Battle Tree Discussion and Records

Smuckem

Resident Facility Bot Wannabe
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
EDIT: Now that I've gotten a 50 win streak in Singles, I'm going to try and get a 50 win in doubles. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to teambuild for that. Has anyone tried Aurora Veil in Battle Tree Doubles?
I did, I managed a best of 78 wins using this thing: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-3B28-4A9B
(used Arcanine/Kartana as the backups, feel free to experiment with the others, definitely lead with the Ice-types)

Garchomp @ groundium z
Jolly Nature
Sand Veil
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Iron Head
Hey, what's the fourth move?
 
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I've had this file on my computer for a long time (probably since I got up to 100 with Dragonite/Aegi/Fini) and now that I've retired that team, I guess I'm not going to work on it any more. So here is the very incomplete lead guide that I wrote for Dragonite/Aegislash/Tapu Fini. Note that some strategies might be suboptimal and/or incomplete, and I only have entries for half the leads you're likely to face, but that's due to the large amounts of possible sets you could face for each mon/trainer combination. Use this at your own risk.
 

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Smuckem

Resident Facility Bot Wannabe
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Here's what I used from 50-100. Battle 100 is definitely the craziest one of the run one that featured Smeargle powering through a Taunt Toxicroak (I overpredicted turn 1 thinking Toxicroak was going to Taunt - should have Roared with Krookodile) and then a Golisopod that outsped it and flinched with Rock Slide at one point. W2AG-WWWW-WWW3-MRZV


Krookodile @ Focus Sash
Intimidate
252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Speed
Jolly
- Sand Attack
- Scary Face
- Low Sweep
- Roar

Uses Scary Face as much as possible before fainting. With my luck, I assume Smeargle is going to be at -5 Speed or so even 20 turns in, so I don't mess around much with the other moves. Intimidate gives Chansey a nice cushion to switch in on stuff with Explosion, priority, or sound moves that you wouldn't want to set Smeargle up against. Roar is a last resort if there's something with Contrary or whatever (Defiant/Competitive don't matter since Smeargle is getting KOed by pretty much anything that hits it regardless). Low Sweep reduces Speed in the event of Taunt - I know it gets Bulldoze too but I wanted to hit stuff like Crobat or Thundurus if they came up as a lead, plus I didn't want to accidentally do too much damage with STAB Bulldoze and KO something while getting the Sash broken. I'm sure this could be optimized much more with the spread, but I was just looking for something that had Intimidate and could lower speed reliably.

Smeargle @ Leftovers
Moody
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly
- Spiky Shield
- Substitute
- Power Trip
- Spore

When Smeargle comes in, the first four turns will be Spore, Sub, Spiky Shield, and Spiky Shield assuming no first turn wake-up and Smeargle still outspeeds the opposing lead. By then, you're likely at 100% behind a Sub with 4 turns of boosts and are able to spam Spore a bunch to pick up boosts.

If your accuracy decreases or are against a Spore immunity, you still have at least 16 turns to pick up boosts between Sub and Spiky Shield. Worst case, your accuracy sucks and you should switch to Chansey to reset the boosts and try again. Next worse case, you're at low health behind a sub and can go for the KO with a 300ish base power move. Smeargle doesn't do insane damage unless its Attack is boosted (for example, it didn't OHKO a Talonflame3 at +0 Attack when Power Trip was in the neighborhood of 500 base power), but it's going to do more than enough to finish off something that's taken a few rounds of Spiky Shield damage. Of course, much more often Smeargle will evade an attack (or ten) or the opponent will use a non-attacking move.

Chansey @ Eviolite
Natural Cure
252 Def / 4 Sp. Def / 252 Spe
Timid
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Minimize
- Soft-Boiled

Hopefully this marks the last time I ever use Chansey with Toxic in the Battle Tree, but either way it does a lot of work. It comes in on Trick Roomers, Sub bypassers, priority users, etc and emerges at full health, behind a Sub with +6 Evasion.

On the surface it looks insane to use a team with 3 Fighting weaknesses, but as far as Smeargle is concerned every single opponent might as well have Close Combat and Aura Sphere anyway, and sacrificing both Krookodile and Chansey is going to put Smeargle in a position to succeed the vast majority of the time.
After a long-ass hiatus with no mention of this team, I have added it to the QR3 as 'ProtoTrip'. Accordingly, I have removed 'Doobs' from the listing. Many thx to GG Unit for making the trades necessary to make this happen!

Major note: GG has solved his own Toxic problem and gotten Seismic Toss onto Chansey, making for a more efficient team.
 
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turskain

activated its Quick Claw!
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Posting a streak of 248 in Super Doubles. It took more revisions and silly experiments than usual to develop the team, so we'll start with these - skip ahead for the actual team used for the streak.

QR team: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-4E60-9E3E

Battle video compilation: HERE



My first encounter with Bulu was in AI Multis, pairing up Scarf Bulu with the AI partner's Entei3 (Choice Scarf) and Mawile4. It performed unexpectedly well on a very lucky Multis streak, and eventually I wanted to use Bulu in Super Doubles as well. I'd also been itching for Firium-Z Heatran, and trying something different so at some point I threw together a basic team to try out Bulu with.


(same Scarf Bulu set as in AI Multis at this time, might've had Rock Slide over Rock Tomb)

On paper it seemed like a decent idea with good synergy: Heatran resists or is immune to all of Bulu's weaknesses. Grassy Terrain halves the damage from Earthquake, granting Heatran a permanent Shuca Berry. Greninja can use Mat Block so Bulu doesn't get hit, while Scarf Bulu hits Jolteon before it would attack Greninja; can't forget Grassy Terrain Grass Knot pumping up Sash Greninja to unexpected power levels when appropriate, and Grassy Terrain keeping Greninja's Sash intact in Sandstorm/Hail. Then for the Mega slot, I'd already ran Salamence on teams with Greninja, and it fit into a Water/Steel/Dragon core; what could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, as I was about to find out. Heatran was much better in theory than in practice - mine was Timid 252 Spe, and it was still very slow and unable to use its Z-move effectively. It also shared a weakness to Thunder Wave which I hadn't considered - indeed, Tapu Bulu hates paralysis and is often rendered deadweight by the status, as it depends heavily on having a Speed advantage from Scarf to function. Heatran also did poorly against paralysis, and its non-STAB Earth Power failed to cover opposing electrics that 1) paralyzed it, 2) outsped it, 3) 2HKOd it with STAB Electric attacks and 4) were not OHKO'd by Earth Power in the first place. Time for Salamence to assist with Earthquake - wait, why isn't it dealing any damage even on super-effective hits? The halved damage on EQ ended up making the match-up against opposing Electric-types that much worse, to the point its utility in helping out Heatran was overshadowed by the drawback of being unable to KO Electric-types.

This team did not go far. I stopped using it with 3 losses before reaching Battle 50, as the weaknesses and idiosyncratic synergy made apparent that this idea was a disaster.

----

Back to the drawing board some time later. I'd used Greninja with different, more succesful leads in the meantime (see below) and abandoned the idea of running Greninja/Bulu, and the prescription called for a different approach to the lead combination, bringing me to another thing I wanted to try: Rockium-Z Terrakion. Previously, it required Wide Lens to function - but with Rockium-Z, it could deliver a very powerful, accurate Rock STAB while carrying an useful item. Put it next to Bulu - Bulu will halve damage from EQ and remove Fire-types that threaten Terrakion, while Terrakion can punish Fire- and Steel-types that would scare Bulu off the field. The best defense is a good offense - simple and effective. What could possibly go wrong with this idea?



Latios and Mega Scizor were stock glue that worked well with Terrakion in the past, and seemed adequate in overall synergy. This team was very short-lived - I ran into Infernape in the first 20 battles, and realized that it ties Terrakion, can't be KO'd by Bulu, and can OHKO both of my leads lol what was I even thinking theorymoning this? Realizing Fire/Fighting leads were outrageously threatening to the team and difficult to handle for all its Pokémon aside from Latios, I threw it in the trash immediately and went back to the drawing board. RIP Terrakion, may you find your Rockium-Z niche in a different team... (no promises)

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Terrakion failed - it failed hard, since Fire/Fighting types exist, and it could never hope to check these. This flaw called for a different lead that genuinely matches up favorably against most Fire-types, including Infernape, Mega Blaziken, Chandelure, Charizard, Heatran, Talonflame, had speed and power to form a 1-2 punch with Bulu's Wood Hammer to grab quick KOs before opponents get to move. There was one Pokémon that checked all the boxes - a familiar face that was a shadow of its former bravery, reduced to irrelevance by Game Freak's nerf bat.



Flyinium-Z Talonflame as a lead - more damage than Choice Band Brave Bird, with no recoil. At the low price of only having priority when Talonflame has full HP - to note is that if Talonflame takes no damage on Turn 1, it can use priority Brave Bird once after first expending Supersonic Skystrike. A perfect fit for Scarf Bulu's hit-and-run playstyle - hit them before they move, and get off a priority Brave Bird after snagging a fast KO on the most prominent threat first.

What I was thinking with the back-ups I can't say, but Mega Metagross and Feraligatr were Pokémon I'd bred and briefly tried in the Maison but never got to use, and they were just begging for a test run supported by situational Tailwind from Talonflame. The back-ups quickly proved inadequate - I guess there's a reason Mega Metagross and Feraligatr didn't make many appareances on the Maison leaderboards...



Further theorymon brought on a different backline that had Lightning Rod support to cover Talonflame and neutralize T-Wave paralysis, Fake Out support, and Mega Blastoise to have the option of sweeping with Tailwind. Gimmicky - but possibly effective.

This version of the team actually wasn't terrible. It made it to around 150 wins or so, and I made several adjustments to it on Raichu's set, debating between Encore/Helping Hand/Protect with Thunderbolt/Fake Out as mandatory moves. Briefly, I also experimented with 252 Spe Talonflame, rather than 252 HP; eventually moving back to 252 HP, deciding Speed after Gale Wings had been expended was less important than overall bulk and staying power.

It still wasn't enough. After a couple of attempts, the team proved too shaky against a variety of opponents, and especially Trick Room/Tailwind from opponents were very difficult to handle as Mega Blastoise Water Spout lives by moving first, and becomes low-value when circumstances fall apart. Something else was going to have to make Bulu great again - the lead combination was surprisingly effective, for including a Talonflame that had been nerfed into oblivion. Raichu's Lightning Rod was also a step in the right direction towards covering Bulu's fatal weakness to Electric-types, Magnezone, and paralysis in general. I remember trying to run Raichu as a lead at some point, to little success - Talonflame was the right lead for this particular line-up.

----

I liked Raichu's Lightning Rod support, but its power without boosts was underwhelming and it was a little slow for its utility role. What about a different Lightning Rod user with more Speed and the ability to go Mega?


(This version of the team is also included in the QR team, with Manectric and Moltres as 5th and 6th members to choose from.)

You can probably see where this is going. Moltres was a Firium-Z Burn Up set I really wanted to give a try, and Gastrodon was the choice to help it out. Mega Manectric was surprisingly fun to use, but I lost to having it CH'd by Sceptile4-Mega on turn 1 and then getting run over by Rock Slide and Leaf Blade and the idea wasn't too sound. Moltres might've had a niche with Burn Up on paper setting up a strong Inferno Overdrive, but being able to only use it once was a significant issue and its other moves were weak outside that. It was also Moltres, limited by its low Speed.

This team was more of a fun try to get Manectric and Moltres on the field, and it did utilize them to some extent.

----

I'd tried Mat Block with Bulu before, but Rage Powder/Follow Me seemed like they could possibly cover its innumerable weaknesses and bad MUs. As a pretty strong Fire-type, Sash Volcarona could also remove Steel- and Grass-types, and double as decent offense when not using Rage Powder. For the back-line, I brought a glue lineup of Waterium-Z Wash Rotom and Mega Salamence for Rotom's defensive typing, and settled on Mence as the Mega after first trying Kangaskhan and finding it ill-fitting.





Rotom-W seemed too passive and slow for a Z-move user, so I brought in a Wide Guard/Fake Out/Close Combat/Sucker Punch Hitmontop holding Fightinium-Z. The team still didn't work - Volcarona/Bulu was a weaker lead than I had hoped, especially against opposing Fire-types and Rage Powder wasn't a silver bullet to keep Bulu safe, either. It was after this that the winning combination finally came to me.




U-Ship (Talonflame) @ Flyinium-Z
Level: 50
Ability: Gale Wings
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpD
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

The same Talonflame I used in the Maison, except with Flyinium-Z. On this team, Tailwind is a highly situational move for dealing with Speed boosters or very fast opponents such as Sceptile4-Mega, or as insurance for securing the Speed advantage when Talonflame doesn't need to attack immediately and/or has lost Gale Wings and would benefit from the Speed.


