168 in elec still blows my frigging mind. That was a sight to wake up to in the early morning. Even if it resulted in a tie, sb is something else.
Rando Dump VI: Something Old & Something New
I was more excited than anything else for the Mythicals being allowed into Galar, but Crown Tundra still gave me plenty of toys with which to amuse myself. My (well, Coeur's) faithful rando bot EVELYN gorged herself on new additions but was well overdue for an overhaul, namely the setter roll, as well as making the more overpowered stuff more difficult to use. After thinking about it some, I figured sequestering them into their own, perhaps not aptly named category "Heavies" (like Mega Evos previously) was the way to go; however, unlike Megas, I also rolled for the opportunity to be allowed to use them. 2/5 odds seemed like a good place to start, and I was pleased to find that in 40 teams exactly 16 rolls allowed a Heavy to be used, which is 2/5s on the dot. Good girl, EVELYN.
If you're curious, I named the category Heavies instead of the bland "Myth/Legends" after Final Fantasy V's enemy class type. In FFV, an enemy with the Heavy subtype was immune to a number of control effects and instant death; while the OP legendary and mythical pokes aren't immune to those things under normal circumstances, they're still much too difficult for the AI to remove from the field before they can destroy most teams, so I liked the way it sounded.
Obtaining 0 or acceptably low speeds for the several new legends in CT was predictably troublesome. Calyrex took 89 resets, a fraction of what I'd spent last gen, compensating for that low amount by being merciless on the shitty rate of Premier Balls. I also wasn't able to Synchronize them. To speed check, I followed SadisticMystic's suggestion of using an Unnerve poke; if faster, it would proc before As One. I settled for one point higher than a neutral speed at 0IV to increase my odds of finding it, though I still caught four negative-natured duds before landing on the precious zero. Well worth it.
While EVELYN didn't roll each of the new toys at least once, there were more than enough to keep most rolls fresh. I also frequently ran two teams off the same roll, simply because I wanted to use them sooner than later. It ended up being a lot more fun, though I still feel a bit of burnout after all this. I can't take a long hiatus until I've had the chance to try Articuno...
Unlike the previous couple rando dumps I lost several times throughout and I don't think any of these streaks come close to surpassing my personal best.
Melmetal allowed. This squad was nearly destroyed by a Lapras2/Dragapult1/Goodra1/Mamoswine1, that last set being one of the reasons I pulled through. Goodra also attempted a Counter from below full health, which allowed me to defeat it without suffering additional punishment.
Sudowoodo was alright, but without Gravity needed a Wide Lens. Compared to the other Head Smash users on my roster it's by far the weakest.
Melmetal denied. I'd forgotten that Diamond Storm is a two-stage boost! I didn't have time to forget that Fairy types were a thing, because this team ran into a ton of them, as well as annoying 252/252+ SpD spreads, which really cut into my efforts for Dragon Energy floor wipes. My first clean Regidrago sweep came to a mono-ice team, of all things. If nothing else, Drago makes excellent Protect bait, and was even taking a lot of things I usually see aimed at the setters, like Entrainment and Trick.
Absolutely retarded. Yveltal went 10-0 and even OHKO'd Leon's Charizard, sweeping most opponents with only occasional assistance from After You. It's also one of my rare mixed sets, as LO Dark Aura Sucker Punch is too good to pass up. I couldn't resist running Yveltal the moment it was allowed, as it's my favorite 0 speed legendary.
I rolled Landorus for this team and really wanted to run it, but GF kept High Horsepower off its TR listing and I didn't have much that could eat those Earthquakes.
This run featured a lot of pleasurable outcomes off of events that normally would have been irritating. A Sableye attempted to Taunt Comfey in Rime's psyterrain, but it had rolled Prankster and was blocked; Raichu uses Discharge, not only killing its ally Gengar but having the move disabled by Curse Body; Libero Cinderace3 flinches Comfey with Iron Head and ultimately prevents TR being set, and would have made this a downhill battle had Slowbro not QCQD'd 4 consecutive times and simply swept uninhibited. Later, Slowbro would determinedly try to snipe a Wishiwashi with QCQD procs and miss each time because of fucking Brightpowder. The one greatly displeasing outcome from this run was Leon's Rhyperior3 eating a HH boosted Grass Knot. Without Solid Rock, the Rindo wouldn't have prevented the OHKO.
Xerneas allowed. It seems to me that Polteageist AI likes to use Teatime as long as someone on the field holds a berry, regardless of the berry having an applicable effect; Dracozolt killed its partner T1 and Oranguru2 replaced it; Polteageist used Teatime once more, which looked very odd until realising exactly what happened. This also means that Polteageist has been yeeting the Sitrus Berries I gave to most of my setters! Gah!
This was mostly an easy run, with Room Service Dracozolt having no problem netting OHKOs without the Life Orb usually equipped (given to Coeurchin, as its unboosted damage is often disappointing.) Leon still managed to provide substantial difficulty with Inteleon4/Rhyperior3/Rime3, and I was compelled to dmax for the first time.
White Kyurem denied. But who cares? Genesect appeared!
The theory that AI chooses moves for its dmax-capable pokes without considering what the move will become as dmax is pretty sound. Eva's Ribombee8 opened with QC Max Guard, and all of the instances I've fought it in recent memory, it's opened with Speed Swap.
Encore!
I had initially thought an Espeon1 Skill Swapped its Magic Bounce with Hatterene, displaying no message because they both kept their original abilties, but SM pointed out the absence of an ability prompt means it swapped with its partner instead.
Genesect is one of the more potent and especially moldable flunkies, being able to use a bunch of different moves to good effect, but I don't believe it's by any means broken. On this particular team, it was running Iron Head/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Ice Beam. Iron Head is the least likely to change as at +1 it was ripping most things to shreds.
Diamond Storm is infuriating when it's inconsistent. During one battle it was used three consecutive times without a single boost. Leon had a backline Aegislash3; despite not leading, it was still a major pain in the ass. The only upside is that it can't use King's Shield and Guru has no trouble using Foul Play on it.
Xerneas denied. Power Herb Omastar is fun and quite strong. It spent most battles spewing out souped up Scalds, but there was enough trash left for my backline to get some action as well.
Extra!
