One thing I thought of, which I think other people have mentioned too, is: isn't a Fake out -> Protect -> Dig/Fly/Dive combo a guaranteed win for at least one fight? I think Persian's probably the best user of it due to being fast enough to basically guarantee you Dig before they move. Of course, this only works for one fight though because of how Fake Out works, but you could even have multiple Pokemon with this same set. Has anybody done a serious streak with this strategy?
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Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records
- Thread starter Kommo-o
- Start date
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
I've definitely seen this mooted, with Sneasel iirc (perhaps search the thread for this, it was a while ago). None of the leading streaks seem to involve this though, which probably tells you how effective it is overall. It's gimmicky and not a guaranteed win (Quick Claw, faster opponents, slow bulky stuff that can KO you after you Dig, lead Ghosts all spring to mind as potential foilers). Definitely read up on the leading streaks to see what tactics prove most useful.
If they resist fake out or use a defensive move on your protect/ dig you can lose skill. Other difficulties exist. Some one needs to compile a list of what it actually beats.
Oh yeah I forgot that an ineffective Fake Out would hurt your score. If the only things it decisively beats are things that a) are slower b) don't resist normal c) have only direct attacks, then yeah I guess this strategy is way too fragile. I guess if you're REALLY confident in your prediction, and know they'll use a status move turn 2, you could use Taunt followed by Dig, but this is probably too situational.
BTW I finished breeding and EV'ing my new Blaziken yesterday. I'll post the stats and set once I get Gold in the Arena with it (considering replacing EQ with Dig to stall out a turn without losing too much coverage).
There we go! With my new Blaziken, I not only got the Gold symbol on the first try, I got all the way to 109 Wins (Level 50 Arena)!
New Blaziken:
Blaziken @ White Herb
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk/52 SAtk/204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Shoutouts to my fellow Fire-type starter enthusiast green_typhlosion for helping me with the set and stats here. The key points this set hits:
- 138 Speed outruns Adamant Heracross, who's a large threat to this team, and OHKO's with Overheat. Also outspeeds a variety of other threats, like all Metagross.
- Just enough Special Attack to guaranteed OHKO all Heracross, Steelix, Skarmory, and all but one Metagross, which is a range.
- Max Attack gives a chance to OHKO Regice, Snorlax, Lapras, Walrein, and Dewgong, and guaranteed OHKO Blissey with Choice Band.
I chose Hasty partly because it also makes an ideal Palace nature too. Overheat is the clear winner over Flamethrower because of the OHKO's it enables, and Blaziken can't afford to take another turn anyway. I went back and forth on this several times, but I took Sky Uppercut over Brick Break because of how many important ranges it makes favorable or guaranteed. Earthquake is slightly filler, but importantly lets Blaziken take out almost all other Fire types, like Arcanine and Entei. Rock Slide doesn't get used much, but OHKO's Moltres, Charizard, and I think Articuno. While I used Choice Band for Tower, it's too risky for Arena in case Blaziken has to reverse sweep. Thus I went with White Herb mostly to allow 2 uses of Overheat. It also has some other perks, like negating Intimidate and random drops from Icy Wind and Rock Tomb.
The Latios and Metagross sets I used were the same as my Tower run above, except I led with Metagross instead of Latios this time. The difference in Blaziken stats is enormous, particularly the extra speed, and let him clutch out a bunch of battles, including a reverse sweep after QC Rhydon KO'd Metagross and Latios. I was definitely lucky during this run and didn't run into big threats as often as I could have, but I also feel like I got a lot of help from the AI not really understanding Arena rules. For instance, more than once a Snorlax just spammed Curse against Latios, allowing me to win Mind and Body. This also applies to Double Team spammers. As long as I got the first hit, and ended with more HP, I still won the round even if i.e. Registeel had stacked up a dangerous number of boosts.
The loss was to Skarmory - Exeggutor - Quagsire. Skarmory is arguably Metagross' worst matchup, and unless I get a MM attack boost and/or crit on the first turn, I have to explode. Sure enough, I hit MM, he counters, putting me below half. I go ahead and explode the next turn, knocking Skarm out. Next is Exeggutor, who I know has Explosion from the trainer. I consider setting up Calm Mind, but Dragon Claw instead in case he Explodes. He uses Sludge Bomb and CRITS, which doesn't kill but puts Latios low (49 HP). I kill with Dragon claw on the next turn and he sends in Quagsire. Latios does over 50% damage to it with Psychic, but Quagsire knocks him out with Ice Beam. Quagsire gets a little Leftovers recovery, and now I'm forced to oneshot it with Sky Uppercut. It hits, but leaves ONE PIXEL of HP. He then OHKO's Blaziken with Earthquake.
I haven't done the math, but it's possible I could have won this if I Calm Minded either Turn 1 vs Exeggutor (maybe turns 2HKO into OHKO, think it's a range), or Turn 1 vs Quagsire (might let Latios survive Ice Beam). Either way it was extremely close, and I would have won without the Sludge Bomb crit.
Here's the team: https://pokepast.es/c558731ff469ed7a. I realized I forgot to include a paste of my tower team above, so I just added that there.
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I decided to bite the bullet and give Palace Gold another try, and, after several attempts, I barely got it, and lost on the very next battle! Thus it's a run of exactly 42 wins in level 50 Palace Singles, which I don't really think is worth making a formal streak.
This team has several exploitable weaknesses, since it lacks an electric and ground resistance, but I was able to barely get to Spenser, then got really lucky in the Gold fight itself. Starmie barely killed Arcanine, then Slaking led with Yawn (which got blocked by Lum), and Starmie 2HKO'd him thanks to a Surf crit and almost KO'd Suicune with Thunderbolt, leaving Blaziken to easily kill it.
For the loss (battle 43), I got swept by Rain Dance Gyarados, which killed Starmie with a QC Thunder, then killed Metagross before it could even move. This left Blaziken to 1v1 it. Rock Slide 2HKO's, and Blaziken did use it first turn, but got OHKO'd by EQ.
Here's the team, but honestly I wouldn't recommend it: https://pokepast.es/3810ed1434dcda4f
Only Pike, Pyramid, and Factory left now, and Blaziken has helped with all the Golds so far! I'm considering breeding a Blissey for Pike and Pyramid, but I'm gonna see how far I can get with the mons I've got first.
My Palace team:
Starmie @ Lum Berry
Hasty Nature
IV's: 30/11/31/31/31/30
EV's: 72 HP, 254 SAtk, 184 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
Latios wasn't a good fit for Palace since with Modest, he tends to spam Calm Mind (or a random move) until he dies. Thus I bred this Starmie just for this purpose, and gave it the set which seems to be the Palace standard. Honestly, it was a disappointment. It spammed Protect a lot, giving the opponent time to either set up or just kill it when Protect failed. Also its SAtk isn't high enough to consistently OHKO with BoltBeam. Still, it got the job done eventually, but it was sketchy.
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
Adamant is a mediocre nature for Palace, so I put a Choice Band on Metagross and settled for just relying on strong neutral hits. Removing Explosion was pretty obvious, and Shadow Ball is risky since it barely outdamages MM when supereffective, plus if he picks a random move he might get locked into it against Normal types. Choice Band MM is so strong it can OHKO a good number of neutral things, though, and was quite scary when he got the Atk boost.
Blaziken @ White Herb
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Since it's Hasty, Blaziken does decently well in the Palace. Like in other facilities, his job is to clean up with his good coverage. Ideally, I would have put Substitute in place of Rock Slide, but I'd have to replay LG in order to use the tutor again, so I stuck with the all-attacks set, and hoped I got lucky with the random move choices.
Starmie @ Lum Berry
Hasty Nature
IV's: 30/11/31/31/31/30
EV's: 72 HP, 254 SAtk, 184 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
Latios wasn't a good fit for Palace since with Modest, he tends to spam Calm Mind (or a random move) until he dies. Thus I bred this Starmie just for this purpose, and gave it the set which seems to be the Palace standard. Honestly, it was a disappointment. It spammed Protect a lot, giving the opponent time to either set up or just kill it when Protect failed. Also its SAtk isn't high enough to consistently OHKO with BoltBeam. Still, it got the job done eventually, but it was sketchy.
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
Adamant is a mediocre nature for Palace, so I put a Choice Band on Metagross and settled for just relying on strong neutral hits. Removing Explosion was pretty obvious, and Shadow Ball is risky since it barely outdamages MM when supereffective, plus if he picks a random move he might get locked into it against Normal types. Choice Band MM is so strong it can OHKO a good number of neutral things, though, and was quite scary when he got the Atk boost.
Blaziken @ White Herb
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Since it's Hasty, Blaziken does decently well in the Palace. Like in other facilities, his job is to clean up with his good coverage. Ideally, I would have put Substitute in place of Rock Slide, but I'd have to replay LG in order to use the tutor again, so I stuck with the all-attacks set, and hoped I got lucky with the random move choices.
