Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[adman2]

If you're using Aegislash on a non-Trick Room Super Doubles team, does it still need to be as slow as possible, or will 31 Speed IVs and a neutral Speed nature (e.g. Modest) work fine too? It's much more of a pain to breed for a 0 IV than a 31.

EDIT: Also, would a Prankster user with Rain Dance be better than Pelipper/Politoed? It would mess with Mega Evolution-induced weather as well as other manual weather users. Klefki could also provide dual screens.

 

[that random chick]

I am still in shock.

I thought I had this Pinsir in the bag with my Togekiss out.

And then, he uses Guillotine.

Is there a Pinsir like this one? Im a casual Battle Tree'er and don't know the sets. I'm just...speechless. What just happened.

 

[D34N]

If you're using Aegislash on a non-Trick Room Super Doubles team, does it still need to be as slow as possible, or will 31 Speed IVs and a neutral Speed nature (e.g. Modest) work fine too? It's much more of a pain to breed for a 0 IV than a 31.

I run Modest 31IVs and haven't really had any issues. It's mostly personal preference.

I am still in shock.

I thought I had this Pinsir in the bag with my Togekiss out.

And then, he uses Guillotine.

Is there a Pinsir like this one? Im a casual Battle Tree'er and don't know the sets. I'm just...speechless. What just happened.

Pinsir-4 Choice Scarf X-Scissor Earthquake Close Combat Guillotine. Lovely set.



I've been running specially-based Salamence-Mega in doubles (Hyper Voice / Double-Edge / Protect). Does anyone have experience with the best options for the last move? I've tried Flamethrower and Earthquake and find myself clicking them very rarely. Draco Meteor would be nice but 90% is iffy over longer streaks especially when the main targets generally kill you when you miss. Is there another good option (Substitute/Facade/Sleep Talk etc?) or is this slot just doomed to not be used much?

 

[tofucocoa]

Heya! I reached 247 in Doubles Battle Tree. Here's my team.

Proof.

Kangaskhan @ Megastone
Jolly, Scrappy

Fake Out
Return
Brick Break
Sucker Punch

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Timid

Thunderbolt
Dazzling Gleam
Grass Knot
Protect

Garchomp @ Groundium Z
Jolly, Rough Skin

Earthquake
Dragon Claw
Rock Slide
Protect

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Adamant (what I'm using now) Careful (What I used for a while)

Heavy Slam
Leech Seed
Substitute
Protect

Overally strategy: git gud, bois.

I lost at 247 because I didn't pay attention and didn't realize that a Carracosta got fully set up with Shell Smash. Brick Break on Kangaskhan because this was pre-bank.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Is there a Pinsir like this one? Im a casual Battle Tree'er and don't know the sets. I'm just...speechless. What just happened.

You don't know angry until that fellow alerts you to Mold Breaker and -then- goes ahead and OHKOs your Sturdy poke.

At least OHKO users are fairly rare now, and unlike 4th and 5th gen there are no trainers dedicated to using them.

 

[TimG57867]

Hey guys. Just going to drop a little tip I found out first hand that nearly cost me my streak which is now at 80.

You know how the trainers can have different versions of the same species and how some versions may have Megas? Well one thing I just kinda assumed was that if the AI brought one Pokemon and Mega Evolved it, that means the other won't have any chance of being Mega sets. Right?...Wrong.

For battle #79, I fought Aino. She led with her Gallade. Now the last time I fought Gallade, it was the stupid Scope Lens one with 3 high critical hit rate moves which made Growl-debuffing extremely risky. So feeling the potential of hax wasn't worth it, I just decided to mega evolve my Salamence and KO it on the spot. Next came out Medicham. I figured since Gallade was the Mega, it wouldn't be Megacham, and I was right. It didn't Mega Evolve and I KO'd it on the spot too. The last mon was her Metagross. Taking what I assumed about Medicham and looking at her data, I assumed it was the Explosion Metagross liking a Psychic or Fighting move. All 3 of my mons were in commission and given the AI's explosive habits, I thought I was in the clear. I figured for lolz I'd switch in Chansey just to make it blow up immediately. That's when, after taking a Meteor Mash and foolishly forgetting about Clear Body (I growled instead of Softboiling...), I got hit with Brick Break. If the data is right, the Metagross she can use with Brick Break is a Mega one. That means she brought TWO Megas. From there the fight was a total nailbiter. I had to switch between members to stall PP and pray Metagross didn't get an attack raise off Meteor Mash while sneaking in unboosted Returns as Chansey was in yellow and too low to confidently get hit and then heal. Luckily, I didn't get haxed. But after that close call, I'll NEVER make assumptions about Mega stones again.

