Platinum/HG/SS Battle Frontier and DP Battle Tower Records

[Case]

Thanks alot - i'll give that a shot. Though i suspect i'm mainly losing because of failure to anticipate (also that record streak of mine ended because i didn't know froslass is ghost in addition to ice and i used some fighting move on it).
Also: you seem to suggest i can swap teams after having achieved a number of wins, or am i jumping to conclusions? Ie beating the first 49 with starmie/chomp/ttar then swapping to something more "tech"?

 

[Ferrouswheel]

You mean 25, right? I'd imagine that a lot of people don't report it, or maybe don't even aim for 100 after getting the gold medal (or whatever it's called). Using the strategies developed here, it should be fairly straightforward to get a streak over 100, so don't let the apparent paucity of people passing 100 discourage you.

There are actually 29 people, because there are some ties.

Also, do the BT pokes always appear in the same position in the team?



Case:

Yes, you can switch teams anytime between rounds of 7.

 

[kingbattlus]

case yes, i am suggesting switching teams after you reach 49. the reasoning, as stated in the opening post, is that the trainers/pokemon you face become static after that point. you'll no longer face things like shedinja or whismur... you'll be battling the best that the battle tower has to offer. you can achieve a higher streak using the starmie/chomp/ttar team, as jump proved with his 212 (i think) streak.

i would recommend, trying something a bit more strategical after 49 though, straight offense will be beaten eventually. trick teams are obviously the most popular. gengar is used on several streaks for its ability to almost guarantee two kills per match... just use what you want but put some serious thought into it, as it takes most people between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to beat the first 49 trainers with starime sweeping most of the time.

GOOD LUCK

 

[Nitzleplick]

Here was something I was considering:

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Careful/Thick Fat
252hp/252sdef
Substitute
Curse
Return
Self Destruct

I have an okay Snorlax with self destruct.. (it's a move tutor in Pokemon XD)

What do you all think?

 

[Case]

Thanks for the pointers, i'll check back in when i've gotten some more respectable results :)

 

[Nitzleplick]

I was trying to go for the idea that Snorlax can KO two things with Return > SD.. though maybe he have a Non-STAB for Ghosts, or skip Sub for something..

I know Regi and Latias type pokemon are the best, but I do think it's odd how the BT almost requires legendaries to have sucess.

 

[Bozo]

"dont listen to peterko he's just trying to sabotage your streak!" OH IS HE JUST - WELL........ hehe.....

jolly garchomp's eq will never ohko metagross4 (not even close, 73-87%) and +2 metagross will always ohko garchomp with MM. so if you went in with the intention of ohkoing metagross with EQ, you would be unpleasantly surprised to see +2 metagross remain on your screen. you did the right thing even if you don't realize it.

peterko had a slightly similar battle against lead metagross a few months ago where he also asked for help afterwards, and i advised going to garchomp to get metagross off his screen as soon as possible. however, the difference between the two battles is that his latias got CHed and died on turn one with meta getting an attack raise. yours did not die, which allowed meta to get a second attack raise. this makes all the difference in the world, since +1 metagross will never ohko garchomp with meteor mash, but +2 metagross always will. so if this happens next time go to registeel and get some curses...you will still be faster than paralyzed metagross after one curse and after two it's back to not being able to break your sub, barring additional attack raises. if it DOES get additional attack raises i'd advise taking a few shots at it with IH before setting up fully, to cover your ass should it CH registeel and allow garchomp to OHKO it cleanly with EQ (two IHs at even +1 will guarantee garchomp kills it with one EQ). well thats very nice to know - seemed like registeel was the way to go, although i just need to hope for better luck next time. reflect certainly does have its advantages, although i feel like it's not unreasonable to "assume" he wouldnt normally get 4/5 attack rises (1/2222 chances btw, and was not FP until about turn 7-8). when i heard the "go to garchomp" i was thinking "of course, my salamence doesnt manage to OHKO, but garchomp has STAB" - i was forgetting about CB on my mence, so actually unboosted garchomp does slightly less.

at any rate, this is one of the major—if only—selling points of reflect over charm, and the reason i've beaten about a dozen lead metagross4 trainers straight since losing in pearl to meta/"lol one of the two pokemon out of ~63 that jogger ryne could have used second to put +4 naked scizor in trouble in arcanine (gyarados was the other)"/mamoswine. iirc (that ~63 and gyarados and mamoswine stiff is from memory) meta got three attack boosts in four turns, but thanks to reflect, scizor was still able to get into a position that allowed him/latios to beat literally 97% of the poke 2 possibilities (+4). charm is obviously one of the best moves a trick team can use, but it is a mere coincidence that the hands-down biggest threat to any trick team in metagross4 (i think this is obvious by now to everyone who's tried a trick team) is stymied by reflect almost entirely i was actually thinking about reflect this morning, since i noticed that usually after one charm the opponent is usually doing lol damage to BOTH my other pokes. still i like it for its long-lasting-ness, and the ability to reduce their attack to 1/4 rather than 1/2. reflect DOES protect you against crits though (or so ive heard) - ie a CH during reflect will do "normal" damage.

