpA IV, but I havn't gotten him to level 100 yet for a bottle cap.


Slowbro @ Slowbronite
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Slack Off
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind

The best member of the team by far, sweeping nearly every battle by coming in on a parting-shotted opponent, spamming calm mind, and then destroying the battle. He was absolutely perfect in natures and IVs. Calm mind and slack off were to set up, and psyshock and scald were to take advantage of stab and have pretty good coverage, scald also helped in healing a freeze once or twice. His god-tier defense stat allowed him to take neutral, and even some super effective physical hits with ease, and with 6 calm minds and an immunity to crits, nearly nothing could break his defenses.


Garchomp @ Rockium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge

My other attacker on the team, and my answer to the electric types Slowbro can't take a hit from, such as Raikou and Magnezone. This land shark can take a few hits, and hits like a truck with outrage and earthquake, especially after a swords dance. Rockium Z is to have a 100% accurate rock move, as I don't want to rely on Stone Edges risky accuracy. At times I pondered wether iron head would be better than Swords dance, but once in a while the move saves my run and I decided to keep it on him for now.


This team eventually lost on battle 61 to Virizion/Zapdos/Raikou. As soon as I saw Virizion, I used my usual strategy of parting shotting to Garchomp, as Silvally can take a crit sacred sword (I forgot the special sets existed). I ended up getting critted and living with 3 hp left, before lowering it's attack and going to Garchomp. I set up a swords dance on Virizion's protect, and then outraged for the KO after taking a sacred sword. I quickly one shotted Zapdos before Raikou came in and used protect, ending my outrage and confusing me. I stupidly decided to stay in, for reasons I don't know, and promptly got shadow balled, and hit my self with boosted attack confusion, nearly killing Garchomp. Then I realized my idiocy, and that I couldn't out speed Raikou with anything and everything would go down in one hit. I let my Garchomp go down, and let my Silvally and Slowbro fall the same way. I guess this is what happens when your best sweeper is water typed and you fight a grass type and 2 electric types, and when you leave in a confused pokemon.

All in all, it could have been easily avoided, and I lost purely due to idiocy, and a tiny bit of bad luck.

 

[BlueEew]

The Fissure No Guard Machamp dream is gone.

 

[Ames]

The Fissure No Guard Machamp dream is gone.

Honestly pretty happy about that... Every second team on the leaderboards would be abusing it.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Parenthetically, I despise how difficult they've made it to obtain PP Ups in this game (I want my Challenge Rock back from BW/B2W2). I've used a grand total of three pokemon outside my ingame team for the Tree, and every single battle I worry that only having used two PP Ups so far for certain moves is going to screw me. How are the rest of you coming about getting PP Ups/Maxes—Wonder Trade ID manipulation for Daily Loto "luck", Festival Plaza prizes, Pick Up grinding with certain level pokes, losing intentionally in the non-Super Battle Tree (PP Up after 10 wins)? Looking forward to hearing from ReptoAbysmal specifically here lol

PP Ups via Pickup have been bloody rare, to the point it's not really worth running around with the buggers (though I haven't been doing well with Rare Candy, either, the main reason I bothered to put a Meowth and Lillipup x4 to 100. Before you say "Festival Plaza for leveling, dude" the restaurants will get you to 98 at the most and grinding even TWO levels with the minimal exp output of this game is FUCKING ANNOYING. I was not about to spent four hours just to get two levels apiece on a ton of ultra beasts, so Pickup was handy for that.

However, RNG has been kind to me with the plaza. Sort of. Pretty good lotto luck guarantees a second roll on all booths of that type, so I used a visitor with Big Dreams ** and Treasure ** to repeatedly reroll and had four PP Max plus some Ups in the span of about 20 minutes. This coincided with plaza luck, so I've basically accumulated a retarded amount of FC- sitting on 50k or close to it I think. It matters to me only because I presume that eventually PGL will let you straight up buy items, as well as, hopefully, more Apricorn balls. I'm not yet at the point where every guy will have every move maxed, not even close; but I've got 23 Ups and 11 Max, which'll help a few out.

I've got all my bank shit organized, so now I'm setting out to breed my TR idiots, the first of which being Drampa.

Edit: Mildly interested to note that Silvally is apparently allowed to learn Draco Meteor without actually being Dragon typed at the time.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

I'm so happy to be reunited with my Lucario now that Bank is out... Super Doubles, here I come!

Parenthetically, I despise how difficult they've made it to obtain PP Ups in this game (I want my Challenge Rock back from BW/B2W2). I've used a grand total of three pokemon outside my ingame team for the Tree, and every single battle I worry that only having used two PP Ups so far for certain moves is going to screw me. How are the rest of you coming about getting PP Ups/Maxes—Wonder Trade ID manipulation for Daily Loto "luck", Festival Plaza prizes, Pick Up grinding with certain level pokes, losing intentionally in the non-Super Battle Tree (PP Up after 10 wins)? Looking forward to hearing from ReptoAbysmal specifically here lol

I have about 6 boxes full of Wonder Traded Pokemon that I don't want to send back out there (Magikarp, Yungoos, Pikipek, what have you) and I'm basically guaranteed a PP Up or better every time I do the lottery in Hau'oli.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

I'm so happy to be reunited with my Lucario now that Bank is out... Super Doubles, here I come!