TL:DR = Just because the AI Mega Evolved one of their Pokemon doesn't mean another Pokemon in their party isn't holding 1 and thus has its corresponding set too.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Question: if you terminate more than one streak in one day, do the prizes from the second overwrite the first, or do you get all of them in due time? I'm hoping I didn't shoot myself in the foot, because the first streak that ended qualified me for everything except the berries, while the second I terminated myself right away simply because I brainfarted when I entered and hadn't taught an important move I'd meant to. There was no major loss for forfeiting, so I did. But then it occurred to me that I hadn't collected the bounty from my last streak.

Any knowledge one can share is appreciated. That ability capsule and PP Max would have done me a lot of good.

I learned that, thankfully, you do not forego your rewards for a streak by ending another that same day. I got my capsule and other items.

You know how the trainers can have different versions of the same species and how some versions may have Megas? Well one thing I just kinda assumed was that if the AI brought one Pokemon and Mega Evolved it, that means the other won't have any chance of being Mega sets. Right?...Wrong.

I'm actually surprised you went this long without noticing that, heh. You see this all the time with certain legacy trainers (hello Cynthia) and certain trainer archetypes like Black Belts, who pack a lot of different Megas. It's easiest to notice with Set 3-4 trainers who use a mega and then send in a Mawile. Both Mawile 3 and 4 turn into the Huge Power behemoth, but when they can't use their stone, they're laughably easy to kill.

Man, what a difference a crummy team makes. I almost lost to Colress with his amazing Magnezone-Porygon2-Electrode-Klinklang combo, all because I lost four separate coin flips due to Thunder Wave. Porygon traced Inner Focus, so I didn't bother using Fake Out on it (I was going to hit Magnezone anyway to disable Sturdy) and Oranguru was paralyzed for all if its three turns alive. Mind you, the bulk of my setter also required them to crit it to death, but the paralysis was all I cared about.

Thankfully Electrode and Klinklang are both bonafide free range (in)organic shitmons so once that fucking Porygon2 was down, it was easyish cleanup for Drampa. Had burns not been nerfed it would have won the same turn it attacked Klinklang (dropped it to single digit HP and burned; lefties activated first.)

I fought a new and improved TR team on the way to Colress and another during the ten before that. I was happy to see from the spreadsheets that they've expanded quite a bit, though some additions are... a little... peculiar. Such as Gothitelle; no TR and no remotely effective build for it. None of the three different squads run an Alolan Exeggutor either, who unlike Goth is a natural for TR. The only Turtonator on these TR teams is the timid one with a Shell Smash set. Silly.

 

[JebusChrist]

I have a couple of questions about the good old Entrainment Durant strategy.

1. Is it best to lead with Durant? It seems like if your opponent leads something with Protect/Fake Out or something that otherwise can't be Entrained right away, like Ghost types or stuff with certain Abilities, you'll have to switch out and risk getting crit or something. I was thinking it might be best to lead something with Taunt and U-Turn to tank Fake Out, prevent Protect, and then switch when necessary, but I've never used this strat before.

2. Is there any way to predict the AI's Protect usage? Will it ever use Protect on the first turn? It seems like Protect is the biggest roadblock, as Ghost types, Fake Out mons, and the four mons that can't be Entrained in the Tree (Mimikyu, Minior, Komala, Wishiwashi) probably wouldn't be too hard to deal with, but there's a wide variety of stuff that carries Protect so it's harder to cover.

3. What's the best third mon for a Durant team? Right now I'm thinking of running Drapion with Acupressure/Knock Off/Sub/Protect as the setup sweeper, but I'm not sure exactly what the best choices are here. It seems like the formula should be Durant + Sweeper + Something to remove non-Entrainable mons, but I'm not too sure what would be best for the latter two roles.

It seems to me that Durant strats are probably the most consistent and algorithmic, as if you get Entrainment off it should always be a free win, but I want to make sure I cover as many threats as possible. Any insight would be appreciated :)

 

[GG Unit]

1. You can use Entrainment in Ghosts just as you can use Growl on them or Sand Attack on Ground immunities. This has always been the case. It most likely is best to lead with Durant because otherwise in addition to all the other things that threaten Durant you'd likely have to deal with Speed Boost leads outrunning it after 2 turns.