also to address the other stuff you said:



if you repeatedly press A or tap the screen from the time right after you KO something to the time your next attack lands, it makes a substantial difference. peterko has hinted that he does this and i dont think everyone realized that you can speed up some of the text there oh believe me i know all about tapping furiously. i was pretty much tapping constantly - it makes things like "xxxx sent out xxxxx" go away faster, and speeds up gaps between things like "xxxx used double team" and "xxxx's evasion rose". 1:10 is the absolute minimum you can go from one point in a battle to the exact same point in the next battle with 3 starmie OHKO's and furious tapping at all times. add furious tapping in between to speed up the tower staff's speeches and you get an absolute minimum of 9:30 for a set of 7 starmie 3-turn battles (which is actually extremely rare even in the early stages - so many things survive even SE LO thunderbolts/ice beams, or neutral psychics/surfs)



i understand you, the point i'm trying to make is that this records thread doesn't have much else to go on but strategies and stories and sharing. so when someone helps you get a better record, you should feel much, much more obligated to thank/acknowledge them than they were to help you get a "possibly-better-than-their" record in the first place. ok cool - no problems there then. and agreed. this would be a stupid place if all we did was post numbers. and to be honest, i dont think anyone would believe someone who just said "hey guys i finally got to 1001 today but im not telling you what team i used". one of the best things about this group of people is that the detailed team descrptions, scenario discussions "proves" that certain people are trustworthy (and that some others are not lol).

i'm only concerned with this thread and this community, though. like, if i reeeeeally didn't want others flirting with 500 and beyond i would never share any strats and stories in this thread (and could do nothing but commend those who pass it)...but then my post count would be about 300 posts lighter and how ever would i pass the time at work...



i know, and it wasnt. (though lol in a complete coincidence you just did ask for help on how to use peterko's team later in the very same post [even if the "?????????????" implies you were only being rhetorical {which isn't entirely warranted because you can still beat it but hey}], though the point is you acknowledging this as im sure you would without being prompted [you've already done this with my ohko analysis and "you're welcome!"].) actually, yes "what am i supposed to do with a +4 metagross?" is a rhetorical question, as i did feel like registeel had the best chance of survival. btw - related to above, MM did less than 50% to latias, so a CH would not have KO'd anyway, but that might have been due to a low damage random number. but of course i appreciated it when someone happened to answer the question for me (and your subsequent discussion of the answer). heck, if anyone says anything to me that is useful in any way (or even is useless but intended to be useful) i will thank them and acknowledge them to other people - it's just plain courtesy, and the right way to behave. as well as being nice for the person who went to the effort to receive not just a warm "i helped someone" feeling, but also some just recognition.

ah.... i rant!

I'm rather new around here, and I was hoping to beat 100 matches in the BT for the purpose of getting the last star and the black card. Are there honestly only 29 people on smogon who have done that, or is it just that most people don't care enough to report it?

im guessing its that most people dont care about the BT at all! learn about trick teams etc if all you want is to get your card. btw i only have two stars on mine - one i think for beating the E4 and one for a 100 streak. from memory (when i got black on pearl) you've gotta do ridiculous stuff like talk to lots of people underground (which i did with myself and two DS's lol) and also complete your pokedex - well mine is at about 20 - 2-3 pokes i used in the playthrough (infernape + HM slaves), and whatever random stuff i've traded over for the BF.

Here was something I was considering:

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Careful/Thick Fat
252hp/252sdef
Substitute
Curse
Return
Self Destruct

I have an okay Snorlax with self destruct.. (it's a move tutor in Pokemon XD)

What do you all think?

its a good pokemon, but yeah nothing to touch ghosts means you will sometimes set right up and then have to switch right out.

 

[Diana]

*insert thanks to jumpman for trick teams and Cresselia, garo for registeel (and the inspiration to try dragonite), and peterko for convincing me that registeel was still awesome here*

Anyway, I decided I'd take one streak off and go to the tower. I had an old Registeel with good IV's, though with a Brave nature, and I transferred it from Pearl so I could use it. I expected to find a way to lose fast, probably before 100. That didn't happen, so in the singles battle tower in platinum my new record is 163.



Cresselia @ Choice Scarf
Bold
252 HP/4 Def/252 Spe
Levitate

Trick
Flash
Thunder Wave
Reflect


You know this one. Jumpman16's Cresselia, which I absolutely have fallen in love with. I'd mention how it works but other people have explained it to death already.


Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Adamant
4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Inner Focus

Dragon Dance
Substitute
Roost
Outrage


All right, Dragonite is fun to use here. It's honestly just the standard dragon in trick teams, though I'm enjoying the special defense honestly. Substitute is obvious, Roost so I can keep it up, Dragon Dance to boost, Outrage to sweep.