PrepTheBulu (Tapu Bulu) @ Choice Scarf
Level: 50
Ability: Grassy Surge
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
- Wood Hammer
- Rock Tomb
- Rock Slide
- Horn Leech

Jolly Scarf to outspeed Aerodactyl, Mega Gengar, Braviary3 & friends so they don't outspeed and OHKO Bulu. I tried different moves on Bulu, eventually settling for running both of Rock Tomb and Rock Slide and dropping Superpower off the set entirely - a decision that paid off, with the Rock coverage moves both having their own utility. Horn Leech is used when it OHKOs or 2HKOs foes and locking into Wood Hammer would result in equivalent KOs with more recoil damage, or when trying to preserve Bulu's HP to prevent it from dropping into KO range, or stand its ground with recovery under Trick Room.


Torm (Salamence) @ Salamencite
Level: 50
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Dragon Claw Mega Salamence - and it's not even on a Q.R.T.O.O. team. You might remember the rant earlier about how Earthquake's damage being halved does Bulu no favors - the move is so weak in Grassy Terrain that for the DD Salamence I still insist on using, Dragon Claw is a flat out stronger coverage move to complement Double-Edge. I considered Hyper Voice and Flamethrower, but Dragon Claw proved its value with a recoil-free option against opposing Dragon-types, and being Salamence's strongest move against Electric-types.


Gyges (Gastrodon) @ Assault Vest
Level: 50
Ability: Storm Drain
Modest Nature
EVs: 172 HP / 92 Def / 220 SpA / 12 SpD / 12 Spe
- Earth Power
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Clear Smog

Assault Vest Gastrodon, very similar to the one I used in the Maison - except feeling blue, rebred with a Modest nature, EV'd to hit 61 Speed, and HP increased by 1 to maximize Grassy Terrain recovery at 13HP per turn, taking EVs out of Defense to get spare EVs for the changes. It still does its job of having immunities to Water and Electric with Storm Drain redirection to boost on attacks aimed at it or Talonflame, battling under Trick Room, thawing out of freezes with Scald, and having the right set of resistances for switching into Bulu's and Talonflame's major weaknesses. Earth Power deals full damage under Grassy Terrain unlike Earthquake, providing much-needed Ground coverage.

----

I'm quite satisfied with how this team turned out, since the odds of making Bulu work were slim to say the least, and there were a variety of hurdles with Gale Wings having been nerfed. The lead combo is simple and reminiscent of Team Leer - priority Supersonic Skystrike hits harder than CB Brave Bird, and Bulu's scarfed Wood Hammer is one of the fastest, most powerful attacks to fire off on Turn 1. The back-ups are the same as on the old Triples team, covering Talonflame's weaknesses and doubling up on birdspam - in spite of Salamence sharing a weakness to Ice with Tapu Bulu, it's still the Mega that is best equipped for supporting Bulu's offensive playstyle.

Bulu has a lot of match-ups it struggles with. Its Grass STAB is resisted by over a third of Tree opponents, including all Fire-types, Dragons other than Garchomp and Flygon, it suffers excessive Wood Hammer recoil and has low base HP, and Grass/Fairy typing gives it weaknesses to Poison, Steel, Flying, Fire, and Ice - difficult weaknesses to cover, with risk of status and many strong attacks to fear. Rather than try to defend Bulu, leading with Z-Talonflame is more focused on hit-and-run with fast KOs and defending Bulu with a strong offense - Gastrodon completes the FWG core with good defensive and offensive synergy between the three Pokémon, and as a lead Bulu also does well against users of STAB Water attacks that would limit Talonflame's presence.

Limited control and one-dimensional offense has its limits, especially when Bulu cannot deal damage due to its main STAB being resisted - in these cases it can 1) switch out, 2) use Rock Tomb for some damage and a Speed drop with 95% accuracy, or 3) click Rock Slide and get chip damage while having a chance of lucking out with flinches. Initially I had Superpower on the set, but it failed to net the OHKOs that would've been truly valuable such as Drampa3/Bouffalant4 (Sap Sipper users) and is the worst move in the game to lock into on a Choice set. Without Superpower, Bulu is helpless against Steel-types - but in practice this wasn't really a problem, as the team is not dependent on Bulu to handle these, and Superpower is very low-value against the most threatening Steels in Metagross4-Mega, Mawile, Heatran, and Magnezone - the former two are hit harder by resisted Wood Hammer, and it lacks the power to take out Heatran which outspeeds and OHKOs Bulu on Set4, forcing it to switch out of this set possibility immediately.

The threat list for the team is quite long, since Bulu has more than a few glaring holes.
-Colress is the worst special trainer to face, with most of his sets resisting Bulu's STAB and many OHKOing it in return.
-Queenly Majesty and Dazzling, from Tsareena and Bruxish respectively, block Gale Wings attacks. Never risk using Skystrike or Brave Bird if either of these Pokémon is on the field, and consider using Tailwind then taking a non-fatal hit, or attacking with Flare Blitz to disable Gale Wings if the situation is dire and Talonflame needs to deploy its Flying STAB while these abilities are active. Quick Guard I never encountered during this streak; Cobalion4 is its only user, and it would usually either Protect or try to use Iron Head on Bulu.
-Metagross, Mawile, Intimidate trainers, Salamence stand out as major problems that require a lot of switching to reset Intimidate, Rock Tomb control, or getting lucky with abilities to face, and as seen in some of the losses the team can get run over rather easily by a poor match-up.
-Other threats include: Drampa3 (Quick Claw), Uxie3 (Quick Claw, 2HKOs Gastrodon with Energy Ball), Entei (may target either Bulu or Talonflame, or be Set3 with Scarf Eruption which demands Skystrike or Brave Bird immediately, Hail/Sandstorm breaking Gale Wings and limiting options, Sceptile4-Mega outspeeding the whole team and threatening Rock Slide flinches (extremely threatening if Gale Wings is not active - Rock Tomb to slow it down is an option)
-With Set3 and Set4 both being common, there's a bunch more sets that have a possibility of carrying a Grass-type move for hurting Gastrodon than in the Maison. I don't have a list of them all but Grass attacks boosted by Grassy Terrain leave Gastrodon in a world of pain, so stay on your toes and don't forget to always be aware of enemy sets. Grassy Terrain fortunately only boosts attacks from Pokémon that are grounded, so Levitate users are not boosted.

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In the process of this streak I discovered that Uxie3 prefers Psyshock over Thunder on Mega Salamence - maybe this was posted earlier in the thread, but speculatively the AI is calculating Psyshock as a special move with 120BP and not accounting for its property of targeting Defense. In one of the battle videos I only won thanks to this quirk, and would have lost otherwise in a 1v1 endgame situation.

Grass Knot use on Gastrodon is slightly erratic. Sometimes the AI wants to use it, but not always, and on one occasion I saw Samurott4 fire Ice Beam into Gastrodon's slot over Grass Knot. In the Maison the AI was also somewhat broken, but I can't say if it's the same kind of busted this time around, only that something is wrong with it and it occasionally has trouble picking it as its strongest move.

I found there were quite a few pitfalls with playing this team, and whether to overkill with Z-move, or try and preserve for later in the battle is a difficult decision. My priorities in order of preference are:

1. Gale Wings on Talonflame intact, Z-move unused - this is a pipe dream, and mostly available when switching out Talonflame on Turn 1 against relatively benign leads while Bulu isn't threatened
2. Gale Wings on Talonflame intact, Z-move blown - even if Brave Bird would be enough to net a KO and Skystrike is not necessary, using the Z-move keeps Talonflame's HP at full and lets it use priority Brave Bird after. It's a tradeoff between having +1 Brave Bird, or +0 Supersonic Skystrike later in the battle - and the priority advantage tips this in the former's favor for consistent utility and speed.
3. Gale Wings on Talonflame lost and Z-move unused, Tailwind active - this is an option for rare situations where Talonflame doesn't have to attack, and can instead regain a Speed advantage using Tailwind so it doesn't mind having lost Gale Wings.
4. Gale Wings lost, Z-move used - you can't always get everything you want, and against threats that must be taken out with Skystrike ASAP this is frequently the result - with 252HP, Talonflame can survive more than you'd expect after its initial Skystrike having no recoil, and have a chance of using one more attack later.

This is Talonflame's overall plan, Bulu is also a consideration but generally a lower-importance team member and more difficult to preserve. Against Ace Trainer Lea and Ace Trainer Sylvia, every single set they run resists Bulu's STAB, and Bulu should be given little care as it's likely not worth preserving against these foes outside trying to luck out with Rock Slide. The leads lack control, so often saccing a lead and trading is the safest way to proceed when there are no safe switch options. Most commonly, Gastrodon is the switch option for both Talonflame and Bulu - it's also possible to switch it in Bulu's place to redirect Hydro Pump/Waterfall/Hydro Vortex away from Talonflame's slot. Salamence is generally more important to preserve and vulnerable to status, crits, and so forth and it may have to take Double-Edge recoil on top later, but occasionally double switching and getting in Intimidate is worth the risk.

Talonflame's main value is in its intact Gale Wings, so against Fake Out leads it must not get Faked Out before moving; use Protect or switch out if there is any possibility of Talonflame being targeted.



This team was a lot of fun to theorymon and play for me despite its inherent flaws, and I'm more satisfied with this streak personally than with my Lee/Koko one. Bulu is a charming Pokémon and getting to use Talonflame after its nerf is a rare treat - I've not managed to think of anything better suited for the role yet. My goal with Bulu was to break 200 wins, and I met it after losing several times with this version (some, but not all included in the battle video compilation).

The losing battle (#249) I'm not happy about - if I had targeted Mega Venusaur instead of Whimsicott late in the battle, I had a chance of winning. But I survived many very close battles through great luck, and the streak overall met my goal so it was "about time" for Bulu to meet its maker. For now this is my last attempt with Bulu, but USUM and its tutors around the corner, the bull might just get new life and warrant a second try.





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I was going to post a 606-win streak with Greninja/Xurkitree/Salamence-M/Aegislash as a placeholder, but the battle video was from an older version of the game and not uploadable lol and the time to post a full writeup of it is not today. I wasn't satisfied with this result and did more attempts, and will do more still so this team remains a work in progress; write-up and full details coming up when it's done.

Here is a fixed QR team of Team Brexit with Double-Edge on Kangaskhan making it usable for QR: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-21CF-4E1E
 
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Posting a streak of 248 in Super Doubles. It took more revisions and silly experiments than usual to develop the team, so we'll start with these - skip ahead for the actual team used for the streak.

QR team: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-4E60-9E3E

Battle video compilation: HERE



My first encounter with Bulu was in AI Multis, pairing up Scarf Bulu with the AI partner's Entei3 (Choice Scarf) and Mawile4. It performed unexpectedly well on a very lucky Multis streak, and eventually I wanted to use Bulu in Super Doubles as well. I'd also been itching for Firium-Z Heatran, and trying something different so at some point I threw together a basic team to try out Bulu with.


(same Scarf Bulu set as in AI Multis at this time, might've had Rock Slide over Rock Tomb)

On paper it seemed like a decent idea with good synergy: Heatran resists or is immune to all of Bulu's weaknesses. Grassy Terrain halves the damage from Earthquake, granting Heatran a permanent Shuca Berry. Greninja can use Mat Block so Bulu doesn't get hit, while Scarf Bulu hits Jolteon before it would attack Greninja; can't forget Grassy Terrain Grass Knot pumping up Sash Greninja to unexpected power levels when appropriate, and Grassy Terrain keeping Greninja's Sash intact in Sandstorm/Hail. Then for the Mega slot, I'd already ran Salamence on teams with Greninja, and it fit into a Water/Steel/Dragon core; what could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, as I was about to find out. Heatran was much better in theory than in practice - mine was Timid 252 Spe, and it was still very slow and unable to use its Z-move effectively. It also shared a weakness to Thunder Wave which I hadn't considered - indeed, Tapu Bulu hates paralysis and is often rendered deadweight by the status, as it depends heavily on having a Speed advantage from Scarf to function. Heatran also did poorly against paralysis, and its non-STAB Earth Power failed to cover opposing electrics that 1) paralyzed it, 2) outsped it, 3) 2HKOd it with STAB Electric attacks and 4) were not OHKO'd by Earth Power in the first place. Time for Salamence to assist with Earthquake - wait, why isn't it dealing any damage even on super-effective hits? The halved damage on EQ ended up making the match-up against opposing Electric-types that much worse, to the point its utility in helping out Heatran was overshadowed by the drawback of being unable to KO Electric-types.

This team did not go far. I stopped using it with 3 losses before reaching Battle 50, as the weaknesses and idiosyncratic synergy made apparent that this idea was a disaster.

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Back to the drawing board some time later. I'd used Greninja with different, more succesful leads in the meantime (see below) and abandoned the idea of running Greninja/Bulu, and the prescription called for a different approach to the lead combination, bringing me to another thing I wanted to try: Rockium-Z Terrakion. Previously, it required Wide Lens to function - but with Rockium-Z, it could deliver a very powerful, accurate Rock STAB while carrying an useful item. Put it next to Bulu - Bulu will halve damage from EQ and remove Fire-types that threaten Terrakion, while Terrakion can punish Fire- and Steel-types that would scare Bulu off the field. The best defense is a good offense - simple and effective. What could possibly go wrong with this idea?