This team has several exploitable weaknesses, since it lacks an electric and ground resistance, but I was able to barely get to Spenser, then got really lucky in the Gold fight itself. Starmie barely killed Arcanine, then Slaking led with Yawn (which got blocked by Lum), and Starmie 2HKO'd him thanks to a Surf crit and almost KO'd Suicune with Thunderbolt, leaving Blaziken to easily kill it.
For the loss (battle 43), I got swept by Rain Dance Gyarados, which killed Starmie with a QC Thunder, then killed Metagross before it could even move. This left Blaziken to 1v1 it. Rock Slide 2HKO's, and Blaziken did use it first turn, but got OHKO'd by EQ.
Here's the team, but honestly I wouldn't recommend it: https://pokepast.es/3810ed1434dcda4f
Only Pike, Pyramid, and Factory left now, and Blaziken has helped with all the Golds so far! I'm considering breeding a Blissey for Pike and Pyramid, but I'm gonna see how far I can get with the mons I've got first.
This is my favorite thread in the entire forum. I was born too late to really appreciate how ducking awesome this game really is. Actaeon you is my hero bro I love how ducking creative you are you must teach me your wisdom
After several frustrating failures at the Pyramid and Pike, I've decided to go ahead and breed a Blissey for this, and this time I'd like to shoot for perfect IV's. The fact that Aromatherapy is an egg move throws a wrench into this though. Originally, my plan was to breed a male Chansey with Aromatherapy, then breed it with a Bold Ditto with two perfect IV's (caught using Synchronizer + Sweet Scent RNG) to get a flawless Chansey with Aromatherapy. Then I remembered Chansey is female only, so that won't work. Also, the father, Roselia, can't be found in the wild in Emerald either, so I need to breed one (from one I caught in Sapphire) to get one with decent IV's.
Thus, I need two parents, Chansey and Roselia, both with enough perfect IV's to give me a flawless egg in a reasonable number of frames. Once I've got the parents, I know how to get the frame I want, but even that will take some time due to the 1/4 chance to get Bold+Natural Cure as well as Chansey's long hatch time.
Since several of you have presumably already gone through this exact process, what's the most efficient way to get these parents? Should I have a frame in mind before starting, such as 2391: 31/4/31/A/A/B, and breed the parents based on that, or just hatch a bunch until I get one with one or more perfects? At least with Roselia, the nature doesn't matter and it's much faster to hatch, so I can breed with a good Ditto to RNG good stats. For the mother though, it seems like the fastest way may be to just hatch a bunch of Chanseys in rapid succession and hope for one with a perfect IV (yes I am using Slugma for egg hatching). I'm still getting the hang of gen III RNG, so any advice is welcome. My apologies if this isn't the right place to ask about this.
There we go! With my new Blaziken, I not only got the Gold symbol on the first try, I got all the way to 109 Wins (Level 50 Arena)!
View attachment 407538
New Blaziken:
Blaziken @ White Herb
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk/52 SAtk/204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
Shoutouts to my fellow Fire-type starter enthusiast green_typhlosion for helping me with the set and stats here. The key points this set hits:
- 138 Speed outruns Adamant Heracross, who's a large threat to this team, and OHKO's with Overheat. Also outspeeds a variety of other threats, like all Metagross.
- Just enough Special Attack to guaranteed OHKO all Heracross, Steelix, Skarmory, and all but one Metagross, which is a range.
- Max Attack gives a chance to OHKO Regice, Snorlax, Lapras, Walrein, and Dewgong, and guaranteed OHKO Blissey.
- 252 Atk Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Regice: 139-164 (74.3 - 87.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 170 HP / 170 Def Snorlax: 158-186 (61.7 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Lapras: 164-194 (80 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Walrein: 153-180 (82.7 - 97.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
- 252 Atk Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 0 HP / 255+ Def Blissey: 244-288 (73.9 - 87.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Moving from the Blaziken calculations, I am curious as to why you decided to go for Modest Latios? How exactly you dealed with faster Pokemon such as Sceptile and Aerodactyl if Metagross died to an unfavorable matchup against another lead before? On a facility where switching is not a possibility, I find myself needing more speed as ever because the more opponents you outspeed, the better chances you get at having your next Pokemon be in a better position. Notice how on submenceisop's Arena team, Gengar leads to gain the Speed advantage on many opponents as possible and on a situation where it cannot 2HKO or OHKO what is in front of it, it can use Destiny Bond to ensure a kill. There are also other archetypes where wtset and Actaeon have used bulky leads (Regice and Snorlax) that are capable of tanking hits and cripple the opponent to ensure the set up for a faster team member (which Timid Latios achieves perfectly with its high speed tier).
What if Latios gets hit by a critical hit Ice Beam from faster Pokemon such as Starmie? What if Sceptile gets a Double Team boost and then decides to cheese your team via judgement (A missed attack will subtract judgement points on Accuracy). How exactly do you deal with Ludicolo 4 leads considering that your own Metagross lead has nothing to hit it with other than Explosion and risk allowing it to set up?
Oops sorry I described this poorly. I worked out these numbers for my Tower run, where I had Choice Band on Blaziken. As you can see, that turns these 70%-80% numbers into OHKO's. Yes, for Arena he couldn't OHKO these threats outright, but as all of these are slower than Latios, odds are they will have taken enough damage for Blaziken to finish them off. If I were to try to extend this streak, I agree I should probably opt for Brick Break for Arena. Also in this run, I got lucky multiple times with i.e. Blissey using 3 status moves and no direct attack, letting Latios win the judgment.
As for the Latios spread, it's just Werster's speedrun one, which seemed like a solid all-around performer for every facility. Timid may indeed be better for Arena, but I can't RNG another one without doing another playthrough. There's some risk of getting haxed by faster things, yes, but unlike Timid, Modest has a favorable chance to OHKO Aerodactyl, so that cancels out to an extent.
Ludicolo was indeed one of the things on my very short "Explode immediately" list, since Metagross can't touch it otherwise and it can beat Latios if it sets up rain or Double Team. Gyarados is another one, since if it Dragon Dances first turn it will outspeed then probably OHKO with EQ. For basically anything else though, even bad matchups like Swampert, I let Metagross get one hit in, just in case I got a lucky crit or MM attack boost, which could let me win the matchup without Exploding. Versus a lot of water types, it's fairly safe to fish for the crit, even if Metagross dies, as long as you put them into a range where Latios can kill with Thunderbolt.
To be clear, I'm in no way saying this team is optimal and there's far better choices than Blaziken for Arena (e.g. Gengar as you mentioned), and I'm legitimately surprised how far it got.
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I finally got the gold on both Pike (175 Rooms) and Pyramid (95 Floors), and managed to get through it without Blissey.
Now all that's left is the factory! (ugh)
For the Pike, I opted for Starmie over Latios, mostly because of Natural Cure. This made my Pike team identical to my Palace one, except for the items and a couple moveset differences.
Here's the paste: https://pokepast.es/a7ddf4804cf48107
Starmie @ Mystic Water
Hasty Nature
IV's: 30/11/31/31/31/30
EV's: 72 HP, 254 SAtk, 184 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
Standard SPIT Starmie. As others have noted, Natural Cure is a godsend here, letting Starmie drop statuses consistently. I used my Hasty Palace one simply because I didn't want to breed another, but Timid would obviously be superior, and Modest is probably the best pick. I had a hard time deciding on an item for Starmie. I didn't really want to use a hax item (Scope Lens/Brightpowder), so I opted for Mystic Water for better neutral hits, plus it gives Starmie a chance to OHKO Lucy's Steelix.
Blaziken @ Choice Band
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Facade
I gave Blaziken the Choice Band like in the Tower again, and it makes a solid revenge killer, as well as providing strong EQ's in double battles. The only move change I made was swapping Rock Slide (which is simply too weak in doubles) for Facade, which lets him capitalize on getting poisoned or paralyzed. It didn't get used much, but does a nice chunk to neutral targets when boosted.
Metagross @ Lum Berry
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Aerial Ace
I dropped Explosion for Pike, since it would only be usable in "Tough Trainer" battles, and is basically suicidal in double battles. Lum Berry lets Metagross shed statuses, and I could pretty consistently switch Starmie out for Metagross to heal both. Aerial Ace is a little niche, but by the end I was starting to really appreciate the perfect accuracy, as well as letting him beat my nemesis, Heracross, 1v1.
Here's the paste: https://pokepast.es/a7ddf4804cf48107
Starmie @ Mystic Water
Hasty Nature
IV's: 30/11/31/31/31/30
EV's: 72 HP, 254 SAtk, 184 Spd
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
Standard SPIT Starmie. As others have noted, Natural Cure is a godsend here, letting Starmie drop statuses consistently. I used my Hasty Palace one simply because I didn't want to breed another, but Timid would obviously be superior, and Modest is probably the best pick. I had a hard time deciding on an item for Starmie. I didn't really want to use a hax item (Scope Lens/Brightpowder), so I opted for Mystic Water for better neutral hits, plus it gives Starmie a chance to OHKO Lucy's Steelix.