Registeel @ Leftovers
Brave
252 HP/128 Def/128 SpD
Clear Body

Curse
Amnesia
Substitute
Iron Head


I had this from Pearl like I said but with Rest over Substitute, so I transferred it over and stuck Sub on it and it's purely amazing. It sets up on so many things, and that sub lasts against almost anything even after the first opponent dies once it gets a few boosts. Now Brave is admittedly because I got tired a long time ago looking for a good one that was careful or whatever, but the IV's in the defenses are over 25 and the Attack is over 20 from what I remember. But anyway, I'll be using this for a while though I might try to get a better one later...


How I lost... Well this is embarrassing. It was PI Ralph, Articuno comes out. I trick it, Sheer Cold misses. Of course, it's faster now, it Sheer Colds, hits. Cresselia is down. Registeel comes out, Articuno outspeeds... And hits. Now down to Dragonite. Which Articuno outspeeds. And hits. Again. Thinking back maybe I should have Thunder Waved instead? I don't know, but it's going to be a cold winter with that loss, lol.

Edit: I was thinking about it and I should have Thunder Waved, Cresselia would have gone down, then I could have put up some subs with registeel while it ran out of Sheer Cold, then I would have set up on it pretty easily. Oh well, now I know.

 

[Bozo]

@nitzlepick - i had a "lot" of success (165) with salamence+suicune+blissey (only one legendary). but suicune was sometimes exchanged for milotic. and salamence+milotic+blissey got me to over 200 in emerald. teams like that are solid, but might just take 4-5 attempts to get beyond the 100 or whatever youre aiming at.

i am reminded of a battle in the old days before i taught my snorlax shadow ball - i used curse, rest, body slam, yawn. their first poke had killed my two others, but old trusty snorlax (the original CUDDLES) had managed to set up and dealt with it easily, then in came a bannette. i was at a high streak (high for me back then meant something like 60 probably) so i didnt just run away. i acutally managed to waste all my PP and OHKO or 2HKO it with struggle. last pokemon was walrein. sheer cold #1 missed, struggle does about 60-70%. sheer cold #2 hit. and boy was i mad...



@diana - that's GREAT!!! i am very glad to see someone having some success with a DD'er. my proposed team is latias/registeel/salamence. interesting choice in dragonite as i guess it would probably be easier to set up. also i'm interested to see how you go because i have been tossing up a few moves for salamence - eg dragon claw or outrage; roost or earthquake (or another coverage move). and also EV's: speed or bulk. so, are you still going on that streak or is it the end?

at present im still waiting to get the salamence i intend to use, so ive been mucking around with latias/registeel/garchomp (peterko's exact 1000+ team). its now gone up to 119 with almost no real dramas. some things about garchomp make me think it might be superior to salamence/dragonite despite the worse combined-resistences it shares with registeel. in particular, my most favourite way to start a battle is this:

• latias used trick. latias obtained lum berry. starmie obtained choice scarf. starmie used thunderwave. latias was paralyzed. latias's lum berry cured its paralysis. switch to garchomp etc.

without chomp here, i would have had to twave starmie on turn 2 (getting latias paralyzed in the process) and then possibly use up salamence's lum berry on the switch in, whereas with chomp i get to keep latias healthy for later if the need arises, and garchomp keeps his berry. however, the speed boosts from DD could save you. i had an occasion where my +6 (with sub) chomp could have gone down after taking out poke 1. poke 2 was the only timid gengar who used confuse ray instead of shadow ball
(wtf sub?) and the 3rd was a modest starmie - if it was timid and gengar had broken my sub, chomp would have been dead. although of course i could have switched latias back in for a twave (switching via registeel so it didnt have to eat two ice beams). also registeel would probably just beat starmie one-on-one with amnesia.


i didnt actually face a PI until about 107, and then i faced another before getting to 119. both led with exploders rather than OHKO'ers, and both did not explode on turn one (bronzong and golem). i just tricked+charmed them and set garchomp up. seems to make more sense than registeel because of its slower speed and the liklihood of something bulky OHKO'ing my sub, surviving the IH and then finishing me next turn. the second PI's 3rd poke was nidoking who survived a +6 outrage (already locked onto it because of second poke claydol) because of bright powder - i had a small "moment" as it KO'd the sub with dragon pulse and i wondered if bright powder would kick in again.

well, i'm hoping to break my 165 record with this team in the next coupld of days. i absolutely love how much faster it is than my battle castle team. i went through two sets of 7 this morning on the train - i would struggle to get that many in two entire train trips with the BC team.



EDIT: now that i think about it, those PI's are worse than i had realised. the 2nd one i faced had an exploding golem with QUICK CLAW, and exploding claydol with LAX INSENSE, and a horn drill nidoking with BRIGHT powder.

