Hi everyone! As part of my plan to produce concrete proof that Level 51 isn't a mindless Phero/Lele robot, I've undertaken a Super Multis streak without either Pheromosa OR Tapu Lele on my team! The reason for this is simple: Pheromosa and Tapu Lele kind of suck in Multis. Oh well. Reporting a completed streak of—rather frustratingly—
99 in Super Multis with AI Partner.
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Anyway, here's the team! I paired with Colress, who used Porygon2-4 and Metagross-4. In retrospect Porygon2-3 would have been a way better set, but while acknowledging that is one thing, running into Colress, with Porygon2-3 and Metagross-4, with Porygon2-3 as the lead and Metagross-4 in the second spot, AND remembering to scout him, is another matter entirely. This team incorporates a lot of patterns noticeable in other high-performing 2v2 streaks: notably, the Mega Salamence / Mega Metagross pairing hearkens back to cannibal and ProjectTitan313's
human Multis streak, while my lead resembles Pav A Nice Day's Choice Specs Tapu Koko from his
AI Multis streak (which Volt Switches out into said Mega Salamence, a la turskain's Raikou / Salamence
Super Doubles streak from Maison days).
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tri Attack
- Thunder Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam
Porygon2 is such a good Pokemon. I don't understand why, but it just is. Even with 252/0 it has enough bulk to take a vast majority of the hits that will be thrown at it, while the 252+ investment in Special Attack mean that it actually does a lot of damage. Download is a really strong ability when it activates a Special Attack boost, letting Porygon2 do way more damage than you'd think it should. It's easy to forget that this thing actually has a pretty respectable Special Attack stat of 105, and it sure shows. The only downside of this set was that Colress really enjoyed using Thunder Wave, even on things that one really shouldn't be Thunder Waving—I lost my streak when it Thunder Waved the opposing Synchronize Lum Espeon-3 and then proceeded to get fully paralysed 3 turns in a row. I'd attribute this phenomenon to the possibility that the AI thought that my Electric Terrain would boost Thunder Wave, but that's neither here nor there, huh? Sometimes, though, I was pretty grateful for the speed control Thunder Wave afforded me, making opposing Tyranitar or Gyarados leads a lot less pressuring on my resources since I could be fairly sure they would wind up paralysed even if they did get a Dance off. The rest of the set is pretty alright—notably, Shadow Ball hits some fun stuff like a lot of TR setters, though Porygon2 tends to never use it on Turn 1—and all in all Porygon2 delivered way above what I expected from it, even with a half-brain-dead AI controlling it. Poor duck, it's not your fault your trainer is so bad.
Oh, also, Download technically lets you determine enemy sets from Turn 0 in some edge cases, but I never actually did that.
Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body → Tough Claws
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Brick Break
- Bullet Punch
There's a few reasons why Metagross-4 is a good choice to give to your AI partner. For one, it's extremely easy to use, since it just has 4 attacks, all of which deal a lot of pain in the right situations. Furthermore, the AI actually knows how to use Bullet Punch properly, so it's a fairly safe bet to rely on it to finish off a weakened Pokemon in Bullet Punch range, taking a little of the enigma out of the AI's opaque logic sequences. With bulk, power, and speed—enough for the Tree, at any rate—the only downside is probably the AI's fondness for Brick Break's secondary effect. If you notice the opponent get a screen up, you can be almost sure your AI will try to break the screen, whether it's actually a good move or not. I've almost lost off this thing Brick Breaking an opposing Salamence instead of finishing it off with Zen Headbutt. There's not much to say about a set as simple as this, but Metagross is fearsomely effective even in the hands of an AI and it's probably flat out one of the best Pokemon you could entrust to your lifeless partner.
With this stuff to work with, I looked into my Battle Tree box, and pulled out Tapu Koko and Salamence. As mentioned earlier, these have some great synergy together—Salamence gets a surprising number of safe switch-ins since nothing really tries to use a paralysing or sleep move on Tapu Koko, and Tapu Koko also encourages opposing Garchomp-3 and Landorus-2 to lock into Earthquake and Earth Power respectively, making Salamence an absurdly good switch-in into a lot of the situations where I couldn't leave Tapu Koko in, whether by Volt Switch or a normal switch. Salamence also has the added benefit of providing Intimidate, making Porygon2 stick around a lot longer and also actually deal damage beyond just Thunder Waving stuff. Here's the sets I used:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
- Volt Switch
Classic Choice Specs Tapu Koko. There's not much to say here, except I suppose to point out Grass Knot; I found it an important tool especially against Mamoswine leads, which threatened an OHKO onto both Tapu Koko and Salamence. I never really found myself wanting to use Hidden Power Ice, since Thunderbolt generally does more damage on all the Dragon/Flying types, and I'm not leaving Tapu Koko in on Garchomp just in case it's Garchomp-3.