Moltres was not caught at the time of the mass EVELYN rolling, but I had gotten and trained it that day, and was pretty eager to take it for a spin! Eisen had mentioned a streamer using Weakness Policy Moltres with a Comfey, to not only trip the boost with a weak priority move, but supply Floral Healing for repeated Berserk triggers. It sounded like a lot of fun in randos, even without the speed halving, so I was eager to try it.
I have yet to settle on a spread for it. With Relaxed and full bulk it was incredibly chunky, but needed to be +5/6 to sweep more often than not, and getting there on T1 was not always easy, let alone consistent. But then full bulk did allow for some stupid survivals with crits, and because of Triage it really didn't matter if Moltres couldn't OHKO most things. Fiery Wrath didn't flinch very often, but that rarely mattered, also. Nasty Plot/Fiery Wrath/Air Slash/Protect is the set, though Foul Play was also used for a brief time as HH allowed it some quick OHKOs without boosts.
Stunfisk and Escavalier were hand-picked as backup, and I ran at least 40 battles with this team before moving back to the legitimate rolls.
Necrozma denied and Regice passed over. P2 and Champ solo'd nearly every battle, though with Machamp going Gmax that was to be expected.
Yveltal was allowed and almost taken. This team lost battle 7 to a rain team, as Pelipper2/Inteleon4 doubled into Hatterene. My backline couldn't inflict enough damage in time, and Inteleon4 holding a Sash didn't help in the least. I let these guys finish their run.
Revenge!
leon fucking asked for it
Kyurem denied. A lead Water Absorb Quagsire4 and Avalugg2 would create some slight problems, more than Leon's Inteleon2 Baton Passing +2 evasion to Zard.
Encore!
Dracovish did too much of the killing last run, and I was dissatisfied with the amount of screen time given to newcomer Victini. Gourgeist's Frisk was a godsend in determining which between it and Victini should set TR. Plenty of rampaging with V-Create was had, including a Shiinotic/Escavalier combo and a couple of Dittos.
Xerneas denied. Because of the Sitrus Berry being on so many things including the Slowking I initially ran alongside Cress, she instead has been holding a Mental Herb and I haven't been missing the healing. No amount of health would've mattered the one time Cress fainted, to Sheer Cold (what else?) ... (yes yes horn drill and guillotine i get it)
Leon's Seismitoad2 and Rhyperior34 posed a challenge for building momentum, but Guzzlord was nonetheless able to sweep.
Encore!
I also rolled Regidrago and wanted to give it a second try, this time with helpings of hands and AS.
While it did have considerably more floor wipings this time, I was still running into "too many" fairies for my liking and encountered no Shedinjas I would've needed to Crunch. Running some quick calcs after the fact, HH Explosion without investment does severely damage or outright kill some Fairy types, but it's not enough to just make me delete Dragon Pulse or Protect, which are crucial. Crunch is just there, but without it the team would've been in checkmate the moment a Shedinja appeared, barring some stupid miracle like Sandstorm active from its partner and it being a set other than Safety Goggles.
Melmetal allowed. Backline Vikavolts typically carry Assault Vest for eating grass/elec better for leads like Arctovish, but dumb luck with enemy assortment just as often renders that moot.
Xerneas denied. Because this was a backline Coalossal, I used my physical Flash Fire variant and it ended up being quite useful in that regard. I still had a rough battle with Ultan's Copperajah4.
Merciless slaughter. Occasionally I think I'd like having Druddigon use Gunk Shot again, but can't bring myself to delete Crunch/Fire Punch/Rock Slide for it, so away it continues to stay.
White Kyurem allowed. The last time I'd tried WP Gigalith it was a disaster, with burns all over the place; B1T1 featured a Flareon do exactly that with Will-O-Wisp and I'd feared it was a sign of things to come. Fortunately, that was not the case and afterward things went as they ideally would on paper. The team had a nice smooth sailing overall.
Xerneas denied. This team had an extremely close battle 4, during which Icicle Crash missed Mudsdale and resulted in a OHKO; Darma enters, OHKOs Mudsdale and meets Sudowoodo; the Dugtrio that led protected, and because I hadn't doubled into Sudowoodo, I lose Darma to it. I pick the two of them off and am met with Steelix. As a Hail Mary I dmax and opt to HH Hailstorm, and not only is Steelix not Sturdy, it attempted to Heavy Slam and failed.
TR was prevented during battle 7 by a Shiftry/Bisharp pair; as for Leon, he'd bring Rime3/Aegislash1/Rillaboom1 and Darmanitan was able to easily dispose of them. HH Flare in Sun was used to OHKO Aegis in shield form.
Encore!
Fuck Arctovish4. All the fossil4s are nasty, but I routinely get QC spammed by this one the most. I fought them multiple times, and in addition to consecutive procs I repeatedly lost this roll: 252+ Atk Buzzwole Hammer Arm vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Arctovish: 158-188 (96.9 - 115.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO ...infuriating.
Leer from Mold Breaker Haxorus plus High Horsepower would prevent TR and force Dragapult to sweep Leon, which it managed to do fairly easily. This was the special attacking Life Orb user, Modest with 252 speed. Part of any nutritious TR lineup!
Leon would lead Rillaboom1 and open with Snarl, and that one debuff was enough to prevent Magearna from making a clean sweep.
Xerneas allowed. Harvey with Rillaboom3/Flareon2/Cherrim3/Umbreon3 came to a 1v1, and a dual Rock Slide miss in the beginning did not help.
Yveltal allowed. Like the Ice team, these guys actually managed a pretty easy run overall. As disappointed as I am with the sparse TR distribution to a lot of my new toys, I can at least rejoice that Tyrantrum received a lot of love, between High Horsepower and Close Combat.
Encore!
Mush would flinch from a Thievul Dark Pulse as Azumarill switched into Escavalier, learning the Dracozolt was set3 (Thunderbolt); knowing a Flamethrower is incoming, I switch back to Azumarill and eat a burn from that very attack, but not before Thievul Parting Shots Azumarill to add insult to injury. FML
Necrozma denied. Diggersby loved Swagger boosts in terrain and because of them was often able to click High Horsepower in defiance of the type chart.