 

[Diana]

Streak's over, I'll do another later on though. Someday I'd like to break 200, let's hope I can avoid the Sheer Cold streak I hit.

Dragon Dance is really fun because of the speed boosts you get out of it. You can't have your sub randomly picked off by something fast. Usually I'll be able to pull off +6 but even +3 is typically good enough.

For Thunder Wave I tend to Thunder Wave back after the trick and just stay in to Flash 6 times, then I send in Dragonite. 75% chance that it doesn't get Paralyzed, and the other 25% Lum takes care of it. You can't have two rounds of Outrage if you get hit by it though. I've thought of switching Registeel there though I'm afraid of full paralysis.

 

[Bozo]

Streak's over, I'll do another later on though. Someday I'd like to break 200, let's hope I can avoid the Sheer Cold streak I hit.

Dragon Dance is really fun because of the speed boosts you get out of it. You can't have your sub randomly picked off by something fast. Usually I'll be able to pull off +6 but even +3 is typically good enough.

For Thunder Wave I tend to Thunder Wave back after the trick and just stay in to Flash 6 times, then I send in Dragonite. 75% chance that it doesn't get Paralyzed, and the other 25% Lum takes care of it. You can't have two rounds of Outrage if you get hit by it though. I've thought of switching Registeel there though I'm afraid of full paralysis.

ah yes, you have flash to make that part easier. i'm using recover>flash. which, by the way, i think is AWESOME. eg:

1. latias uses trick. end turn on about 60% after a strong move.
2. latias uses charm. another attack. goes to about 40%.
3. latias uses recover. ends on about 70%.
4. now pretty much free to get them down to -6 atk, and paralyzed. then can switch out on near 100% health to possibly be of some use later on.

when i dabbled with cresselia a while back i found it frustrating that she only had very limited time to cause her havock. and just lowering accuracy didnt seem to be a great thing because if you only got one or two flashes in, they always seemd to manage to hit you, which meant wasted turns in the initial stages. also, having some speed after you have tricked a choice scarf onto them means i absolutely love latias :)

 

[Glen]

oh man phid, a fun factory tip for you

if you get the seemingly ludicrous double team/curse/avalanche hammer arm/regice, take it. don't be frightened by its 100ish attack, it just beat 21 straight pokemon from 29-35. leftovers + double team is just too unfair, and regice doesn't take damage from anything honestly. roselia leaf storms do like 40ish% lol

 

[Peterko]

you´re not supposed to t-wave starmie or any natural cure pokémon in general (altaria, rade, blis), because they tend to switch out of status...I´ve experience a blis switch out when I hypnotized it with persian (back then), since that mistake I don´t t-wave them...just in case (don´t know if they would switch out of para), a trick+set up team doesn´t like seeing the foe´s lead switch

 

[kingbattlus]

isn't there always a chance that they could also be serene grace/poison point/illuminate as well? is it not worth it to give it a try and see? if they swap to something else they wont swap back to their lead too

 

[Jumpman16]

yes, it's definitely worth it. i paralyze starmie literally every time, has to be at least like 60 i have paralyzed by now over pearl and DP and it's never switched once. maybe i'm really lucky and it has been illuminate every time, and the ~50 roserade i've paralyzed have been poison point...or maybe that doesn't explain the ~30 altaria ive paralyzed that can only have been natural cure (i don't see this less but i don't paralyze the ones I lock into DD because it doesn't matter). im pretty sure i would have mentioned it by now after like 18 months if these pokes actually switched out after being twaved lol

ah yes, you have flash to make that part easier. i'm using recover>flash. which, by the way, i think is AWESOME. eg:

1. latias uses trick. end turn on about 60% after a strong move.
2. latias uses charm. another attack. goes to about 40%.
3. latias uses recover. ends on about 70%.
4. now pretty much free to get them down to -6 atk, and paralyzed. then can switch out on near 100% health to possibly be of some use later on.

when i dabbled with cresselia a while back i found it frustrating that she only had very limited time to cause her havock. and just lowering accuracy didnt seem to be a great thing because if you only got one or two flashes in, they always seemd to manage to hit you, which meant wasted turns in the initial stages. also, having some speed after you have tricked a choice scarf onto them means i absolutely love latias :)

i'm not going to revisit a pointless argument on flash vs recover, but mainly because i can very safely say that the above situation has virtually everything to do with charm, which is better than reflect against everything but metagross, who is again coincidentally the worst poke for any trick team to face so it almost balances out right there. and it's not like cresselia doesn't actually get recover, moonlight is pretty much the same thing since the rare times you will lead off against aboma, hippo or tyra you're not going to be staying in spamming your recovery move anyway, but i can safely say that i've never wanted to use moonlight anyway

 