Blaziken @ Choice Band
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Facade
I gave Blaziken the Choice Band like in the Tower again, and it makes a solid revenge killer, as well as providing strong EQ's in double battles. The only move change I made was swapping Rock Slide (which is simply too weak in doubles) for Facade, which lets him capitalize on getting poisoned or paralyzed. It didn't get used much, but does a nice chunk to neutral targets when boosted.
Metagross @ Lum Berry
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Aerial Ace
I dropped Explosion for Pike, since it would only be usable in "Tough Trainer" battles, and is basically suicidal in double battles. Lum Berry lets Metagross shed statuses, and I could pretty consistently switch Starmie out for Metagross to heal both. Aerial Ace is a little niche, but by the end I was starting to really appreciate the perfect accuracy, as well as letting him beat my nemesis, Heracross, 1v1.
Like most people, I consistently aimed for Nostalgia and Pokemon rooms to keep actual battles to a minimum. This made most of the run pretty boring, except for occasional hax. I got trolled and died to Gold Lucy one run: coming into it, Starmie and Blaziken were poisoned, and Metagross was frozen, but all were at basically full health. Before the fight she healed one pokemon and picked BLAZIKEN, which was not only not helpful, it was actually harmful since without boosted Facade, he gets walled by Gyarados. I switched from Starmie to Metagross against Seviper to heal both, expecting Giga Drain or Crunch, but he uses Swagger. I decided to stay in and try to sweep with the attack boost, but he hits himself in confusion twice and dies. Starmie OHKO's Seviper, then dies to Steelix because of Brightpowder. This leaves CB Blaziken to finish off Steelix and kill Gyarados, which simply isn't going to happen without the Facade boost.
My Gold run went very smoothly, with very few battles, and I got to Lucy completely healthy, allowing Starmie to sweep the entire team thanks to Steelix missing a Screech. The loss came after I lost two pokemon in a double battle with Golduck and Slowking, another nemesis of mine. Slowking's QC procced twice in a row, letting him KO both Blaziken and Metagross. This left a partially weakened Starmie to solo a Tough Trainer in the next room, and it was unable to 2HKO a Lapras that 2HKO'd it with Thunderbolt.
My Gold run went very smoothly, with very few battles, and I got to Lucy completely healthy, allowing Starmie to sweep the entire team thanks to Steelix missing a Screech. The loss came after I lost two pokemon in a double battle with Golduck and Slowking, another nemesis of mine. Slowking's QC procced twice in a row, letting him KO both Blaziken and Metagross. This left a partially weakened Starmie to solo a Tough Trainer in the next room, and it was unable to 2HKO a Lapras that 2HKO'd it with Thunderbolt.
The Pyramid is ideally suited for Choice Band AND allows duplicate items, so I made a point of getting Bands on both of my physical attackers during round 2 with Pickup. I went back to Latios for the greater power and defensive synergy, especially for double battles.
Here's the paste: https://pokepast.es/03a17e6c5ba048b2
Blaziken @ Choice Band
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
With a Choice Band, Blaziken can OHKO the large majority of the wild pokemon, and outruns almost all of them too. I went back to Rock Slide for coverage, giving more PP to kill fire and bug types with.
Latios @ Lum Berry/Twisted Spoon
Modest Nature
IV's: 31/31/22/25/26/28
EV's: 24 HP, 254 SAtk, 232 Spd
- Ice Beam
- Psychic/Roar
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
This is pretty much Choice Specs Latios without the Specs. Since there's only one opponent, except in the double battles, there's no point in Calm Mind here. Its coverage is excellent, and it OHKO's basically anything it hits supereffectively. I put a Twistedspoon on Latios in earlier rounds to help get neutral kills, then switched to Lum Berry later on for help in trainer battles. I used Roar exclusively for round 6, where I was paranoid about dying to wild Wobbuffet. Calm Mind or Toxic would have worked too, but Roar does it faster and for less PP. I always kept Latios in the first or second position for the synergy with Metagross and Blaziken's strong EQ's.
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Aerial Ace
It's the same Metagross set as above, just with Choice Band. Its power is truly impressive, and this set has good coverage too. Aerial Ace has a lot of PP and cleanly kills weak grass/bug/fighting types.
Linoone
Jolly Nature
IV's: 31/26/5/24/28/23
EV's: 100 HP, 96 Def, 60 SDef, 252 Spd
- Covet
- Protect
- Toxic
- Strength
I originally just put a level 3 Zigzagoon in the last slot for Pickup, but then I realized I might as well steal stuff from enemy trainers with Covet as well, so I bred and budget-EV trained this Linoone. My main target was Choice Band from e.g. Beldum, but you can also steal some things you can't even get normally in the Pyramid, like pinch berries and type boosters. Once I had two choice bands, though, I put Linoone away from the rest of the run. Toxic and protect are filler, but help a bit with scouting (seeing if it's a set that has an item you would want) and let Linoone beat Chansey if it absolutely has to, which actually did happen once after Blaziken got Haxed and died.
Here's the paste: https://pokepast.es/03a17e6c5ba048b2
Blaziken @ Choice Band
Hasty Nature
IV's: 31/30/28/29/25/31
EV's: 252 Atk, 52 SAtk, 204 Spd
- Overheat
- Sky Uppercut
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
With a Choice Band, Blaziken can OHKO the large majority of the wild pokemon, and outruns almost all of them too. I went back to Rock Slide for coverage, giving more PP to kill fire and bug types with.
Latios @ Lum Berry/Twisted Spoon
Modest Nature
IV's: 31/31/22/25/26/28
EV's: 24 HP, 254 SAtk, 232 Spd
- Ice Beam
- Psychic/Roar
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
This is pretty much Choice Specs Latios without the Specs. Since there's only one opponent, except in the double battles, there's no point in Calm Mind here. Its coverage is excellent, and it OHKO's basically anything it hits supereffectively. I put a Twistedspoon on Latios in earlier rounds to help get neutral kills, then switched to Lum Berry later on for help in trainer battles. I used Roar exclusively for round 6, where I was paranoid about dying to wild Wobbuffet. Calm Mind or Toxic would have worked too, but Roar does it faster and for less PP. I always kept Latios in the first or second position for the synergy with Metagross and Blaziken's strong EQ's.
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
IV's: 20/31/30/13/27/31
EV's: 44 HP, 254 Atk, 212 Spd
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Aerial Ace
It's the same Metagross set as above, just with Choice Band. Its power is truly impressive, and this set has good coverage too. Aerial Ace has a lot of PP and cleanly kills weak grass/bug/fighting types.
Linoone
Jolly Nature
IV's: 31/26/5/24/28/23
EV's: 100 HP, 96 Def, 60 SDef, 252 Spd
- Covet
- Protect
- Toxic
- Strength
I originally just put a level 3 Zigzagoon in the last slot for Pickup, but then I realized I might as well steal stuff from enemy trainers with Covet as well, so I bred and budget-EV trained this Linoone. My main target was Choice Band from e.g. Beldum, but you can also steal some things you can't even get normally in the Pyramid, like pinch berries and type boosters. Once I had two choice bands, though, I put Linoone away from the rest of the run. Toxic and protect are filler, but help a bit with scouting (seeing if it's a set that has an item you would want) and let Linoone beat Chansey if it absolutely has to, which actually did happen once after Blaziken got Haxed and died.
I brought Blaziken, Metagross, and Linoone for the first round and Blaziken, Latios, and Linoone for the second, then stuck with the A team for the rest of the run. During the first round, I was able to steal a Choice Band from a Beldum and a Twistedspoon from a Ralts, which I figured would be useful on Latios going forward. On floor 7 of round 2, I still needed another Band, so I started farming for it. Latios can OHKO everything on this floor, and is basically self sustaining as long as Linoone occasionally picks up ethers. It took quite a while (10% chance to Pickup, and 5% chance for that to be CB), but I finally got one and went to round 3.
Note: keep an eye out for an Trick-Choice Band opponents (Linoone/Furret/Kecleon/Alakazam). I didn't run into any during my gold run, but they definitely exist, and from what I've seen, they always use Trick on the first turn, so you can get another Band just by switching to something that doesn't already have one.
From here on, I kept the Bands on Metagross and Blaziken, letting them OHKO almost everything. I tried to avoid trainers for the most part on the way, and built up a good stockpile of items. The Brandon Gold fight was a breeze. Blaziken OHKO'd Articuno with Rock Slide, then I switched Metagross into Zapdos, who decided to spam Detect for some reason, giving me a chance to whittle it down. From here, Latios easily killed Zapdos and Moltres. I had a Max Revive and several regular ones ready in case anything went wrong too.
