First of all, I have to admit this challenge really changed my way of thinking about stats. While teambuilding, I frequently caught myself thinking “oh it an Attack stat of 60, that’s pretty good”, or “oh it actually has enough speed to get to 300 with Salac Berry”. Everything becomes relative. The stats are so bad and this challenge is extremely unfair and impossible AFAIK. Here’s some attempts I made before resorting to the strategy I found most likely to achieve some wins in the higher rounds. I won't discuss every teams' pros and cons, I think you perfectly know how they play out on average (i.e. how they lose quickly). Anyway, it might give other players some ideas to improve on as well.
First attempt: “powerhouses”
Even though there’s no real powerhouses in the tier, there’s still some Pokémon available that have above-average stats and might be able to overpower the opponent using a combination of coverage, enough staying power to use at least two moves, STAB and sometimes Explosion to get or keep the advantage. Examples are Swalot, Glalie, Wailord, Flareon, Whiscash and Sudowoodo. Volt Tackle/HP[ice]/Encore/Protect (or Twave) Pikachu is a good glass cannon in this tier, also hitting 300 Speed easily. Some ideas I tried were
Salac Glalie + (Rest/Selfdestruct SpD) Wailord + Mixed Whiscash
Quick Claw Overheat Torkoal + (SD + Fissure) Wailord + Pain Split Swalot
Glalie + Swalot + Salac/Flail Flareon
Salac Rain Dance + SD Wailord + Huntail + Pikachu
But these kind of lineups really don't cut it -- you'll lose one in three battles on average in my experience. You simply don't have the stats to match the opponent's, even though these kind of teams would be a lot better if you could win on a draw. Not to mention Quick Claw destroys streaks even more than usual, because almost everything gets OHKOed by them.
Second attempt: Fake Out + semi-invulnerable tricky stuff
There's some allright Pokémon to do this with, I already saw a Wailord / Haunter / Meowth team, but we all know these strategies are shaky at best. My personal lineups of these kind were as follows:
Light Ball Pikachu or Sunny Beam CASTFORM + Sunny Day Bellossom/Tangela + Nuzleaf (Encoring EQ's is nice)
Dunsparce + Sableye + Pikachu
Salac RD Wailord + Lombre + Huntail
Third attempt: Evasion- or parahax in combination with semi-invulnerability
In the Arena, one miss can spell doom for the opponent quickly, especially if you combine this with Protect and a semi-invulnerability move. I tried Pidgeot for a combination of speed and the best bulk available:
Yawn/Twave utility Dunsparce + Protect/MudSlap/Fly/HP[Fire] Pidgeot @ Leftovers + Pikachu
There's a lot of ways to try and optimize something like this, maybe someone else can do it more justice.
Fourth attempt: Slow subbing into Salac Endeavor while first opponent dies to Curse damage
This is the most original of the things I tried IMO:
Curse/Torment/Memento/Protect Duskull + Sub/Endeavor/Surf/(Seismic Toss or a filler that beats Blissey or Mud Shot for Speed cutting) Marshtomp + EndureLiechi Reversal Yanma or some other semi-dependable finisher/sweeper
The funny thing about this team is that Curse maximes Marshtomp's chances of getting into Salac range WITH A SUB UP because the first opponent falls to Curse. This way you can just spam Substitute while not having to worry about losing Marshtomp to the judge before you can sweep. With a decent matchup, Marshtomp then KOs the second Pokémon (outspeeds everything up to Gengar, which it 2HKOes with Surf using appropriate investment, after Salac) and greatly dents the third. Yanma is a good finisher because it will outspeed everything after Speed Boost, has a decently beefed Reversal after Liechi and doesn't miss with Aerial Ace. A good filler finisher is Silver Wind because it can give another Atk boost, which Yanma might need to KO the last Pokémon with Reversal if needed. Alternatively, you can opt for Signal Beam which is 25% stronger and might confuse.
Fifth attempt: Yawn + Belly Drum
First I used
Vigoroth + Charmeleon + Pikachu
Which had reasonable results, getting through a streak occasionally (whereas all other teams needed to be very lucky to do so). This is mainly because STAB Blaze Overheat is still pretty strong and OHKOs the likes of Gengar and Metagross easily. You're stuck against Rock-types though, especially against Aerodactyl because it outspeeds Pikachu (and whatnot in NU). Also, the impossibility of setting up against Lum Berry holders that outspeed and 2HKO Vigoroth is deadly (Starmie, Raikou, Espeon, Sceptile to an extent). So I eventually went with Dunsparce over Vigoroth, Poliwhirl over Charmeleon and a filler, arriving at my final team to submit for the challenge.