[Bozo]

you´re not supposed to t-wave starmie or any natural cure pokémon in general (altaria, rade, blis), because they tend to switch out of status...I´ve experience a blis switch out when I hypnotized it with persian (back then), since that mistake I don´t t-wave them...just in case (don´t know if they would switch out of para), a trick+set up team doesn´t like seeing the foe´s lead switch

hmmm hadnt thought of that, although i seem to remember they only switch when put to sleep.

isn't there always a chance that they could also be serene grace/poison point/illuminate as well? is it not worth it to give it a try and see? if they swap to something else they wont swap back to their lead too

the problem with that is you want their lead to stay out because your two backups like to set up on a locked move. eg - you lock altaria on ice beam and registeel sets up easy, but if it is free to switch to flamethrower you will have more difficulty (but maybe still come out on top barring hax). if the lead runs away you could have some problems. strangely, i had this happen to me twice this morning (with no devastating effects):

1. registeel had set up on a weezing and then used iron head (not quite a KO). next turn it switched to raichu who was KO'd easily, and paralyzed me. rest of the battle was easy enough. i assume raichu had a fighting move - its been mentioned before - if it resists the attack it expects you to use and has a SE move it will switch in.
2. registeel set up on suicune's icy wind then did about 40% and they switched to moltres. did about 55% on the switch in. then subbed after FT KO'd my existing one. then KO'd it after FT failed to break my new sub.

actually, i had only ever seen this happen when they anticipate their pokemon getting KO'd on the next move - like in case 1. however, the suicune situation disproves that, as it was not in KO range for iron head. (EDIT: now that i think of it, i've seen medichams switch in to blissey's seismic toss in the castle, where the original foe had only taken one ST before.)

also a similar situation:

• garchomp had fully set up on some random lead and in came skarmory. +6 outrage got him to red and he used roar, which meant i had tostart from scratch. except with out a scarf to trick. it didnt turn out badly though.

yes, it's definitely worth it. i paralyze starmie literally every time, has to be at least like 60 i have paralyzed by now over pearl and DP and it's never switched once. maybe i'm really lucky and it has been illuminate every time, and the ~50 roserade i've paralyzed have been poison point...or maybe that doesn't explain the ~30 altaria ive paralyzed that can only have been natural cure (i don't see this less but i don't paralyze the ones I lock into DD because it doesn't matter). im pretty sure i would have mentioned it by now after like 18 months if these pokes actually switched out after being twaved lol

ok, that's interesting too. i'll see how it goes. at the moment i have absolutely no need to paralyze things like that, and in fact have not been using thunderwave much at all. my original comment about it was just a slightly complicated way to get salamence into a scarfed starmie in such a way that it wouldnt get paralyzed. but if you say this i'll believe it (unless "someone else" says you are trying to sabotage my streak!).

i'm not going to revisit a pointless argument on flash vs recover, but mainly because i can very safely say that the above situation has virtually everything to do with charm, which is better than reflect against everything but metagross, who is again coincidentally the worst poke for any trick team to face so it almost balances out right there. and it's not like cresselia doesn't actually get recover, moonlight is pretty much the same thing since the rare times you will lead off against aboma, hippo or tyra you're not going to be staying in spamming your recovery move anyway, but i can safely say that i've never wanted to use moonlight anyway

yes, i won't argue either. i had thought about moonlight, and i dont think my latias has used recover more than 3-4 times max in any battle so far, let alone the 8PP that moonlight has.



the more i play with this team, the more i realise how robust it is. sure it has weaknesses, but you can almost always get around them with ease. this morning i got frozen switching in to jynx crit IB (maybe i should let latias die - it gets 2HKO'd though so i cant paralyze it). registeel got down to about 50% before thawing out, and still i managed to get about 4 curses, 3 amnesias, and a sub before jynx struggled to death. am up to 163 as of the end of my train trip this morning - very close to breaking my SSB record..

 

[Bozo]

wow. someone edit him into the records :nerd:


anyway, ive just gone onto 168 in my lunchbreak. nothing particularly impressive, but it did beat my previous record of 165, so i'm really happy with it. battle 165 was about the most pleasurable i have had with this team - lead tyranitar made me go "oh no" and then "oh yes" when it used DD and let me get a +6+sub+SANDSTORM garchomp set up :naughty: before the end of the set of 7 i came across a PI whose lead lapras missed ALL 5 sheer cold's - i think it will consider it owes me some hax soon because of that :(

EDIT: not sure if this has been explicitly pointed out before (peterko - "im not going to tell you how to use registeel" hehe) but i often find it useful to set up curses+amnesia before using sub, if the opponents attacks really cant do much - eg against espeon shadow ball (does 0 after leftovers once amnesia'd up). it means you can be more or less 100% confident that your sub wont break the turn before you strike with IH. exceptions would be things like ice beam or anything else that may have an adverse effect (even air slash from flinchkiss).

also, a question for peterko. i have not been doing this, but i can see that it could be possible to improve your chances slightly (at the cost of greatly prolonging battles). lets say you lock their lead on ice beam. you then go to registeel who amnesias/subs and basically wastes all their PP. then you go back to latias, trick their item back so they can get stuck on some other move that is maybe a lot less threatening to garchomp (thunderbolt), and then set up on that. hopefully by this stage registeel will be at perfect health, and useful later on.