Magearna allowed. I've used Chandelure in TR quite a lot, and this set has not changed in several years, yet I'm still occasionally surprised by its damage. 145 and all that but I usually expect 90BP spread moves to suck without any boosts. I enjoyed eating a number of special hits with AV Tyranitar. I did not enjoy playing around Oranguru's Instruct being one point faster than it.
Melmetal allowed. Krookodile with Lash Out appreciated Bulldoze from Dusclops a lot more than Metagross, since it could incur speed drops for Lash Out and easy Moxie boosts; Bulldoze tripped Metagross' WP, sure, but Clear Body prevented speed cuts. The floor effect was able to let a Vaporeon undercut Metagross and later finish it off before it could detonate.
Magearna denied. B1T1, a Seaking freezes Clops with Blizzard, but thankfully the thawing comes immediately; Carracosta's WP tripped only twice, but there were plenty of Rock Slide flinches. Equally plenty were enemy Inteleon sets. Despite not dmaxing once, customary for a number of WP users, Carracosta continued its acceptable behavior of being a beast in TR.
Xerneas denied, and, just, damn. This feels very similar to the one awful randos team I ran in tree, that made me declare semi-dragon as a failed experiment I would never attempt again. Obviously, I learned nothing, but I can easily blame that on all the fun I had running the three other semi-monotyped teams earlier in these batches of rolls. Anyway, I think I fought a fairy at least once per battle, and while Kommo was able to outspeed and OHKO two of them (Weezing, Mawile) those faster than it resulted in bloody and forced sacking. I lucked out with a Cherrim setting sun for me in one battle, which let HH bring Flare to lethal levels for an Alcremie & friends. Battle 9, on the other hand, brought a Diggersby and Togekiss, who promptly murdered Kommo and set me up for an easy loss had Diggersby not left Drampa alone and gone for Clops, allowing it to finally destroy Togekiss and sweep from there.
I'd expected Leon to be easier, since he lacked any fairies, but he still put up a hell of a fight. I won thanks to Aegislash1 Sword Dancing on its final turn instead of attempting a KO, and Rillaboom4 targeting the healthy (and dmaxed) Drampa with Superpower and not Hydreigon. This left both of mine alive enough to deliver OHKOs.
Magearna denied. Leon's Rime4 froze Musharna with Blizzard and on top of never thawing, Arctozolt couldn't withstand much abuse from Rime afterward, and my Ice weaks sure as hell were not going to accomplish anything without Mush. I was feeling the effects of so much playing by this point and couldn't really be mad. My coworker suggested we watch an hour of anime (Fire Force), so we did.
Yveltal denied. It's not a full rando dump without at least one FEARdemaru team!
Necrozma denied. Eight out of the ten battles, Silvally killed the frontline along with itself. One of those attempts not made involved a Jellicent and Seaking, made more annoying when I attempted to Thunderpunch the fish and learned it was Lightningrod.
Encore!:
The return of one of the most inexcusably bad sets I've ever created, completely left out of last gen for that very reason! Hone Claws Mence, with Dragon Rush, Iron Tail and Stone Edge. Intimidate, not Moxie, because I'm not just dumb, I figured HH was all it needed to KO anything so bulky to withstand any hits. But forget about that!
I loved Volcanion for both runs with it. It held an Assault Vest and was very bulky, compensating for its generally meh speed by hitting extremely hard. Both times it delivered the OHKO to Leozard with vanilla Steam Eruption. I lucked out versus some bulky ground types, as they preferred to target Musharna instead. I ran Solarbeam on it, though as a circumstantial move it predictably didn't see a ton of use. I loved the quad resist to ice and fire, and having an auto-thaw if I needed it. I absolutely look forward to using it more; more than the other mythicals, even.
Melmetal denied. Abomasnow made much better bait than I'd hoped, drawing every single Fake Out and Steel attack the enemy frontlines dared to launch! Most enemies weren't too bulky to withstand its average assault (pre-WP) as well.
Calyrex denied. I had a scary T1 miss against an Artist's Escavalier, but like the surprise Escavalier1s, this one was the equally trashy set2. Dracozolt missed a few times this particular battle, but thankfully landed everything else it used. I missed Room Service at times, but LO Hustle is just so frigging strong.
Encore!
Denial or not, I don't care, I want to use it!
I never doubted for an instant that Calyrex would be really dumb, and lo and behold. It never fainted once and, because of its typing, the AI launched plenty of attacks at it; 100/150/130 says "lol"
Even with the spread penalty, Glacial Lance inflicted retarded damage and netted multiple floor wipes, though I still used a few Horsepowers and some Zen Headbutts. I'm still struggling to choose between Heavy Slam and Seed Bomb for a fourth move. Both have their uses, but both also have the handicap of being mostly redundant the moment Calyrex hits +2, which is not particularly hard to do. Waters are common enough that Seed Bomb may be more useful for picking up T1 OHKOs if Lance is somehow not a good call.
It's time for bed. I hope that makes a nice skim for the randos fans.
Rando Dump VI: Something Old & Something New
I was more excited than anything else for the Mythicals being allowed into Galar, but Crown Tundra still gave me plenty of toys with which to amuse myself. My (well, Coeur's) faithful rando bot EVELYN gorged herself on new additions but was well overdue for an overhaul, namely the setter roll, as well as making the more overpowered stuff more difficult to use. After thinking about it some, I figured sequestering them into their own, perhaps not aptly named category "Heavies" (like Mega Evos previously) was the way to go; however, unlike Megas, I also rolled for the opportunity to be allowed to use them. 2/5 odds seemed like a good place to start, and I was pleased to find that in 40 teams exactly 16 rolls allowed a Heavy to be used, which is 2/5s on the dot. Good girl, EVELYN.
If you're curious, I named the category Heavies instead of the bland "Myth/Legends" after Final Fantasy V's enemy class type. In FFV, an enemy with the Heavy subtype was immune to a number of control effects and instant death; while the OP legendary and mythical pokes aren't immune to those things under normal circumstances, they're still much too difficult for the AI to remove from the field before they can destroy most teams, so I liked the way it sounded.