Latios and Mega Scizor were stock glue that worked well with Terrakion in the past, and seemed adequate in overall synergy. This team was very short-lived - I ran into Infernape in the first 20 battles, and realized that it ties Terrakion, can't be KO'd by Bulu, and can OHKO both of my leads lol what was I even thinking theorymoning this? Realizing Fire/Fighting leads were outrageously threatening to the team and difficult to handle for all its Pokémon aside from Latios, I threw it in the trash immediately and went back to the drawing board. RIP Terrakion, may you find your Rockium-Z niche in a different team... (no promises)

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Terrakion failed - it failed hard, since Fire/Fighting types exist, and it could never hope to check these. This flaw called for a different lead that genuinely matches up favorably against most Fire-types, including Infernape, Mega Blaziken, Chandelure, Charizard, Heatran, Talonflame, had speed and power to form a 1-2 punch with Bulu's Wood Hammer to grab quick KOs before opponents get to move. There was one Pokémon that checked all the boxes - a familiar face that was a shadow of its former bravery, reduced to irrelevance by Game Freak's nerf bat.



Flyinium-Z Talonflame as a lead - more damage than Choice Band Brave Bird, with no recoil. At the low price of only having priority when Talonflame has full HP - to note is that if Talonflame takes no damage on Turn 1, it can use priority Brave Bird once after first expending Supersonic Skystrike. A perfect fit for Scarf Bulu's hit-and-run playstyle - hit them before they move, and get off a priority Brave Bird after snagging a fast KO on the most prominent threat first.

What I was thinking with the back-ups I can't say, but Mega Metagross and Feraligatr were Pokémon I'd bred and briefly tried in the Maison but never got to use, and they were just begging for a test run supported by situational Tailwind from Talonflame. The back-ups quickly proved inadequate - I guess there's a reason Mega Metagross and Feraligatr didn't make many appareances on the Maison leaderboards...



Further theorymon brought on a different backline that had Lightning Rod support to cover Talonflame and neutralize T-Wave paralysis, Fake Out support, and Mega Blastoise to have the option of sweeping with Tailwind. Gimmicky - but possibly effective.

This version of the team actually wasn't terrible. It made it to around 150 wins or so, and I made several adjustments to it on Raichu's set, debating between Encore/Helping Hand/Protect with Thunderbolt/Fake Out as mandatory moves. Briefly, I also experimented with 252 Spe Talonflame, rather than 252 HP; eventually moving back to 252 HP, deciding Speed after Gale Wings had been expended was less important than overall bulk and staying power.

It still wasn't enough. After a couple of attempts, the team proved too shaky against a variety of opponents, and especially Trick Room/Tailwind from opponents were very difficult to handle as Mega Blastoise Water Spout lives by moving first, and becomes low-value when circumstances fall apart. Something else was going to have to make Bulu great again - the lead combination was surprisingly effective, for including a Talonflame that had been nerfed into oblivion. Raichu's Lightning Rod was also a step in the right direction towards covering Bulu's fatal weakness to Electric-types, Magnezone, and paralysis in general. I remember trying to run Raichu as a lead at some point, to little success - Talonflame was the right lead for this particular line-up.

----

I liked Raichu's Lightning Rod support, but its power without boosts was underwhelming and it was a little slow for its utility role. What about a different Lightning Rod user with more Speed and the ability to go Mega?


(This version of the team is also included in the QR team, with Manectric and Moltres as 5th and 6th members to choose from.)

You can probably see where this is going. Moltres was a Firium-Z Burn Up set I really wanted to give a try, and Gastrodon was the choice to help it out. Mega Manectric was surprisingly fun to use, but I lost to having it CH'd by Sceptile4-Mega on turn 1 and then getting run over by Rock Slide and Leaf Blade and the idea wasn't too sound. Moltres might've had a niche with Burn Up on paper setting up a strong Inferno Overdrive, but being able to only use it once was a significant issue and its other moves were weak outside that. It was also Moltres, limited by its low Speed.

This team was more of a fun try to get Manectric and Moltres on the field, and it did utilize them to some extent.

----

I'd tried Mat Block with Bulu before, but Rage Powder/Follow Me seemed like they could possibly cover its innumerable weaknesses and bad MUs. As a pretty strong Fire-type, Sash Volcarona could also remove Steel- and Grass-types, and double as decent offense when not using Rage Powder. For the back-line, I brought a glue lineup of Waterium-Z Wash Rotom and Mega Salamence for Rotom's defensive typing, and settled on Mence as the Mega after first trying Kangaskhan and finding it ill-fitting.





Rotom-W seemed too passive and slow for a Z-move user, so I brought in a Wide Guard/Fake Out/Close Combat/Sucker Punch Hitmontop holding Fightinium-Z. The team still didn't work - Volcarona/Bulu was a weaker lead than I had hoped, especially against opposing Fire-types and Rage Powder wasn't a silver bullet to keep Bulu safe, either. It was after this that the winning combination finally came to me.




U-Ship (Talonflame) @ Flyinium-Z
Level: 50
Ability: Gale Wings
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SpD
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- Tailwind
- Protect

The same Talonflame I used in the Maison, except with Flyinium-Z. On this team, Tailwind is a highly situational move for dealing with Speed boosters or very fast opponents such as Sceptile4-Mega, or as insurance for securing the Speed advantage when Talonflame doesn't need to attack immediately and/or has lost Gale Wings and would benefit from the Speed.


PrepTheBulu (Tapu Bulu) @ Choice Scarf
Level: 50
Ability: Grassy Surge
Jolly Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
- Wood Hammer
- Rock Tomb
- Rock Slide
- Horn Leech

Jolly Scarf to outspeed Aerodactyl, Mega Gengar, Braviary3 & friends so they don't outspeed and OHKO Bulu. I tried different moves on Bulu, eventually settling for running both of Rock Tomb and Rock Slide and dropping Superpower off the set entirely - a decision that paid off, with the Rock coverage moves both having their own utility. Horn Leech is used when it OHKOs or 2HKOs foes and locking into Wood Hammer would result in equivalent KOs with more recoil damage, or when trying to preserve Bulu's HP to prevent it from dropping into KO range, or stand its ground with recovery under Trick Room.


Torm (Salamence) @ Salamencite
Level: 50
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

Dragon Claw Mega Salamence - and it's not even on a Q.R.T.O.O. team. You might remember the rant earlier about how Earthquake's damage being halved does Bulu no favors - the move is so weak in Grassy Terrain that for the DD Salamence I still insist on using, Dragon Claw is a flat out stronger coverage move to complement Double-Edge. I considered Hyper Voice and Flamethrower, but Dragon Claw proved its value with a recoil-free option against opposing Dragon-types, and being Salamence's strongest move against Electric-types.


Gyges (Gastrodon) @ Assault Vest
Level: 50
Ability: Storm Drain
Modest Nature
EVs: 172 HP / 92 Def / 220 SpA / 12 SpD / 12 Spe
- Earth Power
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Clear Smog

Assault Vest Gastrodon, very similar to the one I used in the Maison - except feeling blue, rebred with a Modest nature, EV'd to hit 61 Speed, and HP increased by 1 to maximize Grassy Terrain recovery at 13HP per turn, taking EVs out of Defense to get spare EVs for the changes. It still does its job of having immunities to Water and Electric with Storm Drain redirection to boost on attacks aimed at it or Talonflame, battling under Trick Room, thawing out of freezes with Scald, and having the right set of resistances for switching into Bulu's and Talonflame's major weaknesses. Earth Power deals full damage under Grassy Terrain unlike Earthquake, providing much-needed Ground coverage.

----

I'm quite satisfied with how this team turned out, since the odds of making Bulu work were slim to say the least, and there were a variety of hurdles with Gale Wings having been nerfed. The lead combo is simple and reminiscent of Team Leer - priority Supersonic Skystrike hits harder than CB Brave Bird, and Bulu's scarfed Wood Hammer is one of the fastest, most powerful attacks to fire off on Turn 1. The back-ups are the same as on the old Triples team, covering Talonflame's weaknesses and doubling up on birdspam - in spite of Salamence sharing a weakness to Ice with Tapu Bulu, it's still the Mega that is best equipped for supporting Bulu's offensive playstyle.

Bulu has a lot of match-ups it struggles with. Its Grass STAB is resisted by over a third of Tree opponents, including all Fire-types, Dragons other than Garchomp and Flygon, it suffers excessive Wood Hammer recoil and has low base HP, and Grass/Fairy typing gives it weaknesses to Poison, Steel, Flying, Fire, and Ice - difficult weaknesses to cover, with risk of status and many strong attacks to fear. Rather than try to defend Bulu, leading with Z-Talonflame is more focused on hit-and-run with fast KOs and defending Bulu with a strong offense - Gastrodon completes the FWG core with good defensive and offensive synergy between the three Pokémon, and as a lead Bulu also does well against users of STAB Water attacks that would limit Talonflame's presence.

Limited control and one-dimensional offense has its limits, especially when Bulu cannot deal damage due to its main STAB being resisted - in these cases it can 1) switch out, 2) use Rock Tomb for some damage and a Speed drop with 95% accuracy, or 3) click Rock Slide and get chip damage while having a chance of lucking out with flinches. Initially I had Superpower on the set, but it failed to net the OHKOs that would've been truly valuable such as Drampa3/Bouffalant4 (Sap Sipper users) and is the worst move in the game to lock into on a Choice set. Without Superpower, Bulu is helpless against Steel-types - but in practice this wasn't really a problem, as the team is not dependent on Bulu to handle these, and Superpower is very low-value against the most threatening Steels in Metagross4-Mega, Mawile, Heatran, and Magnezone - the former two are hit harder by resisted Wood Hammer, and it lacks the power to take out Heatran which outspeeds and OHKOs Bulu on Set4, forcing it to switch out of this set possibility immediately.

The threat list for the team is quite long, since Bulu has more than a few glaring holes.
-Colress is the worst special trainer to face, with most of his sets resisting Bulu's STAB and many OHKOing it in return.
-Queenly Majesty and Dazzling, from Tsareena and Bruxish respectively, block Gale Wings attacks. Never risk using Skystrike or Brave Bird if either of these Pokémon is on the field, and consider using Tailwind then taking a non-fatal hit, or attacking with Flare Blitz to disable Gale Wings if the situation is dire and Talonflame needs to deploy its Flying STAB while these abilities are active. Quick Guard I never encountered during this streak; Cobalion4 is its only user, and it would usually either Protect or try to use Iron Head on Bulu.
-Metagross, Mawile, Intimidate trainers, Salamence stand out as major problems that require a lot of switching to reset Intimidate, Rock Tomb control, or getting lucky with abilities to face, and as seen in some of the losses the team can get run over rather easily by a poor match-up.
-Other threats include: Drampa3 (Quick Claw), Uxie3 (Quick Claw, 2HKOs Gastrodon with Energy Ball), Entei (may target either Bulu or Talonflame, or be Set3 with Scarf Eruption which demands Skystrike or Brave Bird immediately, Hail/Sandstorm breaking Gale Wings and limiting options, Sceptile4-Mega outspeeding the whole team and threatening Rock Slide flinches (extremely threatening if Gale Wings is not active - Rock Tomb to slow it down is an option)
-With Set3 and Set4 both being common, there's a bunch more sets that have a possibility of carrying a Grass-type move for hurting Gastrodon than in the Maison. I don't have a list of them all but Grass attacks boosted by Grassy Terrain leave Gastrodon in a world of pain, so stay on your toes and don't forget to always be aware of enemy sets. Grassy Terrain fortunately only boosts attacks from Pokémon that are grounded, so Levitate users are not boosted.

----

In the process of this streak I discovered that Uxie3 prefers Psyshock over Thunder on Mega Salamence - maybe this was posted earlier in the thread, but speculatively the AI is calculating Psyshock as a special move with 120BP and not accounting for its property of targeting Defense. In one of the battle videos I only won thanks to this quirk, and would have lost otherwise in a 1v1 endgame situation.

Grass Knot use on Gastrodon is slightly erratic. Sometimes the AI wants to use it, but not always, and on one occasion I saw Samurott4 fire Ice Beam into Gastrodon's slot over Grass Knot. In the Maison the AI was also somewhat broken, but I can't say if it's the same kind of busted this time around, only that something is wrong with it and it occasionally has trouble picking it as its strongest move.

I found there were quite a few pitfalls with playing this team, and whether to overkill with Z-move, or try and preserve for later in the battle is a difficult decision. My priorities in order of preference are:

1. Gale Wings on Talonflame intact, Z-move unused - this is a pipe dream, and mostly available when switching out Talonflame on Turn 1 against relatively benign leads while Bulu isn't threatened
2. Gale Wings on Talonflame intact, Z-move blown - even if Brave Bird would be enough to net a KO and Skystrike is not necessary, using the Z-move keeps Talonflame's HP at full and lets it use priority Brave Bird after. It's a tradeoff between having +1 Brave Bird, or +0 Supersonic Skystrike later in the battle - and the priority advantage tips this in the former's favor for consistent utility and speed.
3. Gale Wings on Talonflame lost and Z-move unused, Tailwind active - this is an option for rare situations where Talonflame doesn't have to attack, and can instead regain a Speed advantage using Tailwind so it doesn't mind having lost Gale Wings.
4. Gale Wings lost, Z-move used - you can't always get everything you want, and against threats that must be taken out with Skystrike ASAP this is frequently the result - with 252HP, Talonflame can survive more than you'd expect after its initial Skystrike having no recoil, and have a chance of using one more attack later.