I gotta admit, I find the concept of the Pyramid interesting, but playing it got tedious for me very fast. I also don't care for the excessive emphasis it places on PP management. It also demands a higher level of concentration than other facilities, since losing track of where you are between battles can lead to a lot of backtracking. In other facilities, it's OK to zone out after a battle, but here that can lead to you re-exploring a bunch of floor you've already visited. Once I got the Gold, I started becoming progressively less diligent about avoiding trainers and item management. This caused me to slowly run out of items until round 14, where I used my last Revive. From here, I started losing pokemon to trainers in very predictable ways. Blaziken died to Focus Band Heracross, Latios got killed by QC Slowking Ice Beam (yep, same as my pike loss), and finally Metagross got walled by Reflect Suicune.
Note: keep an eye out for an Trick-Choice Band opponents (Linoone/Furret/Kecleon/Alakazam). I didn't run into any during my gold run, but they definitely exist, and from what I've seen, they always use Trick on the first turn, so you can get another Band just by switching to something that doesn't already have one.
From here on, I kept the Bands on Metagross and Blaziken, letting them OHKO almost everything. I tried to avoid trainers for the most part on the way, and built up a good stockpile of items. The Brandon Gold fight was a breeze. Blaziken OHKO'd Articuno with Rock Slide, then I switched Metagross into Zapdos, who decided to spam Detect for some reason, giving me a chance to whittle it down. From here, Latios easily killed Zapdos and Moltres. I had a Max Revive and several regular ones ready in case anything went wrong too.
I gotta admit, I find the concept of the Pyramid interesting, but playing it got tedious for me very fast. I also don't care for the excessive emphasis it places on PP management. It also demands a higher level of concentration than other facilities, since losing track of where you are between battles can lead to a lot of backtracking. In other facilities, it's OK to zone out after a battle, but here that can lead to you re-exploring a bunch of floor you've already visited. Once I got the Gold, I started becoming progressively less diligent about avoiding trainers and item management. This caused me to slowly run out of items until round 14, where I used my last Revive. From here, I started losing pokemon to trainers in very predictable ways. Blaziken died to Focus Band Heracross, Latios got killed by QC Slowking Ice Beam (yep, same as my pike loss), and finally Metagross got walled by Reflect Suicune.
Now all that's left is the factory! (ugh)
I wish it to be known that I have acquired the Battle Dome Gold symbol in my rom file with the dastardly team of Latios / Metagross / Feebas. All shall tremble beneath our fishy fury.
latios op
latios op
After taking 7 years to beat the open level Battle Factory (yes really, I intermittently played it from 2014-2021, took me 660 battle points so about 160 wins at the facility... so over 100 hours playtime) at the end of last year, I could finally start building my own team to do the other facilities. I started with a team of DD Tyranitar (my favourite Pokemon), mixed Salamence, and choice band Dugtrio (sand veil ability synergises with Tttar) . I insisted on getting hidden power rock on my Tyranitar because no way was I dealing with the accuracy on rock slide.
Since I refuse to RNG abuse my Pokemon, breeding for 3 perfect IV's can take a little while. However breeding for hidden power is.... absolutely horrible. To make matters worse, I didn't even properly read up on how hidden power type calculation works (was wondering why all my Larvitar's turned out with HP Ice or Dragon lol), but eventually managed to get my Tyranitar with like 20/27/30/31/18/31 IV's, with HP rock power 69. Good riddance.
Anyway the Battle Dome was my first point of call, because it's fun and everyone says its the easiest facility. WRONG. I do not have a lot of experience with the other facilities, granted, but there is one unequivocal reason why the Battle Dome sucks... The battles are 2v2. Put simply, this means that its so much easier to lose a battle due to bad rng. One quickclaw/focusband/ohko proccing can end your run, unlike in a 3v3 where it takes multiple instances of hax to take a good team down.
As you would expect by looking at my team, things did not start well. Bulky water types with ice beam are rampant in the frontier and they annihilate my poor team. I learned that Dugtrio in particular is useless due to its low attack and bad coverage. I decided I would swap Dugtrio out for whichever Pokemon is the strongest electric type in the game. In gen 3 that happens to be... Pikachu with a light ball. So I bred a Pikachu with volt tackle and HP Ice (shudder). Of course I should have recognized my folly, Pikachu is frail and has a bad movepool, just like Dugtrio. Pikachu's insanely strong STAB Volt Tackle took care of most water types in the game no problem (notable exceptions being Kingdra and Swampert) but its HP ice wasn't enough to take out bulky ground types, which also happen to be all over the frontier and often carry rock slide.
Anyway, long story short I bred a Starmie to replace Pikachu and it was great. Made it to Tucker gold and lost off Swampert lead. Made it again and killed Swampert lead, this realized with my choice locked Salamence I was screwed if Tucker sent out Latias. Thankfully it was Metagross and I won. But WHAT IS THIS DOUBLE QUICK CLAW PROC? I know people say the game's source code has no AI cheating, but its just too coincidental that such a 1% event would occur in my gold symbol match. (side note, I swear Rhydon quick claw always ALWAYS procs when I face it).
Anyway here is the battle for my Dome Gold symbol (after 225 runs lmao):
So I now have 2 symbols after 500 hours playtime. Embarrassing yes, but still I persist, and refuse to use Pokemon like Swampart or Latios. Debating which facility to try next. Pike and Pyramid are the only ones which I enjoy the prospect of, other 3 are really boring.
Since I refuse to RNG abuse my Pokemon, breeding for 3 perfect IV's can take a little while. However breeding for hidden power is.... absolutely horrible. To make matters worse, I didn't even properly read up on how hidden power type calculation works (was wondering why all my Larvitar's turned out with HP Ice or Dragon lol), but eventually managed to get my Tyranitar with like 20/27/30/31/18/31 IV's, with HP rock power 69. Good riddance.
Anyway the Battle Dome was my first point of call, because it's fun and everyone says its the easiest facility. WRONG. I do not have a lot of experience with the other facilities, granted, but there is one unequivocal reason why the Battle Dome sucks... The battles are 2v2. Put simply, this means that its so much easier to lose a battle due to bad rng. One quickclaw/focusband/ohko proccing can end your run, unlike in a 3v3 where it takes multiple instances of hax to take a good team down.
As you would expect by looking at my team, things did not start well. Bulky water types with ice beam are rampant in the frontier and they annihilate my poor team. I learned that Dugtrio in particular is useless due to its low attack and bad coverage. I decided I would swap Dugtrio out for whichever Pokemon is the strongest electric type in the game. In gen 3 that happens to be... Pikachu with a light ball. So I bred a Pikachu with volt tackle and HP Ice (shudder). Of course I should have recognized my folly, Pikachu is frail and has a bad movepool, just like Dugtrio. Pikachu's insanely strong STAB Volt Tackle took care of most water types in the game no problem (notable exceptions being Kingdra and Swampert) but its HP ice wasn't enough to take out bulky ground types, which also happen to be all over the frontier and often carry rock slide.
Anyway, long story short I bred a Starmie to replace Pikachu and it was great. Made it to Tucker gold and lost off Swampert lead. Made it again and killed Swampert lead, this realized with my choice locked Salamence I was screwed if Tucker sent out Latias. Thankfully it was Metagross and I won. But WHAT IS THIS DOUBLE QUICK CLAW PROC? I know people say the game's source code has no AI cheating, but its just too coincidental that such a 1% event would occur in my gold symbol match. (side note, I swear Rhydon quick claw always ALWAYS procs when I face it).
Anyway here is the battle for my Dome Gold symbol (after 225 runs lmao):
So I now have 2 symbols after 500 hours playtime. Embarrassing yes, but still I persist, and refuse to use Pokemon like Swampart or Latios. Debating which facility to try next. Pike and Pyramid are the only ones which I enjoy the prospect of, other 3 are really boring.
I guess I have a place on the leaderboard for some reason. I've been grinding out the battle factory (level 50) for the past few days to pass the time on the way to and from campus (since I have to sit through about a 45-minute bus ride both ways). I've been playing gen 3 a lot recently in general and since I knew a decent bit about the mechanics already I was able to easily identify the sets in rotation and figure out how the AI worked somewhat. I managed to get up to 28 wins. The team that I had my previous win had:
-Calm Mind Baton Pass Espeon
-Sunny Day Meganium
-Sharp Beak Drill Peck Dodrio
Then the first battle in my next set I got HAXed by a curse double team Umbreon with a team of Granbull, Blastoise, and Shiftry.
-Calm Mind Baton Pass Espeon
-Sunny Day Meganium
-Sharp Beak Drill Peck Dodrio
Then the first battle in my next set I got HAXed by a curse double team Umbreon with a team of Granbull, Blastoise, and Shiftry.
Attachments
This is a bit of a noob question, but how do we know you did not use savestates to achieve this?
Hello!
Firstly, imho the only way to be 100% sure someone has not save stated would be just if a player was able to livestream the whole run with a moderator always in attendance (and even in that case, probably there'd still be some way to cheat, honestly I don't know).
I had not this "continuous checked" streaming opportunity, but I did everything else I could in order to prove the validity of my streak.