2. The AI will usually go for the KO when it's in range. Durant has enough defense to take a hit or two from physical attackers with Protect. The good news is that if something manages to use Protect on the 'right' turns and KO Durant without being Entrained, it is also likely to Protect often enough to give something like Drapion enough free turns to set up. In the past I've fully set up Drapion on non-Entrained opponents like Klinklang, Tentacruel, and Glaceon without needing any lucky Acupressure boosts. I've also used Confide on Durant to allow for easier set-up without having to gamble on Protect or evasion items screwing me over, but that may be more difficult now that there's more ambiguity on turn 1 about which set you're facing.

3. I had a pretty detailed post about Red Card Mimikyu a page or two earlier in the thread. It's a free phaze against a bad lead matchup and has worked very well so far.

 

[JebusChrist]

1. You can use Entrainment in Ghosts just as you can use Growl on them or Sand Attack on Ground immunities. This has always been the case. It most likely is best to lead with Durant because otherwise in addition to all the other things that threaten Durant you'd likely have to deal with Speed Boost leads outrunning it after 2 turns.

2. The AI will usually go for the KO when it's in range. Durant has enough defense to take a hit or two from physical attackers with Protect. The good news is that if something manages to use Protect on the 'right' turns and KO Durant without being Entrained, it is also likely to Protect often enough to give something like Drapion enough free turns to set up. In the past I've fully set up Drapion on non-Entrained opponents like Klinklang, Tentacruel, and Glaceon without needing any lucky Acupressure boosts. I've also used Confide on Durant in the to allow for easier set-up without having to gamble on Protect or evasion items screwing me over, but that may be more difficult now that there's more ambiguity on turn 1 about which set you're facing.

3. I had a pretty detailed post about Red Card Mimikyu a peg or two earlier in the thread. It's a free phaze against a bad lead matchup and has worked very well so far.

So it does hit ghosts, I guess I'm just dumb then. I googled it and saw that someone said it didn't. So I read your post, and I have a couple questions/comments:

1. You mention Drapion getting nerfed this gen with Choice-locked stuff switching, but can't you just knock off the choice item before setting up? And I think any choiced mon with psychic moves wouldn't use them vs Durant, so you don't have to worry about them switching on immunity once you go to Drapion. It seems like Moody will take a very long time to really get going compared to Acupressure, as well as Drapion enjoying the crit immunity of Battle Armor. Also not being weak to any priority, and generally better typing/bulk seems nice. Maybe it doesn't really matter which one you use though.

2. On Mimikyu, what is Thief used for? Just as a Knock Off replacement?

3. Would Charm be better than Confide on Mimikyu? It seems that of the 4 mons that you can never Entrain (Wishiwashi, Minior, Komala, Mimikyu) they are all physical except for some Wishi sets. Or maybe even run it over Thief, as I don't think anything that can't be Entrained has Taunt. I guess Prankster Taunt could be a problem for the team either way, now that I think about it.

 

[Rainbow-chan]

After a while away, back to post that my streak is still ongoing with 300 wins. It's a lot farther than I honestly expected to get. I am still going with iVolke's team.

http://imgur.com/qxoKAlp

I plan to keep going and will post back when my streak ends. :)

 

[Chris95]

I'm a total noob when it comes down to facilities like the Battle Tree in Pokémon games. This is the first time I tried to get into it and it's really fun for me.

Because I'm a total noob I just "stole" a team from one of the users here. I know that's a bit of a lame thing to do, but I thought it would be easier to get into it with a good team.
GGUnit Salamence/Aegislash/Chansey team

So this is the one I just copied and it's really working well for me (70 streak, which is an awful lot for me)

The noob question I wanted to ask now is if there's a certain reason why you shouldn't put the remaining 4 EVs of M-Salamence on his Def.

 

[Eurritimia]

I'm a total noob when it comes down to facilities like the Battle Tree in Pokémon games. This is the first time I tried to get into it and it's really fun for me.

Because I'm a total noob I just "stole" a team from one of the users here. I know that's a bit of a lame thing to do, but I thought it would be easier to get into it with a good team.
GGUnit Salamence/Aegislash/Chansey team

So this is the one I just copied and it's really working well for me (70 streak, which is an awful lot for me)

I don't think it's bad to use other teams to get high streaks. If you're new to Battle facilities, it's good to see what it works and what it doesn't for you. After messing with the teams for a while, you'll learn to create your own. And some people just want to get until the 50th battle so they earn a ribbon or an annotation on profile.

 

[Siggu]

Are there any ORAS Move Tutor moves that are particularly useful in the Battle Tree?

 

[Eurritimia]

Are there any ORAS Move Tutor moves that are particularly useful in the Battle Tree?