This is Talonflame's overall plan, Bulu is also a consideration but generally a lower-importance team member and more difficult to preserve. Against Ace Trainer Lea and Ace Trainer Sylvia, every single set they run resists Bulu's STAB, and Bulu should be given little care as it's likely not worth preserving against these foes outside trying to luck out with Rock Slide. The leads lack control, so often saccing a lead and trading is the safest way to proceed when there are no safe switch options. Most commonly, Gastrodon is the switch option for both Talonflame and Bulu - it's also possible to switch it in Bulu's place to redirect Hydro Pump/Waterfall/Hydro Vortex away from Talonflame's slot. Salamence is generally more important to preserve and vulnerable to status, crits, and so forth and it may have to take Double-Edge recoil on top later, but occasionally double switching and getting in Intimidate is worth the risk.



This team was a lot of fun to theorymon and play for me despite its inherent flaws, and I'm more satisfied with this streak personally than with my Lee/Koko one. Bulu is a charming Pokémon and getting to use Talonflame after its nerf is a rare treat - I've not managed to think of anything better suited for the role yet. My goal with Bulu was to break 200 wins, and I met it after losing several times with this version (some, but not all included in the battle video compilation).

The losing battle (#249) I'm not happy about - if I had targeted Mega Venusaur instead of Whimsicott late in the battle, I had a chance of winning. But I survived many very close battles through great luck, and the streak overall met my goal so it was "about time" for Bulu to meet its maker. For now this is my last attempt with Bulu, but USUM and its tutors around the corner, the bull might just get new life and warrant a second try.





----

I was going to post a 606-win streak with Greninja/Xurkitree/Salamence-M/Aegislash as a placeholder, but the battle video was from an older version of the game and not uploadable lol and the time to post a full writeup of it is not today. I wasn't satisfied with this result and did more attempts, and will do more still so this team remains a work in progress; write-up and full details coming up when it's done.

Here is a fixed QR team of Team Brexit with Double-Edge on Kangaskhan making it usable for QR: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-21CF-4E1E
Very good read, specifically the parts regarding Tapu Bulu and its issues as I haven't gotten around to trying it myself. Mine is Brave and I'd been meaning to take an Iron Ball variant for a spin, so hopefully I won't have as many problems with its movepool as you did. I see that Superpower is not likely to do me a world of good. I'll consider replacing it with Horn Leech.
 
I've used Scarf Bulu with Heatran in super multis and doubles, agree about Superpower, was pretty useless for me on those occasions when I was in a position where I had to use it. My Heatran was 252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 SpD and Assault Vest and I was fairly happy with it, but didn't experiment a lot with other team members as I wasn't looking to finesse the team a lot (I just wanted to use my shiny Charizard-X a bit, leading with Bulu it just smashed its way through until the 40s but then came unstuck as it was quite one dimensional, it was quite joyful finishing some battles in two turns though).

EDIT/UPDATE: Just started my multis run with my son, he chose Mega-Gardevoir as his mega which I was initially so-so about given its physical frailty... However, after seeing the wake of destruction that Pixillate Hyper Voice leaves behind it coming off a base 165 SpA I have changed my mind.
 
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Back at it, now with a completely different setup from previous time.
No Trick Room, just fire, and a lot of it.

Reporting (ongoing) 100 wins streak with the following team:
(Available at this QR link https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-1C37-4B50 )


Smaug (Charizard) @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

The sun setter of the team. Using Dragon Pulse over Air Slash allows it to still not be walled by opposer fire types (expecially Flash Fire users) while threatening supereffective damage on all Dragons and not risking potential RNG misses, leaving really only Mega Altaria and Heatran to resist every attack, and both are easily dealt with by the other 2 sweepers. Otherwise, most of the time even Resisted Flamethrower does more damage than neutral Dragon Pulse or Solar Beam.
In similar fashion, Flamethrower over the spread Heat Wave both plays around possible Wide Guard enemies, and doesn't risk to run into misses or accidentally buffing opposing Flash Fire.
The mediocre speed tier even with Nature and full investment combined to mediocre bulk often means I have to Protect turn 1 to scout sets (if it has Rock in its name it goes into Charizard), but if it outspeeds or Typhplosion has the option to 1hko one of the opponent lead, it gets the job done.
Potential improvements: Replacing Dragon Pulse with HP Ground or HP Ice. HP Ground would demolish Heatran, provide extra firepower vs Flash Fire users, while HP Ice would provide a solid answer to several Dragons.



Typhlos...Entei (Typhlosion) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Eruption
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower
- Extrasensory

Originally, the team was running a Entei-3 replica, with basically identical moveset and Shadow Ball over Flamethrower. However, Entei lackluster Spatk combined with very mediocre ability actually made its Eruption less strong than I expected, missing several 1hkos.
Typhlosion, on the other hand, has comparable speed tier, way higher Spatk, and combined with Modest nature, this thing HURTS. As you can notice from the replays, most matches end within 2 turns purely due to the sheer Sun Eruption damage off 109 spatk with full investment.
Flash Fire both allows it to completely wall AI Heat Waves while getting free boost from them, on top of allowing me to swap him back into fire attacks without denting its not impressive bulk.
Flamethrower as secondary Stab severs two purposes: allows to circumvent Wide Guard and Flash Fire users, but also allows me to re-use a weakened Typhlosion if I swap him away on low HP since it keeps the 90 BP.
Extrasensory is there just because I didn't know what 4th move to put in there.
Potential improvements: Extrasensory as mentioned is kind of dead weight there, and almost never worth using over even a resisted Flamethrower. An option could definitely be HP Ice or HP ground, in same fashion as Charizard. Another option I am considering but not yet confident in is replacing it with a Rash Nature, and using Earthquake as 4th coverage move. With Charizard being immune to it, it allows Typhlosion to deal with opposer Fire Types better, expecially Heatran which right now hardwalls it. Accurate math on this scenario yet has to be done.



Actual Dragon (Garchomp) @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
- Protect

Garchomp kind of just fits in there. Immune to Electric so can swap into Charizard (which does attract 90% of the electric hits, stab and non stab), resists fire, supereffective Stab on fire, not weak to water/grass, loves the Sun as it negates 100% blizzard and water damage, resists rock, and it's still Garchomp to begin with. Generally my go-to swap for Typhlosion in unfavorable matchups, as it can freely spam Earthquake with it.
My choice to go with Life Orb over other options has mostly to do with the consistent damage you get from it. Without it, it misses on several significant 1hkos (or KOs on things chipped by Eruption), and while Assault Vest would be good, it would lock it out of Protect which is pretty important due to its typing.
While usually a issue, Garchomp also attracts Blizzard/Dazzling Gleam spam from the AI, which is a important part of the comp: every Pokemon has several common Spread Move weakness, with several 4x, which get baited and denied by Wide Guard.
Potential improvements: I am considering rebreeding a non-HA Garchomp, Rough Skin doesn't get as much value considering phisical attackers tend to hit the other mons to begin with, while Sand Veil could provide some bonus RNG under the inevitable sand teams, with Iron Head replacing Poison Jab (covers Ice types, hits Rock/Flying supereffectively, and provides potential flinch possibility over just poison, while really only missing out on 1hkoing Shiinotic which gets demolished by the other 3 pokes either ways)



Role Compressor (Toxapex) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: x Atk / Spe (could be 0, but not relevant for the composition either ways)
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Wide Guard
- Baneful Bunker

As for previous time, finding the appropriate 4th was challenging enough. Toxapex in this team is the definition of "Role compression". It does a lot of things, all toghether, and it's actually the only Pokemon that provides, at same time:
- Solid bulk
- Wide Guard
- Immune to Toxic
- Stab Toxic (so, guaranteed to hit through Lax Incense, Bright Powder or Double Team)
- Resists Fire / Water / Ice
- Not weak to Grass
It also has the extra perks of attracting Earthquakes, which works well with the Wide Guard plan: every other Pokemon on the team has one or more 2x or 4x weakness to spread moves, and expecially Charizard tends to attract Rock Slide spam, while Garchomp baits Blizzards even when the other active mon resists it, which are very common coverages.
Due to the nonexistant offensive stats, originally it ran Infestation as only offensive move, in order to not be taunt bait while still providing % damage.
Eventually, after a few far too close calls, I swapped to Ice Beam.
0 SpA Toxapex Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 96-116 (52.4 - 63.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 55-66 (35 - 42%) -- 85.4% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Scarfchomp is one of the biggest threats to the comp *if it locks into Outrage*. Icebeam allows to guarantee the 2hko while Garchomp needs lucky roll + lucky targetting to kill Toxapex.
Added benefits from hitting things and chance to freeze are nice, obviously, but it's a tech specifically for *that* matchup. I have considered Frost Breath over it since it's still a 2hko while it also allows to ignore enemy boosters, but the 90% accuracy made me decide to stick with Ice Beam.
Potential improvements: I'm considering breeding a non-HA version of this as well, with both Merciless and Limber having their merits. Merciless would allow to replicate the booster ignoring, while Limber would shut down several Thunder Wave spammers + reduce the RNG from the inevitable Thunder and Thunderbolts aimed at Toxapex, as Paralysis negating a Wide Guard could potentially be a issue. Regenerator doesn't really get much value, since once Toxapex goes in I rarely even want to swap it out to begin with.


The design of the team is pretty simple: Press Eruption and kill things. Large majority of the battles don't last more than 3 turns due to the sheer power of Sun Eruption + a second hit from Charizard who can essentially hit anything outside of Heatran and Mega Altaria at least neutrally.
The backline acts as backup in case of things going wrong. Many things can go wrong with a double Fire type lead that also depends on Sun and speed, while not having a godlike speed tier on itself.
In large majority of the situations, Typhlosion goes Eruption. Even on resisted hits, it HURTS. Solar Beam is mostly used to deal with fast water types that Charizard would not be able to outspeed and would be threatening to set Rain or worse, Trick Room, as locking into it is very risky in case the backline of the enemy replaces the weather. If it cannot significantly dent something on turn 1, it's more likely to just be swapped out for Garchomp. After turn 1, if there's a surviving Poke and it actually targetted Eruption locked Typhlosion without killing it, I have the option to simply throw another Eruption for chip damage (where "chip" is a relative term, even at half HP it still significantly dents nonresists) and sacrifice it in order to get a free swap. I only swap out a damaged Typhlosion if the AI has potential access to fast threats that it outspeeds and can kill with Flamethrower later on, as realistically the Scarf is the only answer I have to large majority of 110+ speed pokemon.
Charizard often has to Protect turn 1: it's way more fragile than Typhlosion, so it cannot afford to take hits from faster Pokes, unless Typhlosion can 1hko them first. It also needs to be preserved as it's the only way to replace a weather, so in case of opposer weather setters it needs to be swapped out to come in again once Typhlosion inevitably gets KOd.
Garchomp covers Sand, opposer Fire types, Flash Fire users and specifically Heatran, and comes in into strong Stone Edge users or Electric types that threaten Charizard.
Toxapex on the other hand comes to wall Water types, most Fire and Ice types, Toxic stallers, and expecially, spam Wide Guard. In fact, 90% of what it does is spam Wide Guard either ways. It also helps a lot in stalling Trick Room: it's slow, has two protective moves (with a lot of post-legend Trick Room users actually using spread moves), and with Protect on 2 other mons, I can generally delay the TR turns and then demolish what's left on the turn TR must set up again.


Differently from my previous comp, this one really only fears 3 things:
1)
Mega-Tyranitar (Expecially leads)
Charizard is the only way to set weather on the team. Normal setters are not a issue, even other Tyranitar versions, since the Mega evolution overwrites it and every other weather setter can be demolished by my lead, or simply the weather replacing/Cloud Nine isn't a big deal to begin with as outside of rain, Flamethrower + Eruption still kill things, including Mega-Abomasnow which mechanically is similar to Tyranitar.
However, Mega Tyranitar underspeed Charizard, gets +50% spdef from Sand, AND threatens 1hko, and is not 1hkod even under Sun. Workaround: not megaevolving Charizard but protecting turn 1, swap Typhlosion for one of the backline depending on the other lead, then Mega-evo turn 2 and KO with Earthquake + Solar Beam.
This has to be carefully done expecially if a potential Tyranitar-4 comes in from the backline, as at that point Charizard is already Megad so I likely have to simply sacrifice Typhlosion in order to get back Charizard safely.

2)
Scarfchomp
As mentioned above a few times, Garchomp-3 is a big threat for the comp, expecially if it comes in late rather than on lead. If it locks into Earthquake, well that's quickly dealt with by Wide Guard. Outrage, on the other hand...
Typhlosion does not outspeed and is threatened of 1hko by Outrage, same for Charizard, and my own Garchomp istantly dies to it. If it's on lead and the other Poke is not dangerous, I can simply double into it, and it eventually dies, but if it comes as backline, then I'm in troubles.
Toxapex, however, can take 3-4 hits and easily outstall it, but due to the random targetting of Outrage, I found myself a few times more or less praying on RNG gods, before I finally opted to tech into that Ice Beam, that easily removes Garchomp from the equation in 2 turns without needing for any RNG.