Starting from the beginning, my team's concept and theorymoning process were all made on the Discord server, where every single EV/move choice/strategy against every single potential set or combination of sets were studied and explained.
The discussion while making this specific team was really interesting back in days, because the suggestions were directed into a more standard, bulky offense, while I pushed into this stallish/combo route that was not common in the old Emerald Tower meta.
Then, I've always provided replays, live streamed hundreds of matches on Discord, recorded hours of commented live matches and replays on YouTube and constantly updated my progress here.
During this process, I've always answered, often providing specific replays, to question about specific threats brought by other veterans.
I've also wrote an article (even if I don't like it at all), where I better describe the team and all of those processes especially for the new players, since I've already spammed to death everything written there to veterans.
To end this message: this is everything I could do to prove my streak validity, but I think that the main proof is in the recognition this team has had in the past months.
A lot of players have tried it with success and the people I respect the most on this forum have basically considered Tower Lvl.50 solved (!), just because of this team, heading their effort on other facilities.
This is honestly what makes me proud the most, and the best confirmation of a team strength.
(That said, if I had the chance to do such a monumental run in terms of effort nowadays, I'd definitely open a Twitch account and live stream everything, but lately I've barely free time to breath. I'd do so for fun and game sake btw, not to "add validity")
I had not this "continuous checked" streaming opportunity, but I did everything else I could in order to prove the validity of my streak.
Starting from the beginning, my team's concept and theorymoning process were all made on the Discord server, where every single EV/move choice/strategy against every single potential set or combination of sets were studied and explained.
The discussion while making this specific team was really interesting back in days, because the suggestions were directed into a more standard, bulky offense, while I pushed into this stallish/combo route that was not common in the old Emerald Tower meta.
Then, I've always provided replays, live streamed hundreds of matches on Discord, recorded hours of commented live matches and replays on YouTube and constantly updated my progress here.
During this process, I've always answered, often providing specific replays, to question about specific threats brought by other veterans.
I've also wrote an article (even if I don't like it at all), where I better describe the team and all of those processes especially for the new players, since I've already spammed to death everything written there to veterans.
To end this message: this is everything I could do to prove my streak validity, but I think that the main proof is in the recognition this team has had in the past months.
A lot of players have tried it with success and the people I respect the most on this forum have basically considered Tower Lvl.50 solved (!), just because of this team, heading their effort on other facilities.
This is honestly what makes me proud the most, and the best confirmation of a team strength.
(That said, if I had the chance to do such a monumental run in terms of effort nowadays, I'd definitely open a Twitch account and live stream everything, but lately I've barely free time to breath. I'd do so for fun and game sake btw, not to "add validity")
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I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the leaderboard requirements start at gold and above. But 28 wins is a great start! The final battle of round 4 (battle 28) is the last time your opponents will click random attacking moves and starting round 5 (battle 29) smart AI is in play. Smart AI acts more predictably, so if you look up the enemy sets for each enemy pokemon, you can be reasonably certain which move the enemy will click against your current pokemon.
Here is my spreadsheet which can help you be aware of what pokemon may be lurking on your opponents team or help you team build for the specific threats that current round. A teambuilding example could be you are in level 50 round 5 and you have a Crobat2 with toxic and giga drain as the only damge dealing moves; realizing a 1v1 situation vs a toxic immune pokemon would be disastrous, you may want to search steel and poison types of Round 5 to see if your other team members can handle those specific sets (and hopefully immunity snorlax and other rest users too).
https://1drv.ms/x/s!ApUbJTvfV1pWgxR1Rw5yIwluTbDg
(First open in excel so you can edit the spreadsheet. Then, filter the "set" or "color" column so you only see the pokemon that round, and if you see the opponent prefers a certain type, filter the "type" column. And in case you're not at a desktop, this works on the Microsoft Excel mobile app too.)
Sorry for the long winded response that you didn't ask for. Keep up the good fight, choose your moves/swaps very deliberately and treat every battle like it's your last!
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I feel your pain. I've been trying to get the gold in Factory for a couple weeks now too, and at this point I've put more time into it than all 6 other Golds combined. Originally I had heard that level 50 was the easier one to get a streak with, but recently I've switched to Open Level for two reasons:
a) In Open Level the mons actually have strong STABs from the start. This means that with a good matchup, a OHKO is very doable. In contrast, in Level 50, both the STABs and coverage moves are weak, meaning even with a supereffective STAB you may only get a 3HKO, leaving you time to get haxed. I've died multiple times to trash like Flash Parasect in early rounds as a result. The fact that most fights in Open Level are 1-2HKO's also means that the fights themselves tend to go faster.
b) To put it simply, I have very little knowledge of NU speed tiers and stats. With fully evolved, medium tier mons, I know what their general stats look like and can pretty reliably predict who will go first and how much damage things will do, but in the early rounds of level 50, I find myself asking questions like "Does Dustox outspeed Sealeo?" and having no idea. Yes I could look those up, but the time that takes adds up.
Is this a sound line of reasoning, or is Level 50 actually better for streaks? Anyway I'll go back to banging my head into the factory now.
All the battle frontier speedrunners do Lv 50 on the Battle Factory because its much safer and you don't run into stuff like OHKO moves until 2-3 rounds later.
Basically in the Lv 50 Factory, through the first 2-3 rounds you will the NFE/NU Pokemon (ie Group 1/2), and around round 4 you will start using and facing Pokemon from Group 3, using their early sets (no OHKO moves).
In Lv 50 your Pokemon trajectory goes from easy to medium to hard through 42 wins.
In Open level your Pokemon trajectory goes from medium to hard to HAX through 42 wins.
Gotta say, this hasn't really matched my experience. On Open Level I can consistently get through the first three rounds thanks to the bad AI and the strong moves you get. On Lvl 50, I find the first two rounds are harder than the next two, since you don't have the firepower to get KO's before the status/evasion/etc hax kick in.
That's not the point I'm making. When I say easy or medium or hard I am talking about the variety of sets you can face, with easy meaning low variety and therefore low uncertainty. The Pokemon in group 2 only have two possible sets, whereas the Pokemon in Group 3 have between four and nine.
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Battle_Frontier_Pokémon_(Generation_III)
The whole point of the factory is KNOWLEDGE. You have to be able to plan your team based on what kind of strats you know the enemy will use. The assistant in the facility specifically gives you hints before each battle to help you figure out what you will face next round. Between that hint and the limited number of sets used in the Lv 50 Factory you pretty much know the exact moveset and item of all your opponents Pokemon.
It is especially important to keep track of what sets your opponents use when you get the opportunity to trade Pokemon after the battle.
Apologies for the double post, but I just had a wild ride to get my Battle Pike gold symbol, and since you can't use the in game recorder in the pike, I recorded the run live, which ended up including a frantic damage calc and a family member walking into the room and asking me to help with an errand (hence the cut at about 5:30).
Truly a nailbiting finish with a lot of ups and downs, complete with my cringeworthy commentary!
Truly a nailbiting finish with a lot of ups and downs, complete with my cringeworthy commentary!
I have many ongoing streaks at various Battle Facilities. The reason is that whenever I battle in Battle Facilities, I usually stop playing after reaching my goal. The goal in question has usually been to get a Gold Symbol/Print, a Trophy/Stamp, to beat the Facility boss, or to win 50/100/200 battles in a row. This year, I am going back to several older games and complete most of my ongoing streaks. There will be some exceptions, such as Super Multi streaks on Gen 5-7 (because Super Multi is my least favorite facility format) and some others that I feel just aren’t worth it. But most of them will be completed.
The point of this is to have fun, not to get high streaks. If I should get any high streaks, those will just be a bonus. I have no ongoing streaks on Gen 2 or 8, but several on various games from Gen 3-7. I thought about in which order I should do them and eventually decided to do them in generational order, starting with the oldest and ending with the newest. First out is Gen 3 and Emerald.
I said this in my previous post in this thread, but I’ll say it here again. I have never learned to RNG in Emerald (or in Gen 3 at all) so my Pokémon do not have flawless IVs in all stats. Usually only in 1-3 stats, or sometimes none. Since I don’t know the exact IVs for all of their stats, I have listed the ones I do know, as well as their EVs and their actual stats.
I do not always look up opposing Pokemon sets when battling in Battle Facilities. For these first two streaks, I did not look up opposing Pokémon sets. I will probably look up opposing sets for some of the facilities I will do later on though.
Here are the results from the first two facilities I did on Emerald.
With this, I have completed my ongoing streaks on the first two facilities. So what’s next? On Emerald, I still have ongoing streaks at the Dome, Pyramid and Tower, so I will complete them as well. I have also decided to give the Battle Pike another try since I cancelled my original streak without seeing how far I could go there. And then there’s of course the Factory which I would love to finally beat and get the Gold Symbol from. I don’t know if I will be able to make it, but I will at least give it another try once I am done with the others. In addition to that, I have ongoing streaks at the Battle Towers in both Ruby and Sapphire, but I have no plans to go back and complete them. It doesn’t feel very motivating, and there are no leaderboards for the R/S Battle Tower here in the thread.