Obtaining 0 or acceptably low speeds for the several new legends in CT was predictably troublesome. Calyrex took 89 resets, a fraction of what I'd spent last gen, compensating for that low amount by being merciless on the shitty rate of Premier Balls. I also wasn't able to Synchronize them. To speed check, I followed SadisticMystic's suggestion of using an Unnerve poke; if faster, it would proc before As One. I settled for one point higher than a neutral speed at 0IV to increase my odds of finding it, though I still caught four negative-natured duds before landing on the precious zero. Well worth it.
While EVELYN didn't roll each of the new toys at least once, there were more than enough to keep most rolls fresh. I also frequently ran two teams off the same roll, simply because I wanted to use them sooner than later. It ended up being a lot more fun, though I still feel a bit of burnout after all this. I can't take a long hiatus until I've had the chance to try Articuno...
Unlike the previous couple rando dumps I lost several times throughout and I don't think any of these streaks come close to surpassing my personal best.
Melmetal allowed. This squad was nearly destroyed by a Lapras2/Dragapult1/Goodra1/Mamoswine1, that last set being one of the reasons I pulled through. Goodra also attempted a Counter from below full health, which allowed me to defeat it without suffering additional punishment.
Sudowoodo was alright, but without Gravity needed a Wide Lens. Compared to the other Head Smash users on my roster it's by far the weakest.
Melmetal denied. I'd forgotten that Diamond Storm is a two-stage boost! I didn't have time to forget that Fairy types were a thing, because this team ran into a ton of them, as well as annoying 252/252+ SpD spreads, which really cut into my efforts for Dragon Energy floor wipes. My first clean Regidrago sweep came to a mono-ice team, of all things. If nothing else, Drago makes excellent Protect bait, and was even taking a lot of things I usually see aimed at the setters, like Entrainment and Trick.
Absolutely retarded. Yveltal went 10-0 and even OHKO'd Leon's Charizard, sweeping most opponents with only occasional assistance from After You. It's also one of my rare mixed sets, as LO Dark Aura Sucker Punch is too good to pass up. I couldn't resist running Yveltal the moment it was allowed, as it's my favorite 0 speed legendary.
I rolled Landorus for this team and really wanted to run it, but GF kept High Horsepower off its TR listing and I didn't have much that could eat those Earthquakes.
This run featured a lot of pleasurable outcomes off of events that normally would have been irritating. A Sableye attempted to Taunt Comfey in Rime's psyterrain, but it had rolled Prankster and was blocked; Raichu uses Discharge, not only killing its ally Gengar but having the move disabled by Curse Body; Libero Cinderace3 flinches Comfey with Iron Head and ultimately prevents TR being set, and would have made this a downhill battle had Slowbro not QCQD'd 4 consecutive times and simply swept uninhibited. Later, Slowbro would determinedly try to snipe a Wishiwashi with QCQD procs and miss each time because of fucking Brightpowder. The one greatly displeasing outcome from this run was Leon's Rhyperior3 eating a HH boosted Grass Knot. Without Solid Rock, the Rindo wouldn't have prevented the OHKO.
Xerneas allowed. It seems to me that Polteageist AI likes to use Teatime as long as someone on the field holds a berry, regardless of the berry having an applicable effect; Dracozolt killed its partner T1 and Oranguru2 replaced it; Polteageist used Teatime once more, which looked very odd until realising exactly what happened. This also means that Polteageist has been yeeting the Sitrus Berries I gave to most of my setters! Gah!
This was mostly an easy run, with Room Service Dracozolt having no problem netting OHKOs without the Life Orb usually equipped (given to Coeurchin, as its unboosted damage is often disappointing.) Leon still managed to provide substantial difficulty with Inteleon4/Rhyperior3/Rime3, and I was compelled to dmax for the first time.
White Kyurem denied. But who cares? Genesect appeared!
The theory that AI chooses moves for its dmax-capable pokes without considering what the move will become as dmax is pretty sound. Eva's Ribombee8 opened with QC Max Guard, and all of the instances I've fought it in recent memory, it's opened with Speed Swap.
Encore!
I had initially thought an Espeon1 Skill Swapped its Magic Bounce with Hatterene, displaying no message because they both kept their original abilties, but SM pointed out the absence of an ability prompt means it swapped with its partner instead.
Genesect is one of the more potent and especially moldable flunkies, being able to use a bunch of different moves to good effect, but I don't believe it's by any means broken. On this particular team, it was running Iron Head/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Ice Beam. Iron Head is the least likely to change as at +1 it was ripping most things to shreds.
Diamond Storm is infuriating when it's inconsistent. During one battle it was used three consecutive times without a single boost. Leon had a backline Aegislash3; despite not leading, it was still a major pain in the ass. The only upside is that it can't use King's Shield and Guru has no trouble using Foul Play on it.
Xerneas denied. Power Herb Omastar is fun and quite strong. It spent most battles spewing out souped up Scalds, but there was enough trash left for my backline to get some action as well.
Extra!
Moltres was not caught at the time of the mass EVELYN rolling, but I had gotten and trained it that day, and was pretty eager to take it for a spin! Eisen had mentioned a streamer using Weakness Policy Moltres with a Comfey, to not only trip the boost with a weak priority move, but supply Floral Healing for repeated Berserk triggers. It sounded like a lot of fun in randos, even without the speed halving, so I was eager to try it.
I have yet to settle on a spread for it. With Relaxed and full bulk it was incredibly chunky, but needed to be +5/6 to sweep more often than not, and getting there on T1 was not always easy, let alone consistent. But then full bulk did allow for some stupid survivals with crits, and because of Triage it really didn't matter if Moltres couldn't OHKO most things. Fiery Wrath didn't flinch very often, but that rarely mattered, also. Nasty Plot/Fiery Wrath/Air Slash/Protect is the set, though Foul Play was also used for a brief time as HH allowed it some quick OHKOs without boosts.
Stunfisk and Escavalier were hand-picked as backup, and I ran at least 40 battles with this team before moving back to the legitimate rolls.
Necrozma denied and Regice passed over. P2 and Champ solo'd nearly every battle, though with Machamp going Gmax that was to be expected.
Yveltal was allowed and almost taken. This team lost battle 7 to a rain team, as Pelipper2/Inteleon4 doubled into Hatterene. My backline couldn't inflict enough damage in time, and Inteleon4 holding a Sash didn't help in the least. I let these guys finish their run.
Revenge!
leon fucking asked for it
Extra! 