Salamence-Mega @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 6 SpA
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Flamethrower
- Protect
Two noteworthy things: firstly, Flamethrower with a Jolly nature. I had Dragon Dance on this the first two times I tried Super Multis, but I never used it and I lost my second streak to a Ferrothorn + Mega Scizor because I couldn't do enough damage. Flamethrower was the obvious replacement; even without investment and a negative nature it does good damage to threats like Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor, Escavalier, and—perhaps somewhat interestingly—Steelix. However, I forgot about the fact that this Salamence wasn't Hyper Trained in Special Attack, so I got this streak with a Special Attack IV of 6. Take from that what you will, I guess.
The other odd thing about this set, which is a little less obvious, is the inclusion of Earthquake when neither of my allies can Protect against it, neither are immune to it or even resist it, and indeed it even hits Metagross-4 super-effectively (and might 2HKO it, I think). This was pretty much a necessary evil, allowing me to do some semblance of damage to annoying Police Officer Pokemon like Gigalith and Tyranitar when Porygon2 refused to get KOd to let Metagross in to actually damage them before they get out of control (I almost lost this streak to Gigalith-4). Other than that, the set is pretty simple, hitting a nice speed tier at 187, tying only with Hawlucha-1 and -4, which are obviously not huge threats (note that the empty speed tier at 186 is not attainable, since 232 EVs give a stat of 185).
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So, on to the loss itself! It was battle 100, I was once again rushing through battles a bit because I wanted to go to sleep after 100 (which, ironically, I
technically did), and out pop Kiawe and a random Golfer. I'm quite upset by this, since Kiawe is definitely the hardest special trainer for this team, with annoying Pokemon like the semi-broken Mega Kangaskhan and Marowak-"I'll redirect all your Thunderbolts"-Alola. Eeveelution Golfers are either really good for the team, with stuff like Vaporeon and select Glaceon sets being OHKOed by Tapu Koko, or really bad, when Porygon2 insists on Thunder Waving into Synchronize or when Umbreon-4 sets up one Curse too many. No prizes for guessing what happened in the battle.
As Turn 1 starts I face down an opposing Espeon and Mega Kangaskhan; I'm aware that Tapu Koko might get deleted this turn by Fake Out + some strong attack from Espeon, but I don't want to risk losing Mega Salamence, or having it heavily dented, since that would likely force me to lock Tapu Koko into an attack without prior knowledge of all my opponents' Pokemon. I indeed lose Tapu Koko turn 1 to Fake Out + Hyper Beam, and Kangaskhan is duly paralysed by Porygon2.
It all goes downhill from here; playing too safely allows Porygon2 to launch a Thunder Wave at a Lum Berry Espeon, which can only end in tears. Umbreon-4 shows up in the back and gets one Curse off, so I can only bring it down to 50%, outside range of an OHKO from Mega Metagross' Brick Break. Hope springs anew when Kiawe's second Pokemon is revealed to be Talonflame-"completely incapable of damaging any Steel- or Rock-type"-3, but Metagross takes more damage than I expected from Payback, and it doesn't even go for the potential Brick Break critical hit onto Umbreon, instead opting to Zen Headbutt the Talonflame because "it does more damage". Thanks, Colress.
Selected Battle Videos:
#47: 5FUG-WWWW-WWW8-2SPQ: A close call of some sort, probably. I don't really remember.
#79: GKLG-WWWW-WWW8-2SQ2: I forget what's in this video. Maybe it's worth watching?
#95: FU3G-WWWW-WWW8-2SQL: Illustrating the importance of Protect not only as a move to scout your opponent's moves, but also your ally's. Also, to burn turns while Porygon2 uses Thunder Wave.
#100: 57HG-WWWW-WWW8-2SQZ: Loss video.
That was a fun post to write. I'm not too upset about this loss, since I didn't put
that much time into it, unlike my two prior Doubles streaks; also, I probably should have lost the streak a couple battles before this, but I got a lucky critical hit onto an opposing Articuno with Salamence's Double-Edge. Apologies for the following missing items from this post: (a) edgy / pretentious quote; (b) quirky proof photo; (c) actual thought put into recording the Battle Videos and explaining them. I might edit in the latter at a later time, but this is highly unlikely, since probably exactly 0 people are going to watch these videos anyway.