The point of this is to have fun, not to get high streaks. If I should get any high streaks, those will just be a bonus. I have no ongoing streaks on Gen 2 or 8, but several on various games from Gen 3-7. I thought about in which order I should do them and eventually decided to do them in generational order, starting with the oldest and ending with the newest. First out is Gen 3 and Emerald.
I said this in my previous post in this thread, but I’ll say it here again. I have never learned to RNG in Emerald (or in Gen 3 at all) so my Pokémon do not have flawless IVs in all stats. Usually only in 1-3 stats, or sometimes none. Since I don’t know the exact IVs for all of their stats, I have listed the ones I do know, as well as their EVs and their actual stats.
I do not always look up opposing Pokemon sets when battling in Battle Facilities. For these first two streaks, I did not look up opposing Pokémon sets. I will probably look up opposing sets for some of the facilities I will do later on though.
Here are the results from the first two facilities I did on Emerald.
Decided to start with the facility I care about the least, which is the Palace. Previously, I had stopped immediately after beating Gold Spenser, so I had an ongoing streak of 42 which I continued on now.
Format: Level 50, Single, retail cart
Team:
Salamence (M) @ Lum Berry ** Brutus
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 169/205/87/106/93/152
Nature: Adamant
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Starmie @ Petaya Berry ** Ralhix
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: Flawless HP / Sp.att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/80/90/167/102/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
IVs: Outstanding Defense
EVs: 254 HP / 144 Def / 68 Sp.att / 44 Sp.def
Level 50 stats: 177/58/150/114/212/59
Nature: Bold
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Rest
Streak: 43
Picture proof:
I decided to continue with the team I got the Gold Symbol with. I’m a bit unsure about why I went with these three in the past though. I think I picked Salamence and Starmie because I had had great success with them in many of the other facilities, and because both of them have moves from at least 2 categories. The reason I chose Regice was probably because it has moves from all three categories.
Salamence is a standard DD set. Aerial Ace for STAB, Earthquake and Rock Slide for coverage, Dragon Dance to set up. Lum Berry gives it a one-time immunity to status. For the EVs, I just maxed Attack and Speed, though there are probably better spreads. It has an Adamant Nature, which gives it the following rates at the Palace:
Above 50% HP:
38% chance to Attack
31% chance to Defend (use Dragon Dance)
31% chance to Support (do nothing)
Below 50% HP:
70% chance to Attack
15% chance to Defend (use Dragon Dance)
15% chance to Support (do nothing)
I think the 70% chance to Attack below 50% HP was one of the things that made me use Salamence, Adamant is also a good Nature for it in general.
As for Starmie, I went with a Recover set. Surf for STAB, BoltBeam for coverage. Natural Cure allows it to cure status by switching out. I gave it a Petaya Berry since I have no idea what the best item for Starmie in Gen 3 is, good options like Leftovers and Lum are usually taken by other team members (like on this team). It has maxed EVs for Sp.att and Speed, but like with Salamence, there might be better options. It has a Modest Nature, which gives the following:
Above 50% HP:
35% chance to Attack
45% chance to Defend (use Recover)
20% chance to Support (do nothing)
Below 50% HP:
34% chance to Attack
60% chance to Defend (use Recover to bring itself back to above 50% HP)
6% chance to Support (do nothing)
Modest isn’t super great for the Palace, but it is a great Nature for Starmie in general and it worked here too.
Lastly, there’s Regice. One of the few legendaries I have trained to use at level 50 in the Emerald Frontier. Mostly because it has a Bold Nature, which is solid for Regice in general (although not the best at the Palace). I caught it on one of my Hoenn games (Sapphire, I think) long before I learned about Natures, then I randomly found it one day while looking through my Gen 3 games for potentially useful Pokémon. I then traded it to Emerald and trained it for the Frontier. BoltBeam for attacking, TWave for support and Rest to heal. Clear Body is the only Ability it has and it can be good to prevent status drops. I remember that I asked on Serebiiforums for a suggested EV spread and got one from a member there. Since I had no better ideas myself, I went with it. A Bold nature gives the following:
Above 50% HP:
30% chance to Attack
20% chance to Defend (use Rest)
50% chance to Support (use Thunder Wave)
Below 50% HP:
32% chance to Attack
58% chance to Defend (use Rest and bring it back to above 50% HP)
10% chance to Support (use Thunder Wave)
Probably not the best Nature, but as said, Regice did at least have a move from each category which meant that it never “wasted” any turns.
My strategy at the Palace was to just select Attack and hope for good results, or switch out in case I was up against a bad matchup. There’s not really much else you can do.
How did my return to the Palace go? Not very well. I lost almost immediately, in battle #44. Lead Milotic, so I switch to Regice. An insane stall battle follows in which neither side manages to KO the other. I switch to Starmie after a while but the Milotic gets a lucky KO with Mirror Coat after Starmie hits it with Thunderbolt. Back to Regice. Both eventually gets down to Struggling, so I switch to Salamence. It Dances a few times and eventually KO’s the Milotic. Up next is a Starmie which Salamence beats. The last opposing Pokémon is a Flareon. It is somehow faster than Salamence, it must have been a Quick Claw set (I see that there’s even three of them now that I look at the list of Frontier sets!). Either way, it KO’s with Double-Edge. A Struggling Regice can’t do much and is KO’d by Overheat + Double-Edge. I didn’t save the loss battle since it was extremely long, it felt like it took a 100 turns. Just playing through it was painful, I have no desire to re-watch it (and nobody else should have to go through that either).
Overall, a very annoying loss but I don’t really care. I am never going back to Level 50 at the Battle Palace, that much is for sure.
Afterwards, I decided to continue on my Open Level streak as well, just for fun. I had an ongoing streak of 21 here, I had quit directly after beating Silver Spenser in the past. I put together a team of Heracross/Suicune/Raikou from my level 100 Pokémon on Emerald and started battling with them. It worked a bit better than expected, I got to 38 wins. I lost against a team which featured a Victreebel and a Raichu. But I don’t want that streak added to the leaderboards.
I should also mention that I once had a different team idea for the Palace in the past. It was to use a team where every member had at least one move from each category (attack, defend, support) which would mean that they would never “waste” any turns, and that their Natures wouldn’t matter that much (but in reality, they would) since they would at least do something every turn. Looking at the Pokémon I have trained on Emerald, I think I actually raised three which I had planned to use for such a team. But now that I look back on those three, I don’t think they would have worked very well. They have terrible defensive synergy, and their movesets are pretty bad as well. I had some thoughts about trying this team (or some sort of team with a similar concept), but after my losses, I decided to not do that.
I had some thoughts about trying Palace Double as well since I had never tried it in the past, but I decided not to. I don’t think I will ever try it in the future either.
With these experiences, I am done with the Battle Palace. I can also say that it is my least favorite Emerald facility. With it done, it was time to move on to the next one.
Format: Level 50, Single, retail cart
Team:
Salamence (M) @ Lum Berry ** Brutus
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 169/205/87/106/93/152
Nature: Adamant
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Starmie @ Petaya Berry ** Ralhix
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: Flawless HP / Sp.att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/80/90/167/102/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
IVs: Outstanding Defense
EVs: 254 HP / 144 Def / 68 Sp.att / 44 Sp.def
Level 50 stats: 177/58/150/114/212/59
Nature: Bold
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Rest
Streak: 43
Picture proof:
I decided to continue with the team I got the Gold Symbol with. I’m a bit unsure about why I went with these three in the past though. I think I picked Salamence and Starmie because I had had great success with them in many of the other facilities, and because both of them have moves from at least 2 categories. The reason I chose Regice was probably because it has moves from all three categories.
Salamence is a standard DD set. Aerial Ace for STAB, Earthquake and Rock Slide for coverage, Dragon Dance to set up. Lum Berry gives it a one-time immunity to status. For the EVs, I just maxed Attack and Speed, though there are probably better spreads. It has an Adamant Nature, which gives it the following rates at the Palace:
Above 50% HP:
38% chance to Attack
31% chance to Defend (use Dragon Dance)
31% chance to Support (do nothing)
Below 50% HP:
70% chance to Attack
15% chance to Defend (use Dragon Dance)
15% chance to Support (do nothing)
I think the 70% chance to Attack below 50% HP was one of the things that made me use Salamence, Adamant is also a good Nature for it in general.
As for Starmie, I went with a Recover set. Surf for STAB, BoltBeam for coverage. Natural Cure allows it to cure status by switching out. I gave it a Petaya Berry since I have no idea what the best item for Starmie in Gen 3 is, good options like Leftovers and Lum are usually taken by other team members (like on this team). It has maxed EVs for Sp.att and Speed, but like with Salamence, there might be better options. It has a Modest Nature, which gives the following:
Above 50% HP:
35% chance to Attack
45% chance to Defend (use Recover)
20% chance to Support (do nothing)
Below 50% HP:
34% chance to Attack
60% chance to Defend (use Recover to bring itself back to above 50% HP)
6% chance to Support (do nothing)
Modest isn’t super great for the Palace, but it is a great Nature for Starmie in general and it worked here too.