EDIT: streak over at 174. i lost to a fan club guy (BOW BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE FAN CLUB). well, there are a few things i learnt from the battle, and a few ways i could probably have avoided defeat, but there was certainly an element of bad luck involved.

1. latias vs staraptor 4 (CB). i used trick to lower the damage from brave bird (scarf vs band) and IMMEDIATELY realised charm would have been way better - lowers damage MORE, and allows me to do it again because im still faster. anyway, it did about 50% so i switched next turn.
2. registeel comes in and takes 40ish from BB.
3. another 40ish, sub.
4. BB crit sub breaks, curse.
5. BB sub.
6. here i decide i should just try and get rid of the thing before it gets another crit. BB crit sub breaks, IH dead bird. naked registeel with one curse only, and only about 50hp left.
7. who should make its appearence, but our old favourite gastrodon 4. ideally i'd like to switch back and forth from steel to latias, but i'm not sure if it will use EP, given that im so low. anyway, after much deliberation (if i stay and it uses EP im screwed since i have cursed so it will outspeed me, and i cant even try tricking the choice band on because locking it onto ice beam is no good - guaranteed OHKO on chomp). so i switch, and eat a surf.
8. here i wonder if it will use surf again, so i recover, and it ice beams. i end up with more hp than i started with, so i figure i will try and stall like this for a while. even if it freezes me, garchomp might be able to stall the last couple of IB's with sub.
9. recover, ice beam. frozen :(
10. frozen, ice beam, dead latias.
11. i know garchomp cannot OHKO with either move, and that IB is a OHKO, so i send in registeel for an IH which does a little. surf KO's me.
12. garchomp's outrage takes it to a SLIVER of red but it survives (no crits here) and finishes me.

oh well, next time i'd do things differently...... and im pretty happy with 174 for my first attempt with this team.

i didnt save the video (obviously i'd rather keep the one with the AI's shiny latios) but i did take a photo of the gastrodon and its stupid 1hp (btw this was a 21IV trainer - i dont think it would be possible to KO it with IH+OR with 31's - not even sure if its possible with 21's to be honest). and of course a photo of the record board. i'm at work now, so i will have to edit these in later.

 

[DrDimentio]

I finally got time to make my Tower 313 streak proof video... and now the computer is taking over 2 hours to compress it.

So, it will be even more of a wait to see how I died due to 1 in 4096 chance critical-hit hax (thanks for the confirmation way back in this thread).

 

[Calisto]

also, a question for peterko. i have not been doing this, but i can see that it could be possible to improve your chances slightly (at the cost of greatly prolonging battles). lets say you lock their lead on ice beam. you then go to registeel who amnesias/subs and basically wastes all their PP. then you go back to latias, trick their item back so they can get stuck on some other move that is maybe a lot less threatening to garchomp (thunderbolt), and then set up on that. hopefully by this stage registeel will be at perfect health, and useful later on.

• If you can outspeed them at Turn 2, a T-Wave now should get you enough time to set up with Registeel?
• The odds of locking an IB user into an Electric move vs Latias is not very large imo.
• Waste the PP to get them to use a move to set up and when you do you intend to change it? Struggle is ideal set up Garchomp, you only need 3SDs and a Sub. Surely Garchomp can handle Struggles from special attackers with Ice Beam? (You might even have been able to throw in a Charm from Latias before switching out if you didn't plan on setting up Registeel anyway)
• Why not just switch in Garchomp on the first Struggle instead of Latias? I can imagine this little ruse being useful against moves like Blizzard, Draco Meteor, Silver Wind and Ominous Wind (too little PP to set up Registeel).

I wasn't planning on posting again because I stopped playing a month or so ago. However, imho you mentioned a neat little strategy which I haven't seen any others post about, it would be a shame if it went unnoticed (please don't kill me if I missed someone doing so). The re-Tricking you mentioned is a pretty cool idea that has saved my team loads of times. I use it a lot on my team, which needs like 7-9 turns to set up each of my sweepers since I don't have only SD or NP. A lot of 5PP moves would not give me enough time to set up, especially with Tyranitar's Sandstorm and Shedinja's 1Hp cutting down my time even more. Tricking my Scarf back is crucial in most of these situations. Some of the time I don't even re-lock them into a new move to conserve PP (like if they have been Flashed to pieces). If you want to see your suggestion in action, I think the battle in my signature involves some Tricking back and forth.