While doing some evening cardio I was thinking about Zygarde, as I had learned earlier that Swsh allowed you to freely switch between Aura Break and Power Construct, which made my uncaught Zygarde in X potentially worth something. Unlike SUMO it was not restricted to a regular Poke Ball and could be caught in my preferred Dusk. What's more, the Zygarde Cube in SUMO would even allow any Zygarde to be taught Extremespeed, the one move not imported to its natural movepool in gen8.
Why Zygarde? Because like Moltres, it could be EV'd to be stupidly bulky, had an excellent spread move, and was easy fodder for Comfey's Draining Kiss. Unlike Moltres, I pumped its Atk full of EVs and intended to let most of its HP come from the sickening Power Construct boost. Unsurprisingly, it excelled for the few runs I tried it, in no small part because Thousand Arrows is an idiotic spammy move and Zygarde almost never needed to click anything else. The frequent T1 Coil, or a stray Espeed or Outrage here and there, but otherwise it was all arrows all the time. Like Moltres, life clung to Zygarde like a disease, though perhaps it didn't rely on Floral Healing as much.
Oh, did I mention my absurd luck in catching this thing with 0 speed without even checking it as the battle started? I couldn't believe it!
Ho-oh denied, and this was a tough roll all around. It included Weezing, Roserade and Rhyperior, to overlap weaknesses all over the place. I would eventually begin running semi-mono teams for the fun of it, but in the meantime I was more interested in some semblance of balance.
Neither of Slowking's signatures appealed to me. I was far more likely to kill my own WP or Hammer Arm drops with Curious Medicine than a stray Intimidate, so Regen was the only choice. Eerie Spell looked like a cool move until I noticed it was 80BP with 5PP, which seemed hardly justified for randos, where 3PP loss was not going to do much. While this did kind of make it bring nothing to the table I wasn't already getting with Slowbro, GF did decide to give Slowking 110 SpA, so at least it was hitting a fair bit harder. I decided to make an offensive setter out of him, and ended up enjoying it, as the Sitrus Berry was consumed fairly often and Belch packed quite a wallop.
As for the run, this team was nearly ripped apart by a Dracozolt4 and won because of Cress coming in clutch with Ally Switch. These guys also had a rough start against lead Weavile4 and Impostor Ditto.
White Kyurem denied. This was a mostly merciless sweep by the frontline, though two separate battles were handled largely by Metagross and Torkoal. I hated Mimikyu as a setter last gen but it's really been earning its keep as of late.
During the Leon battle, Dragapult burned Mimikyu with Scald on the Disguise break, and Aegislash would Shadow Ball it to 1HP. ...but TR went up, and that's all that mattered!
Magearna denied. This team faced Escavalier1/Aegislash4 leads, which is very scary looking when you don't yet know the sets. I attempted to Foul Play the snail while Mindstorming it before realising that it was quite harmless. Later, Dusknoir would lead with Pincurchin and match my TR as I damaged the urchin with Psychic; I figured the AI would try that again, and it did, so I happily obliged Lele with Instruct to finish the urchin off.
Yveltal denied. I expected nothing of Mesprit and was very pleasantly surprised, particularly with its help in killing everything. It used Helping Hand as a fourth move, but I wouldn't have minded running a third attack. TR was still prevented once by a Dracovish4, and Haxorus/Frosmoth had to sweep without it. Unlike the past few teams, everyone on this squad got their fair share of screen time.
Melmetal allowed. A ballsy move in not running Protect on Aurorus, instead trying to plan around fighting attacks going into Marowak (in hindsight I could have forsaken Mush's Psychic for Ally Switch.) Things ended up working out as hoped, and Aurorus was quite the destructive force if not immediately threatened. I love Meteor Beam. If I were to put Protect back on the set, I have no idea which move I'd reluctantly part with.
Celesteela was every bit as hard to kill as in tree, and a wrecking ball once she got those metal bamboo arms moving.
Yveltal denied. This might've been the first time Drednaw was run on a team that successfully completed its venture without losing to Leon or someone else. Fini missed only a single Swagger out of every attempt, a nice surprise. This allowed Mimi to get to killing as soon as TR was up.
Yveltal denied. Ferro was attacked relentlessly by the AI, but at +3/3, which made them take tons of chip damage. It was also allowed to freely set up in the face of a Mamoswine1/Gourgeist1. Ally Switch was used cleverly to anticipate a Ditto attempting to transform into an abuser and instead force it to turn into Cress, which without that base HP was felled very quickly to Weather Ball.
Leon would lead Cinderace1 and lock into Fire Pledge because of Ferro, then refuse to switch after Politoed ate the pledge and began to leisurely nuke the rest of his team. At one point Cress would AS herself into Rime's Freeze Dry and be frozen, only to immediately eat another Fire Pledge and be thawed. Thanks Ace!
Ho-oh denied. I unfairly put Gourgeist back into Home not long after importing it, originally because I had the other Grass/Ghost types which were more appealing. But Gourgeist has made a terrific setter and Ally Switch user, and with Power Whip and Poltergeist added to its moveset, it can inflict a nice sum of damage. Supersized has great bulk.
With Coalossal by its side, the backline saw no use.
Kyurem Denied. In my haste to swat a Vikavolt, I neglected to note that the trainer using it could dmax, which it did.
I also suffered a loss to Leon with this team. I couldn't predict Aegislash1's KS usage worth a damn, which wasted what little time I had left after making the necessary KOs to Zard and Rhyperior3. Bad time to be running three physical abusers.
NEVER CROSS ME AGAIN LEON
Leon would bring Aegislash1 again but be swept by Metagross of all things, who took Zard down in a glorious Explosion.
While doing some evening cardio I was thinking about Zygarde, as I had learned earlier that Swsh allowed you to freely switch between Aura Break and Power Construct, which made my uncaught Zygarde in X potentially worth something. Unlike SUMO it was not restricted to a regular Poke Ball and could be caught in my preferred Dusk. What's more, the Zygarde Cube in SUMO would even allow any Zygarde to be taught Extremespeed, the one move not imported to its natural movepool in gen8.