I have about 6 boxes full of Wonder Traded Pokemon that I don't want to send back out there (Magikarp, Yungoos, Pikipek, what have you) and I'm basically guaranteed a PP Up or better every time I do the lottery in Hau'oli.

I'm glad you reminded me about that, because I brought all my WT breedjects back into Moon for precisely that purpose. Unfortunately the autosave prevents me from loading up Bank and running a search for a winner, which was effective last gen. Aaaand... BushDid9/11 got me a PP Up. lol thanks for the reminder Jebus

 

[scoobydoobydrew]

Items still can't be transferred through Bank right? So I still have to wait to use my glorious Mega Medicham?

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Correct. And VI-VII is a one way trip, so get your tutoring done ahead of time.

I'm hoping they don't pull an ORAS and wait until the next game to release the unobtainable stones, because Mega Mawile was among my more useful flunkies.

It's far from the same thing, but someone threw a 0 Spd Buzzwole onto WT and I picked it up. Apart from still requiring an Iron Ball the thing should be a freaking beast, particularly with the new and improved Fell Stinger. FS plus BB is +4 Att for only one KO.

 

[scoobydoobydrew]

Darn, guess it's another waiting game then.

Anyone planning on using the Mega Kanto starters now that those are available? In Doubles, Is looking at my beautiful Mega Blastoise as well as perhaps Charizard Y for a Sun team.

 

[yanicus]

Of course this is just a beginning and it's built off all the hard work a lot of people have done in this thread and in past generations, but I got my first ever 50 streak (EDIT: this ended at 63 because I got greedy and didn't Shadow Sneak a Head Smash Archeops and then it outsped my Salamence) and wanted to say thank you, especially since I've never done this before in past generations!

I was using:

Porygon-Z @ Normalium-Z
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Conversion

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Double-Edge

Mimikyu @ Lum Berry
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw
- Play Rough

I wish there was a better third coverage move on Porygon-Z (I hear people use HP Ground, but breeding for that seems like a nightmare); also the pokemon has -Z in its name, it really should get its own Z-Move :P

Played this team again because I felt so confident in it.

Edit: proceeded to lose on battle 99 to missing a play rough and then being unable to boost on or 1hko his Salamence due to suffering an Intimidate drop. So close to 100!

FLTW-WWWW-WWW4-QP9F

 

[GG Unit]

It wasn't really something I'd blame on misplaying, this wasn't even a situation where I could say I should've set up more because Taunt Kommo-o would've stopped any plans of that, and generally you don't think "let me PP Stall Taunt so that I can set up on this" since it seems logical to just kill the Taunter and try setting up on the next mon.

Generally you do PP stall Taunters - Defiant Bisharp and Weavile are the only somewhat common users I can think of that I had to beat without having anything set up, and for those two Aegislash (who the next opponent won't try to set up on when it's in blade forme) will be getting the KO. 358 is probably at the extreme high end of what you could expect to get from KOing all Taunt users as quickly as possible without setting up because it's inevitable that one will be paired with the 'wrong' sweeper for the unboosted team member you have out at the time. Kommo-o in particular doesn't take too long to PP stall because once Chansey gets shuffled in you can Minimize and hopefully evade a few Taunts in a row at some point. Granted, that's with a faster Chansey set that has Substitute instead of Growl, but that set was better last generation as well as this one.

edit: not to mention that without Substitute, any moderately strong special attacker can break through Chansey with enough secondary status and Special Defense drops.

 

[MKL122788]

Generally you do PP stall Taunters - Defiant Bisharp and Weavile are the only somewhat common users I can think of that I had to beat without having anything set up, and for those two Aegislash (who the next opponent won't try to set up on when it's in blade forme) will be getting the KO. 358 is probably at the extreme high end of what you could expect to get from KOing all Taunt users as quickly as possible without setting up because it's inevitable that one will be paired with the 'wrong' sweeper for the unboosted team member you have out at the time. Kommo-o in particular doesn't take too long to PP stall because once Chansey gets shuffled in you can Minimize and hopefully evade a few Taunts in a row at some point. Granted, that's with a faster Chansey set that has Substitute instead of Growl, but that set was better last generation as well as this one.

With the bank now open, is the general consensus that the speed/def Chansey with Minimize/Softboiled/Seismic Toss/Substitute going to be best, despite losing Toxic for it?

 

[adman2]

Ay, ay, ay, the AI can be stupid sometimes!

Things I've encountered today:

Electivire attempting to Focus Punch twice on my Lanturn, only to be Scalded to death.

Daytime Lycanroc wasting its Z-move on my weakened Vikavolt rather than my Pokemon at full health.

Tyrantrum using Stealth Rock instead of an attacking move on my Vikavolt. It also had Double Team for some odd reason despite not being a defensive Pokemon.

EDIT: And now, I just fought an Ambipom @ King's Rock with Thief/Fling/Fake Out. . .twice in less than an hour. That extra flinch is really going to help you there, computer.