 

[DrDimentio]

Platinum Battle Tower Single Record: 313

3. (change if incorrect) DrDimentio (313) - Uxie, Registeel, Garchomp

(made it easier for Peterko since he can just copy that for the records list)

Lost due to an event that has only a 1 in 4096 chance of occurring >_>

Video of Battle 314 - proof of streak, etc

Most people would generally assume that it takes skill, knowledge and an awesome team to get an impressive win streak...

- However, there are multiple flaws in that statement:

Flaw #1 - This is Pokemon, and more specifically the Hax Tower (also known as Battle Tower in some societies)... so skill loses some of its relevance, as it is to some extent disposed of with hax. If several people used a completely identical team, their respective records would be determined by who can survive the longest without insane hax, more so than who has superior knowledge of the game. Then again, in such a challenge it is knowledge being tested, more so than 'skill', since you need to think about what moves you use and so forth, which is clearly a test of what you know, not how 'good' you are.

Flaw #2 - Though the knowledge of how to use this team exists in my brain, it is not original knowledge at all. Trick teams are an essential strategy first introduced to Smogon by the clever user known as Jumpman16. Using Uxie was based on seeing several Uxie leads on high records, most notably garo's record. Registeel's usage by me was therefore inspired by Peterko and garo, since they have the highest two scores using Registeel, and I probably never would've thought of using such a Pokemon before seeing its success. Garchomp - well, nobody who uses Garchomp is original. Because Garchomp is Garchomp, and he's perhaps the best Pokemon to use in the Tower.

Flaw #3 - My team isn't completely mine, so I feel guilty if I call it 'awesome' or any other such form of praise - though it's true that all my Pokemon are owned and trained purely by myself, I copied the movesets for Registeel and Garchomp. The only slightly original thing about my team is (apart from the fact that I'm the first to specifically use Uxie/Registeel/Garchomp together, as garo used Dragonite instead of Chomp, and Peterko is pwning the Tower with Latias as his lead)... my Uxie moveset. After all, nobody else used a Trick lead with Stealth Rocks and got a high record until now, at this time of writing.

Flaw #4 - 313 isn't impressive in my mind, partially because the ceiling keeps getting broken (once upon a time I stared in awe at Team Rocket Elite's 177 in the DP Tower), but particularly due to Peterko's 1400+ streak. Then again, he's crazy, lucky and spends way more time in the Tower than me... he also downgraded his own achievement by admitting he's been lucky to survive so many close calls... but still, over 1000 is insane.

Anyway, I should probably list my team now, so here it is:

1. Uxie
Name: Wisdom Bro
Item: Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP, 240 Defense, 16 Speed
IVs: 17-x-30-25-30-21
Level 50 Stats: 175-81-198-92-150-112
- Trick
- Thunder Wave
- Stealth Rock
- Memento

*For a completely natural encounter (no RNG abuse, as this was before I learned it), it has pretty nice IVs
*Uxie was the easiest for me to obtain of the defensive Levitating Psychic-type Trick leads
*Uxie's balanced base 130/130 defenses mean it survives attacks from both spectrums, but the Defense investment on mine makes it take physical attacks easily and scoff at their miniscule damage. In some cases it even survives 3 STAB Night Slashes...
*Though Shadow Ball is very common, it's not too problematic since Registeel has Amnesia to get to +6 Sp. Def in just 3 turns, making that attack barely scratch him
*Stealth Rock is something few others have used on Trick leads, and is one thing that sets Uxie apart. So, a Charizard or Moltres switches in on my already set-up Registeel? Iron Head removes their remaining 50% HP easily. More importantly, it removes Focus Sashes, and in most cases lets Steel safely kill things that could otherwise use counterattack moves such as Counter, Metal Burst, etc
*If it had flawless Speed I could invest more EVs into Defense, but in my case the Speed EVs make it just outspeed positive-natured base 100 speed Pokemans when holding the Choice Scarf
*Sometimes it's actually advantageous to be slower even with the Scarf, as after being Tricked an originally faster Pokemon gets to choose a new move to be locked into, and sometimes they choose a different move that's easier to set up on

2. Registeel
Name: HardNess
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP, 140 Defense, 100 Attack, 16 Sp. Defense
IVs: 31-31-31-x-30-31
Level 50 Stats: 187-108-188-79-189-70
- Iron Head
- Substitute
- Curse
- Amnesia

the hardest freaking head in the pokémon universe, nothing breaks its sub after +6/+6 except for CHs, OHKO moves, CB rhyperior and sunny day/blaze fire moves

108 attack gives you 434 after 6 curses, which means a sure 5HKO on Heatran (everything else beside Magnezone and Lanturn should take less turns)