3) Fast specialists
In comparable fashion to Scarfchomp, but with less reliability, the trainers who specialize in 110+ speed Pokemon can potentially be a issue. Mainly, Noivern, Aerodactyl and Archeops are the big issues, since they resist the big crap from my lead, and threaten either the lead or Garchomp. The rest is dealable with as they don't threaten 1hkos and can be grinded down by swapping, protecting Charizard or Garchomp, or sacrificing one of the lead, but those 3 require special attention in order to not mess the sets and not lose the lead for free.
Noivern threatens confusion on the lead, and can 1HKO Garchomp.
Aerodactyl-4 (aka, Choice Band) *will* lock into Stone Edge, but its target selection has shown to be inconsistent and doesnt make much difference in going into Charizard or Thyplosion. It does get 2hkod by either of them, but I cannot realistically attempt to Protect as I would not know what it'll target.
Archeops is... occasionally a issue. Outspeeds and 1hkos Charizard, in fact 1hkos both leads with Rock Slide, but Typhlosion can get all sets that arent Sitrus istantly in Defeatist range.
All those are why I'm considering changing the coverage moves as mentioned above, since they are harder matchups right now.



Below here some vids of the ongoing streak:

223G-WWWW-WWW9-BQ6S
Battle 50 vs Blue
Actually a difficult lead for this battle. Tyranitar lead is one of the scaryest for this comp, since it can be Mega Tyranitar (It was) both underspeeding and replacing weather on mega evolution.
No point in leaving Thyplosion out to be demolished, I need to keep it for later. Mega+Protect turn 1 to scout for Mega tyranitar, as if it wasn't I could have just swept from there. Arcanine does me a favour and just... sets Sun for me again, saving me the hassle and giving me a free demolition. I was fine in sacrificing Garchomp to scout which of the 2 poke version were, it even lives with 2 HP saving me one turn.

HQBH-WWWW-WWW9-BQ6Y
Battle 73 vs Veteran Dooley
Another difficult lead to deal with. I cannot let Cresselia set up Trick Room, and while Heatran can't hit Charizard in any way, I don't want to risk giving it a free Flash Fire boost. I opt to simply double target Cresselia since there's no Protect in those set, and Heatran reveals to be scarfed and locked into its least damaging move. Thyplosion at 4 HP isn't scary at all but might as well get that chip damage into Entei before going down. Once it reveals it's not scarf, Garchomp has a pretty free run. I went into EQ hoping it was Charizard-X which would have saved me a turn, but Chari Y isn't particularly scary either ways and Toxapex could have beat it 1 on 1 even if Garchomp died to a crit or something. The final protect was just to stall out the last Sun turn for extra insurance.

VEEW-WWWW-WWW9-BQ67
Battle 90 vs Grimsley
Pretty easy lead and overally easy battle. I even freely took the risk of Pinsir being scarf and randomly 1shot one of my mons, since it would have istadied to the other anyway.

UJZG-WWWW-WWW9-BQ63
Battle 97 vs Veteran Xenophon
We were memeing about this one on Discord. Grass specialist vs Sun+Eruption lead. It went exactly as you could expect.

7Y2W-WWWW-WWW9-BQ6W
Battle 100 vs Grimsley
We meet again good sir. Last time, he ended my streak by throwing at me literally the worst lead I could meet in the entire tree.
This time though? Good riddance.
 
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:love-ball: Lopunny (F) ("Bella") @ Lopunnite
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Limber --> Scrappy
IVs: 16/31/31/31/31/31, Hyper Trained to 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Fake Out
- Low Kick
- Return
- Encore

:dream-ball: Landorus (M) ("Nutrigenie") @ Life Orb
Nature: Timid
Ability: Sheer Force
IVs: 31/0/x/31/31/31, Hyper Trained to 31/0/31/31/31/31 [thanks again to das_eisenherz ]
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- HP Ice
- Protect

:dive-ball: Tapu Fini ("H2 Oh No") @ Leftovers
Nature: Modest
Ability: Misty Surge
IVs: 31/19/12/6/31/31, Hyper Trained to 31/19/31/31/31/31
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 188 SpA / 52 SpD / 12 Spe
- Scald
- Moonblast
- Protect
- Taunt

:luxury-ball: Aegislash (M) ("Tin Soldier") @ Ghostium Z
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Stance Change
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/0
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpA / 36 SpD
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball {Never-Ending Nightmare}
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
#1,000 vs Cynthia: JX6W-WWWW-WWW9-BVFA [Togekiss/Spiritomb/Lucario/Garchomp]


In a rather encouraging display of Mega Lopunny’s contention for a top Battle Tree Doubles lead supporter in the absence of Psychic Terrain, I achieved 1,000 straight wins with the above team a little less than a month ago now. I held off on writing this for a bit due to other commitments eating up my spare time, but I’ve now managed to record a slew of Battle Videos to supplement this post. Ended up having even more saved than I did for Sharkanine; some are probably similar regarding the sets encountered and their outcomes, but the team is quite unlike anything I’ve tried in the past, so there was rarely a dull moment and plenty of fun (albeit more thought out) battling experiences to be had as a result.

The squad remains unchanged from when it was first introduced – why mess with perf- I mean, highly optimised and structurally sound team composition? I wouldn’t classify this as a “fast mode” team, or a particularly good one to choose for breezing through the first 50 and claiming your stamp; what it lacks in brute force and swift one-two punches in deciding victory however, is an excellent balance of speed, longevity, safe switching opportunities and adequate power for when it’s needed.

Encore honestly deserves to be put in the second slot under Fake Out, for how much work it’s put in (imma change that real quick). The relatively squishy Lopunny/Landorus frontline is granted a surprising amount of staying power for when neither wants to get switched out thanks to this move; the Mega rabbit’s superb speed tier and unresisted Scrappy coverage further complement the resulting AI strategy disruption. Here’s some personal favourite “M-Lopunny is awesome” quirks of mine:-
- +2 Mandibuzz3 can be Encored into Tailwind
- +1 Volcarona34 can be Encored into Quiver Dance
- +2 Mega Swampert can be Encored into Rain Dance
- +1 Feraligatr4 can be Encored into Dragon Dance (or Substitute)
- +2 Golem2/Alolan Golem2 can be Encored into Autotomize/Rock Polish; Wide Guard Aegislash also walls them
- 252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Drampa: 204-240 (110.2 - 129.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
- 252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Spiritomb: 168-198 (107 - 126.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Landorus’ damage output has certainly not disappointed either, having both Ground and Fighting STAB moves in the lead positions might seem like redundant coverage, but Lando has enough offensive prowess going for it to not give a damn. Keeping the Electric immunity out front has proven to be most effective as well; knowing that no Electric attacks will be thrown at that slot, generating safe switches for Tapu Fini to simultaneously cover for Ice/Water attacks being thrown my way. I also stand by my decision of Sheer Force Sludge Bomb being the superior asset for this team, catching OHKOs on Shiinotic, Whimsicott and Ribombee all the time, and Rotom-Mow34 75% of the time.

Tapu Fini trades being the least aggressive out of the four Tapus for having the most defensively-oriented Surge and the best defensive typing; ideal for backline Doubles support! The added layer of reassurance offered by Misty Terrain allows you to often dance around the AI without much of a worry, and in conjunction with Fini’s already stellar synergy, ‘free’ turns opened by Encore + constant Leftovers recovery, it’s a rare sight for the Tapu to be sacrificed early on in a battle; not to mention having status removed from the equation for five turns for ¾ of the team, which really frees up your options while restricting the AI’s.

Last but not least is Aegislash, whose Doubles viability is ramped up a notch with Wide Guard and Ghostium Z. Being as slow as possible is advantageous for obvious reasons, improving Aegi’s matchup inside Trick Room and making sure he takes a hit in Shield Forme a vast amount of the time outside it. Never-Ending Nightmare is great for when I want to eliminate a threat as quickly as possible, and not have it stick around for longer than desired. Wide Guard blocks all manner of Blizzard, Surf, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Heat Wave etc. repeatedly, though Aegi can’t be deployed too recklessly without Leftovers. You might switch in Aegi and Fini when you see Politoed/Pelipper leads for example, but if it ends up being Modest Politoed4 and Waterium Z Pelliper4, Aegi won’t be able to stomach Rain-boosted attacks for long.

This will very likely be my final post regarding leaderboard attempts for SM’s edition of the Battle Tree – I do have a couple future plans stored in the bank, but now is not the best time to carry them out. If USUM’s Battle Tree turns out to be vastly different to this one (calling for a fresh thread to be created), I guess I’ll be returning here at some point to continue my last ongoing streak. I’m hoping for more than just a returning Battle Tree though; the games are confirmed to be like as twice as long as SM, please Game Freak, answer our prayers for a more fleshed-out postgame!

Not all the battles in the compilation video were played perfectly, but I hope they provide a sufficient demonstration of what the team is capable of. Lopunny’s teammates have succeeded in bringing out the best in her, I think; I’m elated to have reached quadruple digits with the rabbit taking the helm. Credit must again go to turskain since I did copy his Landorus idea and used the exact same Aegislash, haha. Just goes to show why they are mainstays in the demanding Battle Facility environment, I suppose. To finish up, I thought I’d try my hand at a “how to approach X leads” threatlist - due to the sheer variance of sets that could be encountered however, I could never do it justice. More manageable for Singles, sure, but the best experience for this sort of thing is the firsthand variety.


It’s been a blast, until next time...

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Yes but Charizard does sport more weaknesses due to the typing, expecially the 4x rock, so most attackers go straight to him rather than on Typh.
 
Re: Math

Been doing some calculations to kill time.

Earthquake on Typhlosion, even assuming a non -atk nature, never outdamages HP ground outside of against enemies with significant defensive stat imbalance (looking at you pink ball of blisstrashey).
HP ground just barely does not outdamage Sun Eruption on 0.5 resists, but gets to not require Sun, and doesn't incurr into Flash Fire issues, and guarantees 2hko on all Heatran formes, while also picking up 2hko or at worst 3hko with bad rolls on all Turtonator formes.
HP ice fails at outdamaging sun Eruption and Solar Beam on Rock/fliers and even though it outdamages on Dragon/Fliers, it doesn't feel like a useful investment.

So Typhlosion could easily be updated by getting HP Ground as coverage move.



For Charizard, HP Ice nearly always matches in damage Sun Flamethrower or Solar Beam against Dragon types, and 1hkos nearly all types of 4x weak dragons outside of the bulky versions, while Dragon Pulse is always 2 or 3hko.
In fact...
252 SpA Charizard-Mega-Y Hidden Power Ice vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 184-220 (100.5 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Charizard-Mega-Y: 127-150 (83 - 98%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
1hkos Scarfchomp while Scarfchomp does not 1hko if Charizard is at full HP.
HP Ground on other hand, fails at outdamaging Sun Flamethrower outside of Heatran, but Heatran can't do anything at all to Charizard and gets outsped and 1hkod by Garchomp even in the Scarf version, so it's not a big deal

Sounds like a clear winner.

I am trying to consider if Modest would be worth taking over Timid for Charizard, now, but if we did math correctly, even keeping 252 speed EV i would actually be missing on outspeeding several 90-100 base speed invested mons, several of which are threatening but can be KOd turn 1 if Charizard outspeeds, so the extra damage doesn't seem like worth it.
 
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Writing my first post on here to talk about how I choked a Super Singles streak at 198 wins a while back!

I haven't actually read any lists of threats and stuff and knowledge was all essentially built up on having played a few thousand battles in the Tree, so I don't have the super-efficient EV spreads you may see from other teams.


Mimikyu @ Ghostium-Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Shadow Claw
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance


I'd been messing around with other Mimikyu-led teams that never broke 80 wins, but felt that Mimikyu functioned very well as a lead. Ghostium-Z really was the only legitimate choice for this particular set, as even at +2 a Shadow Claw can barely kill anything. Also, there's a Mega Metagross that gave my teams all sorts of problems and Mimikyu can guarantee a kill on it with Z-Shadow Claw + Shadow Sneak. I ran Adamant because I was worried about the lack of power but I didn't run any calculations (after this run, I tried a Jolly Mimikyu and only got to 124 but again, I'm not sure exactly how much the nature played a part in the loss as opposed to my bad play). Mimikyu almost always needs a Swords Dance to get through more than one opponent. You do have to watch out for Play Rough misses. Will-O-Wisps suck but usually allows you to set up SD twice to allow a little damage control.

Kartana @ Focus Sash
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Smart Strike
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance


Focus Sash is good on Kartana as it's ridiculous Attack means it can usually OHKO anything it hits neutrally and definitely if Mimikyu got some Shadow Sneak chip damage on it before it went down, so keeping it alive against anything that's faster is real important. Swords Dance was basically never used, since it doesn't need it, and it's always great to bring Kartana in on severely weakened enemies to get that +1, making it nearly unstoppable. One of the few times I used Swords Dance in my run was a terrible play that directly resulted in the loss. Kartana really doesn't like status, but usually has enough in it to just power through things regardless.