Lastly, there’s Regice. One of the few legendaries I have trained to use at level 50 in the Emerald Frontier. Mostly because it has a Bold Nature, which is solid for Regice in general (although not the best at the Palace). I caught it on one of my Hoenn games (Sapphire, I think) long before I learned about Natures, then I randomly found it one day while looking through my Gen 3 games for potentially useful Pokémon. I then traded it to Emerald and trained it for the Frontier. BoltBeam for attacking, TWave for support and Rest to heal. Clear Body is the only Ability it has and it can be good to prevent status drops. I remember that I asked on Serebiiforums for a suggested EV spread and got one from a member there. Since I had no better ideas myself, I went with it. A Bold nature gives the following:
Above 50% HP:
30% chance to Attack
20% chance to Defend (use Rest)
50% chance to Support (use Thunder Wave)
Below 50% HP:
32% chance to Attack
58% chance to Defend (use Rest and bring it back to above 50% HP)
10% chance to Support (use Thunder Wave)
Probably not the best Nature, but as said, Regice did at least have a move from each category which meant that it never “wasted” any turns.
My strategy at the Palace was to just select Attack and hope for good results, or switch out in case I was up against a bad matchup. There’s not really much else you can do.
How did my return to the Palace go? Not very well. I lost almost immediately, in battle #44. Lead Milotic, so I switch to Regice. An insane stall battle follows in which neither side manages to KO the other. I switch to Starmie after a while but the Milotic gets a lucky KO with Mirror Coat after Starmie hits it with Thunderbolt. Back to Regice. Both eventually gets down to Struggling, so I switch to Salamence. It Dances a few times and eventually KO’s the Milotic. Up next is a Starmie which Salamence beats. The last opposing Pokémon is a Flareon. It is somehow faster than Salamence, it must have been a Quick Claw set (I see that there’s even three of them now that I look at the list of Frontier sets!). Either way, it KO’s with Double-Edge. A Struggling Regice can’t do much and is KO’d by Overheat + Double-Edge. I didn’t save the loss battle since it was extremely long, it felt like it took a 100 turns. Just playing through it was painful, I have no desire to re-watch it (and nobody else should have to go through that either).
Overall, a very annoying loss but I don’t really care. I am never going back to Level 50 at the Battle Palace, that much is for sure.
Afterwards, I decided to continue on my Open Level streak as well, just for fun. I had an ongoing streak of 21 here, I had quit directly after beating Silver Spenser in the past. I put together a team of Heracross/Suicune/Raikou from my level 100 Pokémon on Emerald and started battling with them. It worked a bit better than expected, I got to 38 wins. I lost against a team which featured a Victreebel and a Raichu. But I don’t want that streak added to the leaderboards.
I should also mention that I once had a different team idea for the Palace in the past. It was to use a team where every member had at least one move from each category (attack, defend, support) which would mean that they would never “waste” any turns, and that their Natures wouldn’t matter that much (but in reality, they would) since they would at least do something every turn. Looking at the Pokémon I have trained on Emerald, I think I actually raised three which I had planned to use for such a team. But now that I look back on those three, I don’t think they would have worked very well. They have terrible defensive synergy, and their movesets are pretty bad as well. I had some thoughts about trying this team (or some sort of team with a similar concept), but after my losses, I decided to not do that.
I had some thoughts about trying Palace Double as well since I had never tried it in the past, but I decided not to. I don’t think I will ever try it in the future either.
With these experiences, I am done with the Battle Palace. I can also say that it is my least favorite Emerald facility. With it done, it was time to move on to the next one.
After the Palace, I decided to go to the Arena. Not my top favorite, but it is still fun and I like it considerably better than the Palace. Like with the Palace, I had stopped immediately after beating Gold Greta, which meant I had an ongoing streak of 56 wins.
Format: Level 50, retail cart
Team:
Heracross (M) @ Focus Band ** Brave
Ability: Guts
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 152/194/83/47/113/137
Nature: Adamant
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Starmie @ Petaya Berry ** Ralhix
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: Flawless HP / Sp.att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/80/90/167/102/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Salamence (M) @ Lum Berry ** Brutus
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 169/205/87/106/93/152
Nature: Adamant
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Streak: 66
Picture proof:
I have already talked about Starmie and Salamence, but here I actually had the option to freely choose their moves! According to my notes, I used Leftovers on Salamence when I did battles 1-56 in the past, but I changed it to Lum Berry here since it feels like the better option.
Herecross was originally built as a Choice Band set, but after trying it with a Choice Band in an older version of this team, I found that using a Choice Band at the Arena didn’t work very well. Heracross would often get locked into a move that wasn’t effective against the second opponent. So I changed it to a Focus Band. I dislike relying on hax items and there is probably a better option, but I used it and it saved Heracross from time to time. I wish Focus Sash existed in this generation, that would have been a lot better.
Megahorn and Brick Break are the STAB moves, Megahorn is a bit inaccurate but it usually gets the job done as long as it hits. Focus Punch is an alternative over Brick Break, but it relies too much on prediction which I’m not super great at. RS/EQ for coverage. It has an Adamant Nature with maxed EVs in Att/Spd. This makes it hits like a truck and allows it to outrun a surprisingly large number of opponents. Not sure if there are better spreads. Guts is the Ability of choice since it gives a great power boost if Heracross should get struck by status, Poison and Burn being the most favorable ones.
One thought I had here was to try an EndRevSalac set for Heracross instead. That would allow it to Endure against opposing supereffective or otherwise powerful moves, get down to 1 HP for a powerful Reversal (as well as a Swarm boost for Megahorn) and use Salac to boost its Speed. On the downside, it would require it to be at low HP in order to get a powerful Fighting-type move. I don’t know if that is the better option, but it was an idea I had at least
I mentioned trying with a Choice Band on Heracross, but the older version of this team had another difference as well: Gardevoir over Starmie. It wasn’t good at all. You can read the full details for that team and my experiences with it here.
That’s the team. Regarding the strategy, I mostly just used the most suitable move for the situation and did my best to beat the opponent. If it ever came down to judging, I just hoped for the best. It never came down to judging during the 11 battles I did now, not sure how it was for battles 1-56.
As for the streak, it went a bit better than at the Palace as I did at least win one round before losing. Most of these wins were very simple and quick too, it never came down to judging and I did not have to use Salamence a single time. Fun fact: during this entire streak, I only had to use Salamence in two battles. First in battle #55 (detailed in the post I linked to above) and then in battle #67, which was my loss battle. I find Heracross + Starmie to be a very good duo at the Arena. There might be a better third option than Salamence, but it is hard to say since I got to use it so little.
I saved the video for the loss battle and uploaded it, watch it below:
Battle summary:
My opponent leads with a Salamence, which is a bad matchup for Heracross. It cuts my Attack with Intimidate. I go for Rock Slide. I am faster but it doesn’t deal much damage, less than half. But I get a flinch! Rock Slide again next turn, no flinch and the Salamence defeats Heracross with Aerial Ace. Out with Starmie, Ice Beam for a kill. Next opposing Pokémon is Gardevoir. Another bad matchup. It probably knows Thunderbolt. I use Surf which does a little more than half, it then defeats Starmie with Thunderbolt, just as expected. Out with Salamence. I thought about using Dragon Dance, but I was afraid that the Gardevoir would have Ice Punch, so I use Earthquake instead and it goes down. The last opposing Pokémon is Snorlax. Third bad matchup. I use Earthquake which doesn’t do a lot, it uses Counter which brings Salamence to 19 HP. Not a good situation. I wasn’t sure what to do next. Earthquake might kill if I were to get a Crit, but it feels unlikely. Can’t Dragon Dance since it will just defeat me with one of its attacking moves (I assumed it would have at least one, otherwise it would be very weird). In the end, I go for Rock Slide, hoping for a flinch. But I miss, and the Snorlax defeats Salamence with Shadow Ball.
This was a pretty straightforward loss, no major hax involved, just some really bad matchups for my team. Could I have done something differently? I guess I could have let Salamence use Dragon Dance instead of attacking right away. First against the Gardevoir, but as said, I was afraid of it having Ice Punch. And if I had danced there, the Snorlax would have gotten a clean KO with Counter afterwards and I had used Earthquake. I could also have used Dragon Dance against the Snorlax. If I had Danced while it used Counter, then attacked afterwards when it used Shadow Ball, I should have been able to survive and get a 2HKO. Unless it had decided to use Counter on the second turn, which means I would have lost anyway. Dancing twice and then attacking might also have been an alternative, but I don’t think a +2 Earthquake would have been enough to KO.