Why Zygarde? Because like Moltres, it could be EV'd to be stupidly bulky, had an excellent spread move, and was easy fodder for Comfey's Draining Kiss. Unlike Moltres, I pumped its Atk full of EVs and intended to let most of its HP come from the sickening Power Construct boost. Unsurprisingly, it excelled for the few runs I tried it, in no small part because Thousand Arrows is an idiotic spammy move and Zygarde almost never needed to click anything else. The frequent T1 Coil, or a stray Espeed or Outrage here and there, but otherwise it was all arrows all the time. Like Moltres, life clung to Zygarde like a disease, though perhaps it didn't rely on Floral Healing as much.
Oh, did I mention my absurd luck in catching this thing with 0 speed without even checking it as the battle started? I couldn't believe it!
Ho-oh denied, and this was a tough roll all around. It included Weezing, Roserade and Rhyperior, to overlap weaknesses all over the place. I would eventually begin running semi-mono teams for the fun of it, but in the meantime I was more interested in some semblance of balance.
Neither of Slowking's signatures appealed to me. I was far more likely to kill my own WP or Hammer Arm drops with Curious Medicine than a stray Intimidate, so Regen was the only choice. Eerie Spell looked like a cool move until I noticed it was 80BP with 5PP, which seemed hardly justified for randos, where 3PP loss was not going to do much. While this did kind of make it bring nothing to the table I wasn't already getting with Slowbro, GF did decide to give Slowking 110 SpA, so at least it was hitting a fair bit harder. I decided to make an offensive setter out of him, and ended up enjoying it, as the Sitrus Berry was consumed fairly often and Belch packed quite a wallop.
As for the run, this team was nearly ripped apart by a Dracozolt4 and won because of Cress coming in clutch with Ally Switch. These guys also had a rough start against lead Weavile4 and Impostor Ditto.
White Kyurem denied. This was a mostly merciless sweep by the frontline, though two separate battles were handled largely by Metagross and Torkoal. I hated Mimikyu as a setter last gen but it's really been earning its keep as of late.
During the Leon battle, Dragapult burned Mimikyu with Scald on the Disguise break, and Aegislash would Shadow Ball it to 1HP. ...but TR went up, and that's all that mattered!
Magearna denied. This team faced Escavalier1/Aegislash4 leads, which is very scary looking when you don't yet know the sets. I attempted to Foul Play the snail while Mindstorming it before realising that it was quite harmless. Later, Dusknoir would lead with Pincurchin and match my TR as I damaged the urchin with Psychic; I figured the AI would try that again, and it did, so I happily obliged Lele with Instruct to finish the urchin off.
Yveltal denied. I expected nothing of Mesprit and was very pleasantly surprised, particularly with its help in killing everything. It used Helping Hand as a fourth move, but I wouldn't have minded running a third attack. TR was still prevented once by a Dracovish4, and Haxorus/Frosmoth had to sweep without it. Unlike the past few teams, everyone on this squad got their fair share of screen time.
Melmetal allowed. A ballsy move in not running Protect on Aurorus, instead trying to plan around fighting attacks going into Marowak (in hindsight I could have forsaken Mush's Psychic for Ally Switch.) Things ended up working out as hoped, and Aurorus was quite the destructive force if not immediately threatened. I love Meteor Beam. If I were to put Protect back on the set, I have no idea which move I'd reluctantly part with.
Celesteela was every bit as hard to kill as in tree, and a wrecking ball once she got those metal bamboo arms moving.
Yveltal denied. This might've been the first time Drednaw was run on a team that successfully completed its venture without losing to Leon or someone else. Fini missed only a single Swagger out of every attempt, a nice surprise. This allowed Mimi to get to killing as soon as TR was up.
Yveltal denied. Ferro was attacked relentlessly by the AI, but at +3/3, which made them take tons of chip damage. It was also allowed to freely set up in the face of a Mamoswine1/Gourgeist1. Ally Switch was used cleverly to anticipate a Ditto attempting to transform into an abuser and instead force it to turn into Cress, which without that base HP was felled very quickly to Weather Ball.
Leon would lead Cinderace1 and lock into Fire Pledge because of Ferro, then refuse to switch after Politoed ate the pledge and began to leisurely nuke the rest of his team. At one point Cress would AS herself into Rime's Freeze Dry and be frozen, only to immediately eat another Fire Pledge and be thawed. Thanks Ace!
Ho-oh denied. I unfairly put Gourgeist back into Home not long after importing it, originally because I had the other Grass/Ghost types which were more appealing. But Gourgeist has made a terrific setter and Ally Switch user, and with Power Whip and Poltergeist added to its moveset, it can inflict a nice sum of damage. Supersized has great bulk.
With Coalossal by its side, the backline saw no use.
Kyurem Denied. In my haste to swat a Vikavolt, I neglected to note that the trainer using it could dmax, which it did.
I also suffered a loss to Leon with this team. I couldn't predict Aegislash1's KS usage worth a damn, which wasted what little time I had left after making the necessary KOs to Zard and Rhyperior3. Bad time to be running three physical abusers.
NEVER CROSS ME AGAIN LEON
Leon would bring Aegislash1 again but be swept by Metagross of all things, who took Zard down in a glorious Explosion.
Kyurem denied. A lead Water Absorb Quagsire4 and Avalugg2 would create some slight problems, more than Leon's Inteleon2 Baton Passing +2 evasion to Zard.
Encore!
Dracovish did too much of the killing last run, and I was dissatisfied with the amount of screen time given to newcomer Victini. Gourgeist's Frisk was a godsend in determining which between it and Victini should set TR. Plenty of rampaging with V-Create was had, including a Shiinotic/Escavalier combo and a couple of Dittos.
Xerneas denied. Because of the Sitrus Berry being on so many things including the Slowking I initially ran alongside Cress, she instead has been holding a Mental Herb and I haven't been missing the healing. No amount of health would've mattered the one time Cress fainted, to Sheer Cold (what else?) ... (yes yes horn drill and guillotine i get it)
Leon's Seismitoad2 and Rhyperior34 posed a challenge for building momentum, but Guzzlord was nonetheless able to sweep.
Encore!
I also rolled Regidrago and wanted to give it a second try, this time with helpings of hands and AS.