Garchomp @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Rock Slide


I had always messed around with Garchomp as a sashed SD lead but this set worked out far better, helping take down a lot of the faster Pokémon in the tier I had problems with. I dislike choice items and there were a few battles which I only won out of luck when Garchomp had to KO two Pokémon but I didn't have the freedom to switch between moves. I rarely used anything that wasn't Outrage/EQ.

Loss: C8MG-WWWW-WWW6-L2PC

100% horrible play from me. Didn't know what Registeel had and should've just SD + Z-Shadow Claw'd with Mimikyu anyway. Wasn't thinking straight and switched as if it could've actually ruined my game. Even if it somehow had taken care of Mimikyu I had better options. Instead, not only did I switch, I set up a greedy SD on Kartana somehow thinking a +2 Registeel wouldn't outspeed and let it die for nothing. Choked and didn't get the satisfaction of reaching 200.

I don't know how lucky I got with this team to reach 198 because I didn't see it coming at all. Before this, my highest streak was 81 on another team and I haven't been able to replicate this streak since (though I haven't played with this exact same team since either).
>124 >Bad play

I'd hate to hear what counts as good play for you. You should upload this team, I'm having severe anxiety and am in one of those moods where I'm not sure what, if anything, I've learned in 20 years of playing is true. It's to the point that making me select a lead ends in a bout of autistic screeching.
 
Hey all, reporting a loss at 112 wins in doubles. Quite happy with how far I managed to get with this although I was hoping for at least 200. I will probably wait for USUM for that though. I am very impressed by the runs above as well, good job guys. Anyway, for the team I used...

Oranguru @ Lum Berry
Sassy, Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP/148 Def/12 Sp.Atk/92 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Psychic
-Instruct
-Trick Room
-Protect

I originally used Aromatisse here but this turned out to be a lot better in my opinion. The ability to use instruct is much better than the decent damage from Dazzling Gleam that Aromatisse offers. In practice Taunt has never been a problem over about 300 battles so Lum Berry is much better and saved me quite a bit from status hax. The EV spread could probably be better but it does its job. Inner Focus stops Fake Out from being a problem especially when Kiawe leads with Kanga and Salazzle, which happened once on this run.


Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Brave, Guts
EVs: 28 HP/252 Atk/108 Def/116 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Close Combat
-Knock Off
-Heavy Slam
-Fake Out

I stole this spread from other sets here, and it works extremely well. I considered breeding one in ORAS for the punch moves but this turned out to be the best choice I think. I hardly ever found myself wanting a punch move. Thunderpunch would have been the best choice of them. It does a little bit more to Slowbro4 than Knock Off which is always a big threat for this team.


Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Quiet, Magma Armor
EVs: 252 HP/252 Sp.Atk/4 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Flamethrower
-Earth Power
-Ancient Power
-Protect

Probably the best trick room mega, being 20 base speed is amazing and it hits extremely hard. This Camerupt has HP ice but I chose to use Ancient Power instead to cover things like Charizard Y and Moltres. Its use was pretty niche and I did end up using it against a double dragon lead once. Flamethrower will still do more damage against neutral flyers like Zapdos or Staraptor.

Guzzlord @ Dragonium Z
Brave, Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk/124 Def/132 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Dragon Claw
-Crunch
-Heavy Slam
-Protect

This thing is great fun. The defensive investment makes it about 10% bulkier on both sides than 252HP would have and gives the download users an attack boost. Guzzlord's rather bad 101 base attack can let you down sometimes but is usually not a problem. Depending on how much damage the opponent pokemon have you can switch this in once Hariyama goes down. Beast Boost works just the way you hope with Instruct, making it a great combo.

Guzzlord is a lot better than it appears at first glance. It has a really good matchup against the extremely common psychic and dragon types that Veterans spam in the tree. It can also hit most trick room setters very hard, before they mess up your strategy (unless they lead...). Sitting at 43 speed, it barely underspeeds mons sitting at base 30 which is really helpful. Beast Boost is amazing once you get a single boost, making this thing hit pretty hard. Its bulk is also fantastic, except for its bad typing. This can actually work to your advantage though, as many times I would immediately protect and use psychic to soften up opposing mons. This allowed me to get easy boosts next turn and wipe both pokemon many times. It works very well against the frail fighting types and anything with fairy coverage. I also never felt like Guzzlord was being carried by the team. In games where Hariyama went down before I won, I sent out Guzzlord about 50% of the time. However, don't use a special version of this guy, Drampa is better in every way.



I found running Heavy Slam on two pokemon to not be an issue. It makes killing bugs and fairy types pretty easy for Hariyama which are threatening to the team. One of the weaknesses the team has is bug moves, and I fortunately only ran into Escavalier once where it died to flamethrower. One of the bigger weaknesses were Scientists with trick room leads. The bulk of them and their good water and ice coverage, including wishiwashi which was a consistent pain, always gave me a problem. The one thing I would change about the team is to use Darkium Z on Guzzlord. In most cases the difference in typing would not have hindered me, but Black Hole Eclipse is better against trick room setters. Legendary Beast spammers were also annoying as Suicune is hard to take down in a turn before it destroys my sweepers. Improvements to the team can clearly be made. Here is hoping Guzzy gets some nice new moves in a month!

Battle Videos

losing battle 113
LJMW-WWWW-WWW9-CDXG
Slowbro4/slowking4/Wishiwashi4/Oranguru
I made some mistakes here, like not being more aggressive with Knock off in the first few turns. Other than that it was just a bad lead scenario. Oh well, I am still satisfied with the run.

MWKW-WWWW-WWW9-CD2Q
Slowking4/Bronzong4/Slowbro4/Armoatisse
Another trick room scientist, this time with 3 setters. I got lucky with the rock slide flinches.

JWBG-WWWW-WWW9-CD42
Gallade4/Altaria3/Garchomp/Magnezone
Battle 100 Against Wally. Also shows off Guzzlord.
 
Hey all, reporting a loss at 112 wins in doubles. Quite happy with how far I managed to get with this although I was hoping for at least 200. I will probably wait for USUM for that though. I am very impressed by the runs above as well, good job guys. Anyway, for the team I used...

Oranguru @ Lum Berry
Sassy, Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP/148 Def/12 Sp.Atk/92 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Psychic
-Instruct
-Trick Room
-Protect

I originally used Aromatisse here but this turned out to be a lot better in my opinion. The ability to use instruct is much better than the decent damage from Dazzling Gleam that Aromatisse offers. In practice Taunt has never been a problem over about 300 battles so Lum Berry is much better and saved me quite a bit from status hax. The EV spread could probably be better but it does its job. Inner Focus stops Fake Out from being a problem especially when Kiawe leads with Kanga and Salazzle, which happened once on this run.


Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Brave, Guts
EVs: 28 HP/252 Atk/108 Def/116 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Close Combat
-Knock Off
-Heavy Slam
-Fake Out

I stole this spread from other sets here, and it works extremely well. I considered breeding one in ORAS for the punch moves but this turned out to be the best choice I think. I hardly ever found myself wanting a punch move. Thunderpunch would have been the best choice of them. It does a little bit more to Slowbro4 than Knock Off which is always a big threat for this team.


Camerupt @ Cameruptite
Quiet, Magma Armor
EVs: 252 HP/252 Sp.Atk/4 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Flamethrower
-Earth Power
-Ancient Power
-Protect

Probably the best trick room mega, being 20 base speed is amazing and it hits extremely hard. This Camerupt has HP ice but I chose to use Ancient Power instead to cover things like Charizard Y and Moltres. Its use was pretty niche and I did end up using it against a double dragon lead once. Flamethrower will still do more damage against neutral flyers like Zapdos or Staraptor.

Guzzlord @ Dragonium Z
Brave, Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk/124 Def/132 SpD
IVs: 0 speed
-Dragon Claw
-Crunch
-Heavy Slam
-Protect

This thing is great fun. The defensive investment makes it about 10% bulkier on both sides than 252HP would have and gives the download users an attack boost. Guzzlord's rather bad 101 base attack can let you down sometimes but is usually not a problem. Depending on how much damage the opponent pokemon have you can switch this in once Hariyama goes down. Beast Boost works just the way you hope with Instruct, making it a great combo.

Guzzlord is a lot better than it appears at first glance. It has a really good matchup against the extremely common psychic and dragon types that Veterans spam in the tree. It can also hit most trick room setters very hard, before they mess up your strategy (unless they lead...). Sitting at 43 speed, it barely underspeeds mons sitting at base 30 which is really helpful. Beast Boost is amazing once you get a single boost, making this thing hit pretty hard. Its bulk is also fantastic, except for its bad typing. This can actually work to your advantage though, as many times I would immediately protect and use psychic to soften up opposing mons. This allowed me to get easy boosts next turn and wipe both pokemon many times. It works very well against the frail fighting types and anything with fairy coverage. I also never felt like Guzzlord was being carried by the team. In games where Hariyama went down before I won, I sent out Guzzlord about 50% of the time. However, don't use a special version of this guy, Drampa is better in every way.



I found running Heavy Slam on two pokemon to not be an issue. It makes killing bugs and fairy types pretty easy for Hariyama which are threatening to the team. One of the weaknesses the team has is bug moves, and I fortunately only ran into Escavalier once where it died to flamethrower. One of the bigger weaknesses were Scientists with trick room leads. The bulk of them and their good water and ice coverage, including wishiwashi which was a consistent pain, always gave me a problem. The one thing I would change about the team is to use Darkium Z on Guzzlord. In most cases the difference in typing would not have hindered me, but Black Hole Eclipse is better against trick room setters. Legendary Beast spammers were also annoying as Suicune is hard to take down in a turn before it destroys my sweepers. Improvements to the team can clearly be made. Here is hoping Guzzy gets some nice new moves in a month!

Battle Videos

losing battle 113
LJMW-WWWW-WWW9-CDXG
Slowbro4/slowking4/Wishiwashi4/Oranguru
I made some mistakes here, like not being more aggressive with Knock off in the first few turns. Other than that it was just a bad lead scenario. Oh well, I am still satisfied with the run.

MWKW-WWWW-WWW9-CD2Q
Slowking4/Bronzong4/Slowbro4/Armoatisse
Another trick room scientist, this time with 3 setters. I got lucky with the rock slide flinches.

JWBG-WWWW-WWW9-CD42
Gallade4/Altaria3/Garchomp/Magnezone
Battle 100 Against Wally. Also shows off Guzzlord.
Whee, another Guzzlord fan. I found its typing wasn’t *that* atrocious, though it needed to be kept well away from fairies. You’re absolutely right about its attack, which I consider a bigger inhibitor than its typing, because I rarely secured OHKOs without boosts unless I used Devastating Drake immediately (I used Dragon Rush for more power; it’ll be Outrage come UM.)

The only other thing that separates our Guzzlies is Protect and Hammer Arm; I opted for more coverage as +1 Guzzlord had much more options and fighting coverage did it a lot of good.

I’m happy to see you shared the same success with the almost unanimously hated UB. We even had a similar amount of wins before losing, though my Guzzlord team was slaughtered by a Bewear/Lurantis/Gardevoir/something as opposed to TR. You had a very unlucky break. Good job all the same!
 
I'm quite saddened by the Trick Room setups.

It really feels that not using Oranguru/Hariyama as lead is just "making things harder for no reason".

Every other lead setter incurrs into way more risky situations (with my so liked Aromatisse being both vulnerable to flinches and heavily threatened by almost all Bisharp variants + a large amount of other poison and steel types), and while I thought Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino both would provide way more solid bulk (M-slowbro is nearly impossible to 1hko, and M-Audino swapping type when mega evolving and completely flipping its resistance/weakness situation is near guaranteed to not attract supereffective hits) they would be exposed to status hax on top of flinchhax.

And for the other lead, Fake Out support is a basically must have as far as Tree goes, Hariyama just packs so much good things. Perfect coverage, status immunity, stupidly strong Heavy Slam which demolishes basically any Fairy that would dare to show up, solid bulk, a decent mono fighting type, and Guts boosted already insanely high attack, with accurate Close Combat as main stab as well. I've tried others, Scrafty provides very useful Intimidate support and tecnically better bulk, but the 4x weakness to Fairy is just a huge no no (it dies to basically any fairy attack even non stab) and doesn't have the best speed tier for TR, Hitmontop feels just very lackluster compared to Hariyama, and using a fast Fake Outer like Weavile or Infernape puts you in a awful situation where you are nearly useless once TR is up. Wtb HA Incineroar already :(
 
I'm quite saddened by the Trick Room setups.

It really feels that not using Oranguru/Hariyama as lead is just "making things harder for no reason".

Every other lead setter incurrs into way more risky situations (with my so liked Aromatisse being both vulnerable to flinches and heavily threatened by almost all Bisharp variants + a large amount of other poison and steel types), and while I thought Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino both would provide way more solid bulk (M-slowbro is nearly impossible to 1hko, and M-Audino swapping type when mega evolving and completely flipping its resistance/weakness situation is near guaranteed to not attract supereffective hits) they would be exposed to status hax on top of flinchhax.
YES. This is one of the reasons I’m so disappointed by the prospect of sitting out Triples for another game, because triples really gave other setters a major chance to shine. Even pokes like Scrafty with its underwhelming attack didn’t waste much space because you always had at least three or four slots for straight damage and coverage. I’d love to try Pyukumuku and other exclusively support-oriented pokes, but it’s not at all feasible with the Tree as it is now.