Battle Arena NU Challenge (Lv. 50) -- Final team
Dunsparce @ [No Item]
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 36 Def / 132 SpD / 84 Spe
Careful Nature (+SpD, -SpA)
- Yawn
- Thief
- Rock Smash
- Counter
You’d expect Dunsparce to run a hax set as usual (something like TWave, Headbutt, Rock Slide and Body Slam is quite appealing, but not very effective in the long run). On the other hand, it’s one of the bulkiest Yawn users out there (Swalot being bulkier but at the cost of terrible typing, and Sealeo is even worse). Torkoal comes to mind as well, but it can’t have the special bulk Dunsparce has.
If I can’t be 2HKOed, I use Thief first and Yawn second. Against opponents that are not OHKOed by Poliwhirl after Belly Drum, use Rock Smash: usually Dunsparce will live long enough to tell the tale against these opponents (e.g. bulky Grass-types and bulky Waters). Rock Smash may also be used to win a judgement if necessary, or against Shuckle for example. Note that Serene Grace guarantees the Defense drop. Counter is for Flygon and Claydol mainly; Poliwhirl can’t really touch it.
Dunsparce has the bulk to avoid being 2HKOed by high SpA Lum Berry Pokémon such as Starmie, Espeon and Raikou, something Vigoroth can’t accomplish. But it comes at a cost: the slow Dunsparce will get haxed by confusion or something eventually. It’s a hax magnet, which is what it stands for but sadly it’s the other way around here. It survives Heracross’ Brick Break as well with these EVs, and the Speed allows it to outspeed Machamp and friends (before getting obliterated by Cross Chop).
Avoid the tie at all costs; you want to lose the judgement if it comes to that because otherwise you send in Poliwhirl against a non-Yawned opponent.
Poliwhirl @ Salac Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Atk / 56 Def / 8 SpD / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Substitute
- Belly Drum
- Hidden Power [Rock] / Return
- Earthquake
It’s either Charmeleon or this; forget about stuff like Clefairy, Makuhita and Marill. One basestat higher Attack than Charmeleon doesn’t make the difference, although it probably helps with some rolls. It surprised me how hard 65 Base Attack hits after Belly Drum; this thing hits way more KO’s than I first expected, making it somewhat viable. The real reasons to choose Poliwrath is its higher Speed, Water Absorb being a godsend (the opponent can use Surf before they ‘know’ you have it, especially handy because bulky waters tend to survive a hit sometimes), and probably most importantly, access to Earthquake. HP[Rock] is perfect against Flying-types, Gengar and other bulky stuff like Regice, but Return lets it OHKO more Lati@s sets and bulky Grass-types for example. In my experience, HP[Rock] is the best because it better specifies the Pokémon that survive Poliwhirl’s assaults, making the choice for the third Pokémon a little more manageable.
Pikachu @ Light Ball
Ability: Static
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature (+SpA, -Atk)
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Tackle
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Teeter Dance
The definition of a glass cannon, Pikachu hits the hardest in all of NU without boosts, and it has a great Speed tier. Almost every move OHKOs it however, so this is added as a revenge killer and to maximize the chances of turning a losing fight into a winning one by sheer matchup luck.
It makes sense type-wise: the most dangerous opponents Poliwhirl struggles to OHKO are Breloom, Claydol, Latias and bulky waters, and Pikachu finishes off all of them. Not much to say here: 20 HP added to maybe survive an extra Volt Tackle recoil. Modest can be used over Timid to make it more likely that Claydol actually dies to Surf after eating a +6 HP[Rock] from Poliwrath, but then Pikachu gets KOed by all those 100 neutral Speeds, which is a bad trade IMO.
The filler Teeter Dance has the greatest probability of cheesing through an unkillable opponent such as Swampert or Registeel, but against those kind of Pokémon you kind of lose anyway. Your luck might be better against Blissey, for example.
As always, here is a sample streak! (will be a link to YT)
The results of this team vary (as I expect from all candidate NU teams), but from the 50 streaks I played I got to the second Greta battle 7 times (sounds bad but I think it’s a good representation of how terribly fast you lose against one bad matchup, QC or Brightpowder activation!). The highest streak was 62; lost against the last trainer of the ninth round. Opponent Latios survived HP[Rock] and then Quick Clawed Pikachu to its rightful place. I could have lost many times much earlier, but somehow cheesed through (even Teeter Dance hax a few times).