While it did have considerably more floor wipings this time, I was still running into "too many" fairies for my liking and encountered no Shedinjas I would've needed to Crunch. Running some quick calcs after the fact, HH Explosion without investment does severely damage or outright kill some Fairy types, but it's not enough to just make me delete Dragon Pulse or Protect, which are crucial. Crunch is just there, but without it the team would've been in checkmate the moment a Shedinja appeared, barring some stupid miracle like Sandstorm active from its partner and it being a set other than Safety Goggles.
Melmetal allowed. Backline Vikavolts typically carry Assault Vest for eating grass/elec better for leads like Arctovish, but dumb luck with enemy assortment just as often renders that moot.
Xerneas denied. Because this was a backline Coalossal, I used my physical Flash Fire variant and it ended up being quite useful in that regard. I still had a rough battle with Ultan's Copperajah4.
Merciless slaughter. Occasionally I think I'd like having Druddigon use Gunk Shot again, but can't bring myself to delete Crunch/Fire Punch/Rock Slide for it, so away it continues to stay.
White Kyurem allowed. The last time I'd tried WP Gigalith it was a disaster, with burns all over the place; B1T1 featured a Flareon do exactly that with Will-O-Wisp and I'd feared it was a sign of things to come. Fortunately, that was not the case and afterward things went as they ideally would on paper. The team had a nice smooth sailing overall.
Xerneas denied. This team had an extremely close battle 4, during which Icicle Crash missed Mudsdale and resulted in a OHKO; Darma enters, OHKOs Mudsdale and meets Sudowoodo; the Dugtrio that led protected, and because I hadn't doubled into Sudowoodo, I lose Darma to it. I pick the two of them off and am met with Steelix. As a Hail Mary I dmax and opt to HH Hailstorm, and not only is Steelix not Sturdy, it attempted to Heavy Slam and failed.
TR was prevented during battle 7 by a Shiftry/Bisharp pair; as for Leon, he'd bring Rime3/Aegislash1/Rillaboom1 and Darmanitan was able to easily dispose of them. HH Flare in Sun was used to OHKO Aegis in shield form.
Encore!
Fuck Arctovish4. All the fossil4s are nasty, but I routinely get QC spammed by this one the most. I fought them multiple times, and in addition to consecutive procs I repeatedly lost this roll: 252+ Atk Buzzwole Hammer Arm vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Arctovish: 158-188 (96.9 - 115.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO ...infuriating.
Leer from Mold Breaker Haxorus plus High Horsepower would prevent TR and force Dragapult to sweep Leon, which it managed to do fairly easily. This was the special attacking Life Orb user, Modest with 252 speed. Part of any nutritious TR lineup!
Leon would lead Rillaboom1 and open with Snarl, and that one debuff was enough to prevent Magearna from making a clean sweep.
Xerneas allowed. Harvey with Rillaboom3/Flareon2/Cherrim3/Umbreon3 came to a 1v1, and a dual Rock Slide miss in the beginning did not help.
Yveltal allowed. Like the Ice team, these guys actually managed a pretty easy run overall. As disappointed as I am with the sparse TR distribution to a lot of my new toys, I can at least rejoice that Tyrantrum received a lot of love, between High Horsepower and Close Combat.
Encore!
Mush would flinch from a Thievul Dark Pulse as Azumarill switched into Escavalier, learning the Dracozolt was set3 (Thunderbolt); knowing a Flamethrower is incoming, I switch back to Azumarill and eat a burn from that very attack, but not before Thievul Parting Shots Azumarill to add insult to injury. FML
Necrozma denied. Diggersby loved Swagger boosts in terrain and because of them was often able to click High Horsepower in defiance of the type chart.
Magearna allowed. I've used Chandelure in TR quite a lot, and this set has not changed in several years, yet I'm still occasionally surprised by its damage. 145 and all that but I usually expect 90BP spread moves to suck without any boosts. I enjoyed eating a number of special hits with AV Tyranitar. I did not enjoy playing around Oranguru's Instruct being one point faster than it.
Melmetal allowed. Krookodile with Lash Out appreciated Bulldoze from Dusclops a lot more than Metagross, since it could incur speed drops for Lash Out and easy Moxie boosts; Bulldoze tripped Metagross' WP, sure, but Clear Body prevented speed cuts. The floor effect was able to let a Vaporeon undercut Metagross and later finish it off before it could detonate.
Magearna denied. B1T1, a Seaking freezes Clops with Blizzard, but thankfully the thawing comes immediately; Carracosta's WP tripped only twice, but there were plenty of Rock Slide flinches. Equally plenty were enemy Inteleon sets. Despite not dmaxing once, customary for a number of WP users, Carracosta continued its acceptable behavior of being a beast in TR.
Xerneas denied, and, just, damn. This feels very similar to the one awful randos team I ran in tree, that made me declare semi-dragon as a failed experiment I would never attempt again. Obviously, I learned nothing, but I can easily blame that on all the fun I had running the three other semi-monotyped teams earlier in these batches of rolls. Anyway, I think I fought a fairy at least once per battle, and while Kommo was able to outspeed and OHKO two of them (Weezing, Mawile) those faster than it resulted in bloody and forced sacking. I lucked out with a Cherrim setting sun for me in one battle, which let HH bring Flare to lethal levels for an Alcremie & friends. Battle 9, on the other hand, brought a Diggersby and Togekiss, who promptly murdered Kommo and set me up for an easy loss had Diggersby not left Drampa alone and gone for Clops, allowing it to finally destroy Togekiss and sweep from there.
I'd expected Leon to be easier, since he lacked any fairies, but he still put up a hell of a fight. I won thanks to Aegislash1 Sword Dancing on its final turn instead of attempting a KO, and Rillaboom4 targeting the healthy (and dmaxed) Drampa with Superpower and not Hydreigon. This left both of mine alive enough to deliver OHKOs.
Magearna denied. Leon's Rime4 froze Musharna with Blizzard and on top of never thawing, Arctozolt couldn't withstand much abuse from Rime afterward, and my Ice weaks sure as hell were not going to accomplish anything without Mush. I was feeling the effects of so much playing by this point and couldn't really be mad. My coworker suggested we watch an hour of anime (Fire Force), so we did.
Yveltal denied. It's not a full rando dump without at least one FEARdemaru team!