While Hariyama is a poster boy for almost everything you’d want out of a TR abuser, I’ve found that Oranguru is not necessarily as indisposable as it’d seem. It has a large number of extremely desireable characteristics, but so do the pokes you’ve named. Slowbro and Aromatisse have Taunt immunity through their abilities, allowing them a potential freeze/sleep/etc block via a Lum Berry. It can’t be understated how extremely difficult it is to kill M-Audino. The big reason flinches didn’t bother me when I used it was because of how non-threatening Rock Slide, easily the biggest offender, was to its longevity.

Bisharp is a tough cookie but fortunately seems to be played idiotically by the AI. It spams Sucker Punch and when it loses its OHKOs it’s not as likely to target the setters typically weak to it. It’s an asshole clencher but hasn’t cost me games like status has.

But overall, what with Megas being used by the AI, among the addition of Z-moves and other new weapons, yes. I’ve felt as though Oranguru and Hariyama are too strong a core to deviate from. None of my teams have enjoyed as much success as O/H/D/A-M though admittedly I’m not as inclined as others to keep trying new things (I’m still amazed by Josh’s Magnezone team.)

I’ve taken the time to engineer a Pyukumuku for the pleasure of actually getting mileage out of Quash, but it won’t see the light of day until Triples comes back. I also plan to work on a Passimian, since I see a lot of potential in Receiver. Alolan Muk loves Adaptability, Sheer Force, and the -ate abilities, to name a few, and I expect Passimian to be just as fun.
 
The main issue I usually have with Flinches on the TR setter often boils down to the fact that if turn 1 TR is negated, too often the team gets run down due to the low base speed. Unless you run priority users or fast Pokemon as backline but then you run in opposite issue that if your TR focused lead gets deleted you end up with Trick Room up and fast pokemon
 
YES. This is one of the reasons I’m so disappointed by the prospect of sitting out Triples for another game, because triples really gave other setters a major chance to shine. Even pokes like Scrafty with its underwhelming attack didn’t waste much space because you always had at least three or four slots for straight damage and coverage. I’d love to try Pyukumuku and other exclusively support-oriented pokes, but it’s not at all feasible with the Tree as it is now.

While Hariyama is a poster boy for almost everything you’d want out of a TR abuser, I’ve found that Oranguru is not necessarily as indisposable as it’d seem. It has a large number of extremely desireable characteristics, but so do the pokes you’ve named. Slowbro and Aromatisse have Taunt immunity through their abilities, allowing them a potential freeze/sleep/etc block via a Lum Berry. It can’t be understated how extremely difficult it is to kill M-Audino. The big reason flinches didn’t bother me when I used it was because of how non-threatening Rock Slide, easily the biggest offender, was to its longevity.

Bisharp is a tough cookie but fortunately seems to be played idiotically by the AI. It spams Sucker Punch and when it loses its OHKOs it’s not as likely to target the setters typically weak to it. It’s an asshole clencher but hasn’t cost me games like status has.

But overall, what with Megas being used by the AI, among the addition of Z-moves and other new weapons, yes. I’ve felt as though Oranguru and Hariyama are too strong a core to deviate from. None of my teams have enjoyed as much success as O/H/D/A-M though admittedly I’m not as inclined as others to keep trying new things (I’m still amazed by Josh’s Magnezone team.)

I’ve taken the time to engineer a Pyukumuku for the pleasure of actually getting mileage out of Quash, but it won’t see the light of day until Triples comes back. I also plan to work on a Passimian, since I see a lot of potential in Receiver. Alolan Muk loves Adaptability, Sheer Force, and the -ate abilities, to name a few, and I expect Passimian to be just as fun.
Haha, I felt like Oranguru needed something more left field and self-sufficient in the lead position to support it since I wasn't going with the classic Fake Out setup. Modest Air Balloon Magnezone with 84 Speed EVs was just weird enough to actually work; not terribly slow so Mag didn't always have to waste time Protecting first turn with additional reassurance from Sturdy, could Volt Switch into Araquanid (the two cover each others' weaknesses pretty perfectly), but still decently slow to function inside the Room as well. Instructing Thunderbolts or Flash Cannons off the bat to soften up stuff that outslowed Oranguru was also handy (hello Shiinotic); that's basically the gist of it, weaken things for the real star Araquanid to ride the wave of destruction. I will admit though, Jolly Wide Lens Mimikyu is...pretty strange looking back on it now, I'd definitely change that if I were looking to recreate the team.
 
That’s one of the reasons I dislike running oddballs on my teams (though I did have some fun with Terrakion and Starmie for that purpose, generally it didn’t help me more than running a slower sweeper would have.)

Losing turn 1 TR has usually been “bad” but never end of the world unless a colossal misplay also crippled the rest of my frontline, and usually required something as terrible as a freeze in the process. Part of why I enjoyed randoms triples was the mitigation of a lot of that; Protect in conjunction with bulk brought about tons of winnable scenarios from worst cases. Even playing doubles, a versatile and durable workhorse will hang in there for a while if the odds aren’t so stacked against it.
 
I'm quite saddened by the Trick Room setups.

It really feels that not using Oranguru/Hariyama as lead is just "making things harder for no reason".

Every other lead setter incurrs into way more risky situations (with my so liked Aromatisse being both vulnerable to flinches and heavily threatened by almost all Bisharp variants + a large amount of other poison and steel types), and while I thought Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino both would provide way more solid bulk (M-slowbro is nearly impossible to 1hko, and M-Audino swapping type when mega evolving and completely flipping its resistance/weakness situation is near guaranteed to not attract supereffective hits) they would be exposed to status hax on top of flinchhax.

And for the other lead, Fake Out support is a basically must have as far as Tree goes, Hariyama just packs so much good things. Perfect coverage, status immunity, stupidly strong Heavy Slam which demolishes basically any Fairy that would dare to show up, solid bulk, a decent mono fighting type, and Guts boosted already insanely high attack, with accurate Close Combat as main stab as well. I've tried others, Scrafty provides very useful Intimidate support and tecnically better bulk, but the 4x weakness to Fairy is just a huge no no (it dies to basically any fairy attack even non stab) and doesn't have the best speed tier for TR, Hitmontop feels just very lackluster compared to Hariyama, and using a fast Fake Outer like Weavile or Infernape puts you in a awful situation where you are nearly useless once TR is up. Wtb HA Incineroar already :(
Yeah I tried to find another Fake out user but Hariyama is so clearly the best that its ridiculous. We really do need HA Incineroar. Perhaps I will try Protean Kecleon next lol. The massive irony here though is that I forgot that Slowbro has taunt immunity from an ability as pointed out above.


As for Oranguru, I think part of the reason its so good is that it seems blatantly designed to be a trick room supporter. Its like GF said "Lets buff Trick Room" and so they designed Oranguru.

Also, maybe other people have had different experiences, but I have never had Oranguru taunted on turn one yet, unlike Fake Out. Personally I would say Inner focus is part of what makes it better than others, but since Josh C. got away with using telepathy, its clearly not always necessary.
 
While being Taunted turn one is rare for me too, my thinking is the same as it was last gen, when I used Oblivious Slowbro for my serious attempt: it puts you in the worst kind of check. Without a Mental Herb it's not going away until the turn limit is up, and you can only wait it out or switch, which may potentially be catastrophic. Own Tempo, Slowbro's other immunity, or Regenerator, a great ability for blown first turns, rescue you from situations probably more common but less dire than Taunt.

It was like when I replaced Slowbro's Lum Berry with a Rindo Berry. Freezes and sleep are terrible, but the guaranteed death from Serperior4's Leaf Storm, one of the only pokes it really feared, was worse. Taunt is second only to the death of your setter for the worst possible outcome. If I were to encounter Shiinotics constantly and they preferred Sporing my setters right off the bat, I might change my thinking, but as it stands the Mental Herb has offered more valuable protection. Fake Out puts a lot of that hax to bed, anyway.

Encore is probably as rare as Taunt, but it blocks that, too, and Oranguru has appreciated that for Instruct/Protect spam.
 

Smuckem

Resident Facility Bot Wannabe
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
A lot of different ideas & things I've had rattling in my head over the last few weeks:

- Platinum Frontier: I made two or three attempts at Castle Doubles with the assistance of Chinese Dood's 111-win Castle Doubles team, but a lack of familiarity with Frontier sets, not recognizing TR setters when they would potentially appear, and the same matchup problems the Dood ran into with Ground-types and the Water/Ground hybrids felled my attempts. I was unable to crack past 43 wins with this (PokeGenned) team. My Castle Doubles 'stamp' eludes me, for the time being, and my Castle high remains at 44 wins. On the plus side, I seem to have gotten better with managing my CP (my last attempt had me end with 367), and though I myself have been unable to do much with the team, I can inherently feel it's a solid squad. No matter the Generation or the context, DisQuake can get you places fast; I would recommend to newer Trainers that DisQuake is a reliable option for when you want to speed run your way through Doubles/Multis/Triples in any facility--it's just a matter of figuring out how to support your leads past Ground-types (most of whom are bulky) and counter Ice-types who will threaten Dragons & Electric/Flying (the most common options for running DisQuake).
- Subway: RAlexa21th was busy last month working on, and depicting, her 161-win Subway team roulette. Inspired by her creativity and pleased by her inclination to switch teams every few runs, I Genned all of her teams, changed the Blastoise's Follow Me-->Protect, and switched teams every round of seven. With the solidness of most of the teams (the reliability of the TerraCott team is a little shaky with some of the Subway's Trainer classes), I have crawled back to 63 wins with the roulette. It's a little something to jump back into every so often for funsies, keep toying with different archetypes that, except for rain, I'm not too familiar with; I have no illusions about breaking my current 199-win high there.
- Maison: As always, I'm fucking with a team here, a team there, in Triples. As mentioned back when I set it, my success with Phase B means that I won't have any inclination to ever making a serious run again, so I've Genned a few different, better teams to see how they perform. In the process, I have become acquainted with one of my favorite teams, one that, as far as I know, is still ongoing but on indefinite hiatus:

ok im having a bit too much fun not to post this, i dont have a big streak or anything yet but who says that should be the only time i post? not me


Blastoise @ Blastoisinite ** Blastoise
Ability: Torrent -> Mega Launcher
EVs: 4Def/252SpA/252Spe
Lv. 50 (Mega)stats: 154/102/141/205/135/130
Nature: Modest
~ Water Spout
~ Aura Sphere
~ Dark Pulse
~ Protect

I love spread moves a whole bunch. Anyone who read ~The Eruptran Project~ could guess how much I delight in the sheer joy of spread moves. The moves themselves are standard, no Dragon Pulse necessary because I rely on Dark Pulse to kill TR pokes and the rest of my team is considerably FUK DRAGON anyway.


Whimsicott @ Focus Sash ** Cotton Candy
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4Def/252SpA/252Spe
Lv. 50 stats: 135/77/106/141/95/168
Nature: Modest
~ Tailwind
~ Dazzling Gleam
~ Endeavor
~ Fake Tears

Still deliciously broken! The Tailwind setter, with a flashy bit of punch to spread my love of spread moves. Fake Tears is as useful as ever, and it guarantees that every TR user will die no matter where they are on the field due to Blastoise's sniping abilities. When I decided on Whimsy, I wondered if it really needed to be "defensive" and quickly came to the conclusion that "fuck sturdy and sash pokes, go HAM on em Candy". Or something like that? Modest 141 SpA DZ does more than enough to the Dragons that resist Water Spout and Eruption and you can never go wrong with guaranteed damage on three foes (barring priority or other technicalities obviously).

I'm still auditing Focus Sash—it very rarely uses it, meaning it's usually either double targeted (which necessarily renders sash useless no matter a pokemon's defenses) or it's hit by one move that doesn't kill it. Then there's moves like Poison Jab, Sludge Bomb and Blizzard in the hail which further render sash useless when my other two are Protecting. Or EQ happy foes that see Heatran and go apeshit and leave Whimsy at like 70% or whatever. Sash does have its appllcations, of course, but they are more intermittent compared to Doubles especially given that Whimsicott has to be in the middle. I "want to" change this to Lum for idiot Confuse Ray and Thunderwave bullshit, but I haven't lost yet so...

Every battle I ask whether Sash was useful, meaning "is Whimsicott alive and at 1HP at the beginning of turn 2?" Obviously 1HP Endeavor is the bees knees and people still say that, but if I find that the answer to that all-important question is no like 95% of the time, I'm going to swap Sash for Lum. This may also make Endeavor less important, which would free up a slot for any number of fantastic moves Whimsy may make better use of, like Encore, Energy Ball, Worry Seed, Taunt and Safeguard. We'll see I guess.