I regret not teaching Drain Punch on my Mega Kangaskhan but that's all I guess.

 

[NoCheese]

Are there any ORAS Move Tutor moves that are particularly useful in the Battle Tree?

Mega Metagross very much appreciates Thunder Punch and Ice Punch. And while not a tutor move, you still need access to ORAS Pokemon to breed Seismic Toss onto Chansey, which is a pretty important Tree move. I'm sure there are plenty of others.

 

[Smuckem]

Are there any ORAS Move Tutor moves that are particularly useful in the Battle Tree?

While the super important ones learn it via Egg Move or Level Up (Aron, Taillow, Cottonee), tutoring greatly cuts down on the time spent getting Endeavor on Lvl.1 baitmons, while also allowing for numerous other species to be options in that slot, in case you have any personal preferences for decent alternatives (Swirlix, Spiritzee) or just wanna try something different (Patrat, Tympole).

Oh yeah, Knock Off on...a whole boatload of 'mons.

 

[insanemaniac]

bug bite on scizor
outrage on many dragons (except its usually an egg move too)
iron head on metagross
icy wind on suicune (but hey scald is a thing too)

to name a few

 

[adman2]

I must have a lot of trouble fighting Wally in Super Doubles. Either the Mega Garchomp gets me or the Dragon Dancing Altaria does. My latest team was physically defensive Pelipper with Damp Rock, Assault Vest Ludicolo, special attack Aegislash with Weakness Policy, and the Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu that helped me in Singles.

Aegislash is strong and benefits defensively from rain, but even that can only take you so far. I might switch out Bulu. The Fairy type seems to hinder it more than it helps in the tree. Any suggestions for a rain team Pokemon that might not be obvious to me? No Ultra Beasts or legendaries, please. I probably don't have good ones except for several of the Tapus with Speed nature's.

 

[GG Unit]

I'm a total noob when it comes down to facilities like the Battle Tree in Pokémon games. This is the first time I tried to get into it and it's really fun for me.

Because I'm a total noob I just "stole" a team from one of the users here. I know that's a bit of a lame thing to do, but I thought it would be easier to get into it with a good team.
GGUnit Salamence/Aegislash/Chansey team

So this is the one I just copied and it's really working well for me (70 streak, which is an awful lot for me)

The noob question I wanted to ask now is if there's a certain reason why you shouldn't put the remaining 4 EVs of M-Salamence on his Def.

No, I actually do have those defense EVs but messed up when it came to writing them in that post. Good catch and good luck with the team! I would definitely agree that actually fighting some battles yourself is much more informative than getting caught up in minutiae.

 

[Smuckem]

Posting a completed streak of 130 wins in Super Doubles.

Team Writeup

First, a fun battle that results in my FEARs finishing things on their own, without TR, because Ludicolo3 is significantly dumber in the Tree than it ever was in the Maison, I guess:
Battle #116, vs. Variel (Bronzong2/Pelipper4/Ludicolo3/Empoleon4)--2Y3W-WWWW-WWW5-8A3Z

My streak was ended by being completely hamstrung by a specific, unique threat: while most opponents with multi-hit attacks (who threaten my FEARs) can be worked around once TR is up, Greninja3, a.k.a. the Aron-Killer, is kinda unstoppable unless he's stupid and doesn't spam Water Shuriken. He actually had a brainfart and used Rock Slide first here, but as you'll see, that brings its own problems...oh, and due to the typing of my other opponents, Bronzong was dead weight for most of this.
Battle #131, vs. Hashim (Milotic3/Vikavolt3/Greninja3/Scizor?)--RJPG-WWWW-WWW5-8A3R



While that ends my second successful foray into the Tree, it's not a sad day at all. I'm now free to enact my most ambitious Tree project yet...

...Phase A of The Floatzel Plan awaits! (Eventually)

 

[hearthebeard]

When pp stalling, do opposing mons have max pp or min? Sorry for clogging the thread with a simple question.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Enemies use no PP Ups whatsoever.

 

[Siggu]

Enemies use no PP Ups whatsoever.

Prankster Spite + Protect sounds fun in order to neuter offensive Pokemon.

Murkrow, regular Sableye and Mega Banette can pull that off. The first two require tutors and the third one is outright unavailable, though.

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

I did that a little bit last gen; it's situationally helpful but Spite is a pretty hard move to work into a set, especially for Prankster types who already have a lot of strong status/support options to use alongside it. I could see Sableye being more helpful than the other two since it already fits comfortably in moldable niche roles, and using Banette for Prankster Spite is a waste of a mega.