Necrozma denied. Eight out of the ten battles, Silvally killed the frontline along with itself. One of those attempts not made involved a Jellicent and Seaking, made more annoying when I attempted to Thunderpunch the fish and learned it was Lightningrod.
Encore!:
The return of one of the most inexcusably bad sets I've ever created, completely left out of last gen for that very reason! Hone Claws Mence, with Dragon Rush, Iron Tail and Stone Edge. Intimidate, not Moxie, because I'm not just dumb, I figured HH was all it needed to KO anything so bulky to withstand any hits. But forget about that!
I loved Volcanion for both runs with it. It held an Assault Vest and was very bulky, compensating for its generally meh speed by hitting extremely hard. Both times it delivered the OHKO to Leozard with vanilla Steam Eruption. I lucked out versus some bulky ground types, as they preferred to target Musharna instead. I ran Solarbeam on it, though as a circumstantial move it predictably didn't see a ton of use. I loved the quad resist to ice and fire, and having an auto-thaw if I needed it. I absolutely look forward to using it more; more than the other mythicals, even.
Melmetal denied. Abomasnow made much better bait than I'd hoped, drawing every single Fake Out and Steel attack the enemy frontlines dared to launch! Most enemies weren't too bulky to withstand its average assault (pre-WP) as well.
Calyrex denied. I had a scary T1 miss against an Artist's Escavalier, but like the surprise Escavalier1s, this one was the equally trashy set2. Dracozolt missed a few times this particular battle, but thankfully landed everything else it used. I missed Room Service at times, but LO Hustle is just so frigging strong.
Encore!
Denial or not, I don't care, I want to use it!
I never doubted for an instant that Calyrex would be really dumb, and lo and behold. It never fainted once and, because of its typing, the AI launched plenty of attacks at it; 100/150/130 says "lol"
Even with the spread penalty, Glacial Lance inflicted retarded damage and netted multiple floor wipes, though I still used a few Horsepowers and some Zen Headbutts. I'm still struggling to choose between Heavy Slam and Seed Bomb for a fourth move. Both have their uses, but both also have the handicap of being mostly redundant the moment Calyrex hits +2, which is not particularly hard to do. Waters are common enough that Seed Bomb may be more useful for picking up T1 OHKOs if Lance is somehow not a good call.
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Naganadel also went through many moveset changes. I first thought Air Slash was a no-brainer, then realized I rarely ever needed it for a KO, and that unlike Salamence, Naganadel already outspeeds most key threats, so Airstream isn't as necessary. Thunderbolt didn't feel like a move I'd want on Naganadel, but it turns out to be the most used (and useful), perhaps because of the overabundance of Water types in RS. It's worth including if only for Gyarados, which as a lead, hard walls Salamence and can't easily be handled by any of the Dragon walls; a quick switch to Duraludon on the Icy Wind, and then a switch to Naganadel on the Taunt ensures a safe OHKO with Thunderbolt, and probably an ensuing sweep. At one point, I got rid of Sludge Wave to have 3 coverage moves, but Sludge Wave's main value (outside Ooze boosts) is being a stronger move outside Dmax, something that had a tendency to come into play into many calcs. Naganadel has access to Nasty Plot and potentially room for it on the set, I certainly gave it a lot of thought, but it just doesn't get any occasions to setup because of how frail it is along with its lack of recovery. Thankfully, it doesn't really need the setup thanks to Beast Boost. Almost all my runs before this one had Black Sludge over Wise Glasses, and this allowed Naganadel to act as a switch-in every once in a while (on stuff like Accelgor or Skarmory for example), but the difference in power is big (as a visit to the mass calculator confirms), and as soon as it became the lead after Salamence went down, it crumbled, missing out on many of the turn 1 OHKOs the Wise Glasses grant it. However, changing the item meant that I had to be extra careful to preserve Naganadel during the Salamence phase of a leg, but as a reward, it gave me a genuine shot at getting 15+ extra battles after Salamence was down (ultimately coming down to Duraludon's health and PP), which is more than Salamence could ever grant regardless of moveset choices. The EV spread is just so Naganadel gets a SpA Beast Boost.
The glue of the team, handles all Triple Axel users. While it can come in on a wide variety of Pokémon that Salamence doesn't enjoy facing, I found that because of its very low PP bank (16 PP on both Flash Cannon and Body Press), it was best to keep it for "must" situations. A lot of the time, I would let Salamence tank rather than safely switch to Duraludon (for example in front of lead Milotic, Max Quake allows Salamence to not even take half from Ice Beam and provides a 2HKO, even though Duraludon handles Milotic more safely). Whether or not it gets to see a lot of actions really depends on RNG and what RS decides to throw at you. On my second leg, it barely saw any action before Salamence's PP was basically all depleted, but in the 3rd leg, I had to use it so many times early on that it was already down 2/3rd of its PP by battle 100. Sometimes, on things like Sandaconda, it's worth Dmaxing it, and I absolutely loved how that gave it strong Body Presses after the fact without having to use any Iron Defenses, but generally, ID/BP are the moves it uses. The EV spread invests heavily in SpD since those EVs make a massive difference in the calcs, and I wanted it to be able to take on as wide a variety of things as possible, because once it gets in and sets up, it's unclear whether there will be an occasion to switch back in the sweepers or not. Thankfully, I found that if it ever finds itself finishing a battle injured, it's not that hard to find something it can heal itself on in the next few battles.
What an annoyance... it kind of forces a switch to Duraludon, otherwise it could stall out Salamence's entire Dynamax. Except it's very likely to Parting Shot on the switch, leaving Duraludon in a shaky spot. At one point, I faced a team of Obstagoon / Malamar / Emolga that kept Baton Passing into one another... that kind of stuff uses up sooo much PP, it's incredibly frustrating.
Salamence can't easy handle it, but trying to handle it with Duraludon could be incredibly costly because of Spite. Naganadel is the obvious answer, but when is it safe to switch it in without eating a Steel Beam?
This is a nightmare as a lead; it will most likely Shell Smash, and Salamence cannot OHKO it, so the best bet is to Airstream, after which... Salamence and Cloyster speed tie. Awkward! Better win that speed tie, or it's a loss. Thankfully, Max Wyrmwind is a blessed OHKO at +1, so as long as it's not the lead, all is good.