Heatran @ Flame Plate ** ヒードラン
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4Def/252SpA/252Spe
Lv. 50 stats: 167/110/126/199/126/116
Nature: Quiet
~ Protect
~ Eruption
~ Earth Power
~ Taunt

Oh Eruptran, will I ever make a serious non-Singles team without you? Probably not! Standard moves are standard, Taunt to shut down Trick Room pokes on my right (foe's left). I have used it like once in over 100 battles, but TR sucks and I don't want to lose to it so I have Taunt as a backup to Fake Tears + Blastoise Dark Pulse. Most of the times I've wanted to use Taunt, Heatran couldn't because of EQ or fighting move, so there's that to consider I guess. Heatran doesn't really want to use anything else though—WoW and Swagger have imperfect accuracy and I don't have a REAL use for Flash Cannon or even Incinerate, so if anything I'd use either DP or...DP lol.

199 SpA because I used HP something on it for The Eruptran Project and I don't have 31SpA/31Spe IV one (like anyone does). 232 speed is plenty in Tailwind, enough to get Scarfchomp(3) by one point for what it's worth.


Latios @ Life Orb ** unban me
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4HP/252SpA/252Spe
Lv. 50 stats: 156/92/100/182/130/178
Nature: Timid
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Psyshock
~ Thunderbolt
~ Tailwind

Secondary TW setter, with near-perfect synergy with Heatran should I have to switch out on Turn 2 (not often at all). DP reaches across the field, Psyshock is a much better fit on this otherwise special-attack–heavy team, Thunderbolt for Gyarados and other waters that Spout/Eruption can't dent (and dragons of course die horribly to DP). Gluemon #1, but a lot of my non-singles teams since even DP have had Latios so yeah.


Sylveon @ Choice Specs ** Patience
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 4HP/252SpA/252Spe
Lv. 50 stats: 171/76/85/178/150/112
Nature: Modest
~ Hyper Voice
~ these
~ dont
~ matter

I am so in love with you, Patience. I know this was posted about recently but I didn't steal it—the first time I used Sylveon was on a Doubles idea with lead Tailwind/Sludge Wave Tornadus and Hyper Voice/CM/Stored Power/Protect Sylveon@Weakness Policy. You can see that the idea was for Sylveon to be at +2SpA (or +3 if I could safely CM Turn 1) and for Stored Power to be a base 100 (or 140) move. This was hilarious when it worked but, well, "Sludge Wave", and I recall it not killing Slowking, scrapping the idea, and shelving Sylveon...until I wanted something to spitekill anything that fainted my beloved Cotton Candy after it got Tailwind up Turn 1.

Turns out that I love spread moves even more than I knew—the only thing that resists Water/Fairy/Fire is Tentacruel, and even then who cares, everything absolutely dies. Most battles go like this:

(Mega)Protect/Tailwind/Protect, Whimsy gets double targeted and dies, 5-6, out comes Sylveon in the middle
Water Spout/Hyper Voice/Eruption, everything dies, 5-3
Water Spout/Hyper Voice/Eruption, everything dies, 5-0

Water Spout goes first, then Eruption, then Hyper Voice at "224 speed" for what that's worth. I still shake my head at how powerful these spread moves are in practice, much more than I thought they'd be in theory.

The other moves do actually kind of matter—I actually have Dazzling Gleam for Soundproof stuff if I'm paranoid, and Protect, which I actually used when stuff got really hairy one battle. In case I'm paranoid of missing something like Tangrowth4 or Walrein4, Swift is 78 base power with Pixilate, and would be better than the redundant Disarming Voice, even without the 30% tie-breaking boost that Pixilate grants Swift over it. Heal Bell is probably better than Dazzling Gleam but "effort" and Sylveon is my second-slowest poke so it wouldn't heal anything in time anyway probably. Maybe Psyshock if I really want Tentacruel but Tentacruel is not something I'm worried about.


Scrafty @ Assault Vest ** im so hood
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 4HP/252Atk/252Spe
Lv. 50 stats: 141/156/135/52/135/110
Nature: Adamant
~ Fake Out
~ Drain Punch
~ Knock Off
~ Ice Punch

My lone physical attacker (Psyshock doesn't really count) and Gluemon #2. Fake Out is incredibly useful at buying time to get TW up in a pinch or protect one of my spread attackers, but sniping low-HP stuff for quick Moxie boost makes my day every time. I literally just threw a Scrafty on the team when I was going through my boxes of stuff I wanted to use and I haven't looked back (aside from changing the Intimidate, bulkier Scrafty I originally had in there). Usually too slow to get Moxie boosts outside of Fakeout, but I rarely even need to use Scrafty because lol at how gross Spout/HV/Eruption is.


So there we have it...I'm at like 108 now and loving every minute, actually saving some "tough" battles and mock playing even though I have yet to lose (I never really mock battled my own saved battles for any reason).

As a side note...I never really got into Triples because a few posters really early on said "triples battles takes forever" and...I disagree? Maybe it's just my team but every battle is like five turns max and the only real time spent is thinking about the best optimal move because I'm a triples noob (literally only found out "Shift" was a thing upon my first battle in the regular Triple Battle mode like last week) which doesn't really count as "slow". So that deterred me from ever really starting in Triples ("time remains the great equalizer", etc), but I'm also refreshed that this team is an absolute blast which probably matters more to me at this point. I tend to get serious "leaderboard-induced apathy" and not pursue fun modes that have been "broken" by the top players, myself included (there are so many Singles ideas I write down and then never try because "lol can this team even win 300/400/500 battles in a row". Like, "who gives a shit about your cute team if it's not either obviously super unique while great on paper or making a serious run at a respectable rank in a given mode?" I still feel that way in general and probably will as long as I play, but that feeling did not shadow me when I was theorymonning nor has or will it during gameplay. Sounds cheesy, especially from a cutthroat leaderboard hawk like me, but I'm very literally actually playing for fun, and I can't tell you have refreshing that is.
Curious to see how the team performs with some of my own wrinkles thrown in, I Genned ヒードラン/unban me/I'm so hood and mixed them with some of my own creations:


Teelo (Blastoise) (F) (Lvl.50) @ Blastoisinite (Center)
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Modest
IVs: 31/31/31/31/22-23/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
- Protect
- Dragon Pulse-->Dark Pulse
- Aura Sphere
- Water Spout

Outside of this team, Dragon Pulse is standard fare for me due to how many fucking Dragons I tend to run into and how much reliable anti-Psychic coverage I tend to run on my teams.


Whimsicott (M) (Lvl.64) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 6 Def/252 SAtk/252 Spd
IVs: 31/xx/31/31/31/31
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Tailwind
- Taunt--> Endeavor
- Helping Hand
- Dazzling Gleam

After so long with this thing, I still haven't nicknamed it, and breeding Fake Tears seems like an annoyance (I'd love for the Messiah to explain to me one day just how much use he's gotten out of those Tears), so Helping Hand it is. MegaToise and Heatran often need the boost to ensure the KOs against Pulse-weak, bulky opponents and Fire resists anyway.


Hirota (Sylveon) (Lvl.52) (F) Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 100 HP/252 SAtk/158 Spd
IVs: xx/31/31/31/31/31
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hyper Voice
- Swift
- Misty Terrain
- Yawn

As most who have used it on here have done, Choice Specs Pixilate Hyper Voice Rampage, with a bunch of filler (Swift and Misty Terrain can be replaced, am keeping Yawn handy for breeding purposes). I kinda feared for its durability and some threats being able to outspeed it even under Tailwind, hence the HP investment. Named after comedy wrestler Sakura Hirota.
Same Sylveon (copied for Tree use, in fact), same rampage.

Ineligible for leaderboard purposes, but that's cool, as I'm just glad to be using something that has gotten me past 339 wins again. Even though it actually has a fairly hard time stopping Trick Room from being set, and Muk4 has proven horribly lucky with its Quick Claw activations in my encounters with it, the team is strong enough to currently have me at 477 wins, my farthest streak since Phase B. If any of you get the opportunity to own a legit ErupTran, please give this strategy a shot in Triples, you won't regret it! Thx, my Messiah!

- Tree: Since hitting 169 wins, I have been unable to crack 100 wins in Doubles. I have tried all manner of sub-par teams, plus a few different members of the QR3. Nothing has worked past 96 wins, mainly because it is essential that you are attentive enough to play Tree skillfully...and playing focused for long sessions, or long sessions period, is fairly difficult given how my daily life is currently structured. Not that I'm too broken up about it--if it's not Triples I'm not too attached to it, and I was blessed with my current leaderboard high, so I have no need to get worked up about farther success. Besides, I'm still in 8th place in Doubles, and still waiting for all you fucking children to push me off the Top 10.
(taps foot impatiently, arms crossed)

My most interesting streak in this stretch has been an 87-win run with an idea turskain off-handedly threw out one day; he said that back in Masion, he was considering the idea of Specs Magnezone/standard non-Singles Greninja, some bizarre spin-off of Shocking Salaninja Shuffle: New Cat, Old Tricks, but with something that could benefit just as much from Mat Block and could pack a little more charge into its offense.
Since he never went through with the idea, and I find the idea of Mat Block/Wide Guard as a strategy as opposed to just tactics odd but interesting, I thought 'fuck it' and went out of my way to make my own version of it:

IMG_0695.JPG IMG_0696.JPG IMG_0697.JPG IMG_0698.JPG IMG_0699.JPG IMG_0700.JPG IMG_0701.JPG IMG_0702.JPG

(Magnezone carries Hidden Power Fire, Araquanid has 0 Spe IVs, Landorus-T is Transferred from my Dream Radar and Hyper Trained; thanks to my Liege for the original lead pair idea, to Josh C. for suggesting Araquanid as a backup, to the Breeder who hosted the giveaway that netted me the Magnezone--it may have been PsIana, it may have been Bluemew. I apologize for not remembering--and to ReptoAbysmal for the Araquanid.)

The team was kinda slapped together deliberately, as a basic template from which to improve the basic idea. Suggestions, without changing any team members?

It has been brought to my attention from a few different Trainers that there is a small discrepancy in the QR3 that needs to be addressed: apparently, the listing is now filled with perfectly viable teams (my own crazy shit notwithstanding) that, for the most part, have been tested and proven to be worth extended Tree streaks. As a result, the PGL sample teams that were provided by Game Freak for the BP Global Mission (which already seems like an epoch ago), which I still believe were sound team archetypes deliberately poked with holes, are under fire for being, well, trash. As a result, I will be putting the matter forth to both my superiors and to the community-at-large: should these sample teams be removed form the QR3 and added to the Q.R.T.O.O. instead, so as to prevent Trainers looking for serious streaks from wasting their time with them, or keep them there as legacy pieces, historical footnotes from the infancy of the PGL QR database?

Related note: due to it not being Tree-specific, and frankly I'm not sure anyone here has ever used it, I will be removing the team WallaceTheChampion linked to way back when.

As always, the Discord channel is hopping with ideas for Tree shit to try--it has encouraged me this week to continue expanding the Q.R.T.O.O., and several new codes have been added to it. I have also updated the QR3 with all of the codes linked to on this page, Meanwhile, a whole bunch of other ideas have been discussed, none of which I can remember at this time.

EDIT: Actually, there is one idea that I remember now...
The Dutch Plumberjack some of us on the Discord have been thinking about how Team Marathon would function in today's Tree environment and want to test it out one day. If you have the capacity, interest or time to do so, would it be possible for you to QR the team for public use?
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Through it all, I have continued my endless toying with battle facility sets: one half-hearted attempt at Gen IV Factory Doubles have fell at 4 wins, a quickie run in Rental Masters Triples, and the breeding/Hyper Training of several new additions to my ever-expanding Imperfect Army. The big additions are my current focus as things to build around, and I need some help as to what I can do with that. Would anyone know what can work with the following Maison/Tree sets?
- Latias1 (Tree Singles)
- Docile version of Lucario4 (Maison Triples)
- Infernape4 (Tree Doubles)
- Registeel1 (any format)

I'm actually in the middle of raising the Lucario4 as I type this, and with that...
 
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I was unable to crack past 43 wins with this (PokeGenned) team. My Castle Doubles 'stamp' eludes me, for the time being, and my Castle high remains at 44 wins.
If you just want the print for your first time and you don't care about getting a high streak on that particular run, what you can do is battle as much as you can risk, then blow all of your remaining CP on skips. Play the easy early battles for CP bonuses. You can easily cheese at least a full round of battles at the end of your run.
 

turskain

activated its Quick Claw!
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I didn't use Fake Tears in the Maison, but tried it a little in Tree Doubles and -2 is a notably bigger boost on Eruption/Water Spout for specific targets. Bronzong14, for instance, can have Heatproof, and with Helping Hand would need to be targeted with Dark Pulse if not in the center to make sure they go down - but if Fake Tears is used, it will be cleanly OHKO'd by Water Spout or Eruption without having to commit to a single-target move. Some are still too bulky to be OHKO'd after Fake Tears (Dusknoir4 and Aromatisse4 for Spout) but a fair bit of threats will fall to a spread move after dropping to -2. Helping Hand boosts damage on all targets, which can be useful for snagging multiple KOs, but the focus fire of Fake Tears is not a joke. It is blocked by Clear Body/White Herb/Dark-typing/Psychic Terrain/Queenly Majesty for Tree, which could tip the case in favor of Helping Hand.
 
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