Just like at the Palace, I had an ongoing streak at Open Level for the Arena as well. It stood on 28, I had quit directly after beating Silver Greta. I decided to continue on it now too, just for fun. From my level 100 box, I put together a team of Heracross/Latias/Swampert. I won some more battles but lost quite quickly against an idiotic Dewgong with OHKO moves, ending my streak at 40 wins. I don’t want it added to the leaderboards.
Format: Level 50, retail cart
Team:
Heracross (M) @ Focus Band ** Brave
Ability: Guts
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 152/194/83/47/113/137
Nature: Adamant
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Starmie @ Petaya Berry ** Ralhix
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: Flawless HP / Sp.att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/80/90/167/102/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Recover
Salamence (M) @ Lum Berry ** Brutus
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: Flawless Att / Spd
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 169/205/87/106/93/152
Nature: Adamant
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Streak: 66
Picture proof:
I have already talked about Starmie and Salamence, but here I actually had the option to freely choose their moves! According to my notes, I used Leftovers on Salamence when I did battles 1-56 in the past, but I changed it to Lum Berry here since it feels like the better option.
Herecross was originally built as a Choice Band set, but after trying it with a Choice Band in an older version of this team, I found that using a Choice Band at the Arena didn’t work very well. Heracross would often get locked into a move that wasn’t effective against the second opponent. So I changed it to a Focus Band. I dislike relying on hax items and there is probably a better option, but I used it and it saved Heracross from time to time. I wish Focus Sash existed in this generation, that would have been a lot better.
Megahorn and Brick Break are the STAB moves, Megahorn is a bit inaccurate but it usually gets the job done as long as it hits. Focus Punch is an alternative over Brick Break, but it relies too much on prediction which I’m not super great at. RS/EQ for coverage. It has an Adamant Nature with maxed EVs in Att/Spd. This makes it hits like a truck and allows it to outrun a surprisingly large number of opponents. Not sure if there are better spreads. Guts is the Ability of choice since it gives a great power boost if Heracross should get struck by status, Poison and Burn being the most favorable ones.
One thought I had here was to try an EndRevSalac set for Heracross instead. That would allow it to Endure against opposing supereffective or otherwise powerful moves, get down to 1 HP for a powerful Reversal (as well as a Swarm boost for Megahorn) and use Salac to boost its Speed. On the downside, it would require it to be at low HP in order to get a powerful Fighting-type move. I don’t know if that is the better option, but it was an idea I had at least
I mentioned trying with a Choice Band on Heracross, but the older version of this team had another difference as well: Gardevoir over Starmie. It wasn’t good at all. You can read the full details for that team and my experiences with it here.
That’s the team. Regarding the strategy, I mostly just used the most suitable move for the situation and did my best to beat the opponent. If it ever came down to judging, I just hoped for the best. It never came down to judging during the 11 battles I did now, not sure how it was for battles 1-56.
As for the streak, it went a bit better than at the Palace as I did at least win one round before losing. Most of these wins were very simple and quick too, it never came down to judging and I did not have to use Salamence a single time. Fun fact: during this entire streak, I only had to use Salamence in two battles. First in battle #55 (detailed in the post I linked to above) and then in battle #67, which was my loss battle. I find Heracross + Starmie to be a very good duo at the Arena. There might be a better third option than Salamence, but it is hard to say since I got to use it so little.
I saved the video for the loss battle and uploaded it, watch it below:
Battle summary:
My opponent leads with a Salamence, which is a bad matchup for Heracross. It cuts my Attack with Intimidate. I go for Rock Slide. I am faster but it doesn’t deal much damage, less than half. But I get a flinch! Rock Slide again next turn, no flinch and the Salamence defeats Heracross with Aerial Ace. Out with Starmie, Ice Beam for a kill. Next opposing Pokémon is Gardevoir. Another bad matchup. It probably knows Thunderbolt. I use Surf which does a little more than half, it then defeats Starmie with Thunderbolt, just as expected. Out with Salamence. I thought about using Dragon Dance, but I was afraid that the Gardevoir would have Ice Punch, so I use Earthquake instead and it goes down. The last opposing Pokémon is Snorlax. Third bad matchup. I use Earthquake which doesn’t do a lot, it uses Counter which brings Salamence to 19 HP. Not a good situation. I wasn’t sure what to do next. Earthquake might kill if I were to get a Crit, but it feels unlikely. Can’t Dragon Dance since it will just defeat me with one of its attacking moves (I assumed it would have at least one, otherwise it would be very weird). In the end, I go for Rock Slide, hoping for a flinch. But I miss, and the Snorlax defeats Salamence with Shadow Ball.
This was a pretty straightforward loss, no major hax involved, just some really bad matchups for my team. Could I have done something differently? I guess I could have let Salamence use Dragon Dance instead of attacking right away. First against the Gardevoir, but as said, I was afraid of it having Ice Punch. And if I had danced there, the Snorlax would have gotten a clean KO with Counter afterwards and I had used Earthquake. I could also have used Dragon Dance against the Snorlax. If I had Danced while it used Counter, then attacked afterwards when it used Shadow Ball, I should have been able to survive and get a 2HKO. Unless it had decided to use Counter on the second turn, which means I would have lost anyway. Dancing twice and then attacking might also have been an alternative, but I don’t think a +2 Earthquake would have been enough to KO.
Just like at the Palace, I had an ongoing streak at Open Level for the Arena as well. It stood on 28, I had quit directly after beating Silver Greta. I decided to continue on it now too, just for fun. From my level 100 box, I put together a team of Heracross/Latias/Swampert. I won some more battles but lost quite quickly against an idiotic Dewgong with OHKO moves, ending my streak at 40 wins. I don’t want it added to the leaderboards.
Got 68 KOs in the Arena with my new Lati Sandwich team. Was hoping to reach 70+ but at least it's 1 more than my previous run which used a different Lati Sandwich team. That team had Memento Latios and CurseLax whereas this one uses CM Latios and BoomLax which in my opinion is a bit stronger overall.
The Latios was RNG'd with the same spread as the one Werster used in his all gold symbols speedrun. (Was traded to me by a friend)
And thanks to the Pike glitch which I only found about recently, I was finally able to get Selfdestruct on Snorlax without doing a playthrough of XD.
Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
IVs: 29/21/15/31/23/29
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Calm Mind
Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Brave
EVs: 144 HP, 252 Atk, 114 Def
IVs: 16/29/31/23/16/17
Return
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Selfdestruct
Latias @ TwistedSpoon
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Mild
EVs: 6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
IVs: 0/4/28/18/25/12
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Dive
How I Lost
I had a full HP Snorlax versus my opponent's last pokemon which was a Blissey. I was afraid of Double Team/Brightpowder/Substitute so I decided to use Return first instead of blowing up right away. Unfortunately, it was the Counter set so I lose my Snorlax.
I send out my Latias and use Dive and the Blissey uses Softboiled. On the 2nd turn I hit with Dive and Blissey CMs. On the 3rd turn, I Dive again as Blissey CMs a second time resulting in a judging score of 3-3. And of course tie-ing basically means that I lose. Had Blissey used Ice Beam (which I was expecting the AI to do since it's SE) and missed I would have won the Skill category and the battle.
I've never looked up trainers when doing the frontier, but I would have won this battle had I known it was the Counter set. (barring extreme Focus Band hax)
Where can I find a list of which trainers can have which sets of Pokemon?
The Latios was RNG'd with the same spread as the one Werster used in his all gold symbols speedrun. (Was traded to me by a friend)
And thanks to the Pike glitch which I only found about recently, I was finally able to get Selfdestruct on Snorlax without doing a playthrough of XD.
Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
EVs: 6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
IVs: 29/21/15/31/23/29
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Calm Mind
Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
Nature: Brave
EVs: 144 HP, 252 Atk, 114 Def
IVs: 16/29/31/23/16/17
Return
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Selfdestruct
Latias @ TwistedSpoon
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Mild
EVs: 6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
IVs: 0/4/28/18/25/12
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Dive
How I Lost
I had a full HP Snorlax versus my opponent's last pokemon which was a Blissey. I was afraid of Double Team/Brightpowder/Substitute so I decided to use Return first instead of blowing up right away. Unfortunately, it was the Counter set so I lose my Snorlax.
I send out my Latias and use Dive and the Blissey uses Softboiled. On the 2nd turn I hit with Dive and Blissey CMs. On the 3rd turn, I Dive again as Blissey CMs a second time resulting in a judging score of 3-3. And of course tie-ing basically means that I lose. Had Blissey used Ice Beam (which I was expecting the AI to do since it's SE) and missed I would have won the Skill category and the battle.
I've never looked up trainers when doing the frontier, but I would have won this battle had I known it was the Counter set. (barring extreme Focus Band hax)
Where can I find a list of which trainers can have which sets of Pokemon?
Attachments
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QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
The spreadsheet in the first post is my go-to for stuff like this; there's a tab for trainers as well as Pokemon sets.