*It's basically the same Registeel as used by garo and Peterko, except with better IVs, surprisingly (obviously this one is RNG abused)
*Like Peterko I made the defenses balanced, and made sure the Sp. Def was 1 point higher than Defense so a Download Porygon2 or Porygon-Z switching in gets a useless Attack boost... but a Download one never switched in during my streak... heh
*Curse is obviously good, as in tandem with Amnesia you get Steel to +6 in both defenses while also getting to +6 Attack from Curse... then you Iron Head everything
*Typically, I faced many Magnezone (4x resistance to Steel attacks) which were annoying, but they deal very low damage to a triple-Amnesia Sub
*Heatran is the biggest threat (yet another reason why it's good to have Garchomp waiting in reserve), as it takes 5 hits from Iron Head, and has STAB Fire moves. Against the Magma Storm and Heat Wave set I can usually stall the attacks out while attacking, but the Flamethrower set is dangerous (see Near Losses below)
*Registeel only died ONCE other than in the battle where I lost, and it was to the aforementioned Heatran

3. Garchomp
Name: Draco II
Item: Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
IVs: 16-31-24-x-21-31
Level 50 Stats: 176-182-112-81-101-169
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Substitute

*Did not die until the battle where I lost
*Very good type-coverage with Registeel
*Loves it when leads get Tricked into Electric moves
*Hey, it's Garchomp
*Can beat most things 1-on-1, assuming no hax
*Didn't get used even half as often as Registeel, due to the moves that enemy leads got Tricked into
*All high streaks require dragons... it's like a rule or something


So, how did I lose in battle 314?

It was against Worker Boyce. He uses Pokemans from this set:

(Fighting & Rock Type, all sets): Blaziken 1-4, Infernape 1-4, Medicham 1-4, Breloom 1-4, Hariyama 1-4, Golem 1-4, Rhydon 1-4, Toxicroak 1-4, Cradily 1-4, Armaldo 1-4, Bastiodon 1-4, Poliwrath 1-4, Heracross 1-4, Rampardos 1-4, Machamp 1-4, Shuckle 1-4, Aerodactyl 1-4, Gallade 1-4, Lucario 1-4, Probopass 1-4, Aggron 1-4, Rhyperior 1-4, Tyranitar 1-4

He leads with 843 | Machamp | Adamant | Quick Claw | Cross Chop | Earthquake | ThunderPunch | Fire Punch | HP/Atk

1. Uxie Tricks, gets Quick Claw ... Machamp locked into Fire Punch (laughable damage to Uxie)
2. Normally I use Thunder Wave now, but it could have Guts, so instead I go for Stealth Rock (takes another wimpy Fire Punch)
3. I then use Memento, so Garchomp can set up on a -2 not-very-effective non-STAB base 75 power move (how utterly weak)
4. Garchomp uses Substitute ... Fire Punch, still Subbed
5. Swords Dance, now at +2 Attack ... Fire Punch critical hit breaks Sub >_>

Hold it there: This is possibly the worst thing about critical hits; they ignore all stat reductions of the user and all defensive boosts on the target... so a critical Fire Punch always breaks the Sub.

6. I Sub again, now at 50% HP ... Fire Punch, CH, Sub breaks
7. Quite frustrated, I Sub yet again, only 25% left now ... Fire Punch, third CH, Sub breaks... f**king hax!

A critical hit has a 1/16 chance of occuring (supposedly), so the chance of 3 consecutive crits is 1 in 4096. GREAT.

8. Though I had Lum Berry to prevent a possible burn status, I didn't want to risk another CH so I then Earthquake, Garchomp at +2 Attack... Machamp faints... no time for relief, though...

Worker Boyce sent out 769 | Infernape | Jolly | King's Rock | Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Earthquake | ThunderPunch | Atk/Spe

Now if you look at all the possible Pokemans he could use, I just happened to be against one of only 3 or so Pokemon that could outspeed Garchomp without the aid of hax. And what do you know!? This Infernape had a Speed-boosting nature >_>

9. Infernape goes first and KOs Garchomp with Earthquake. First time Garchomp died in the entire 313 streak.

10. I know all is lost now... Infernape Close Combats Registeel, I have just enough HP to Sub, and so I'm now Subbed... as if that will help...

11. Close Combat again, breaks Sub, I use Iron Head, and lol I get a critical hit which puts Infernape into the red HP zone (failed revenge... if Infernape has used Close Combat on Garchomp as well, the critical hit would've killed him due to the extra Defense drop...).

12. Flare Blitz, Registeel faints... I didn't care to read what the CPU trainer said, probably something about shorts or bikinis since half the trainers in Pokemon say stuff like that... oh wait, he was a Worker, so probably not.

And looking at the battle video on the Vs Recorder, I see that his 3rd Pokemon was a SHUCKLE. Gah! Registeel could have obliterated that bug with the raise of an eyebrow! Despite the lack of eyebrows...

Surprisingly, I swore less than 5 times upon losing. Maybe I was relieved at having better things to go on with... actually, it's probably because this battle occurred on a ridiculously hot day where I didn't have enough energy to convey my discontent to the game... as though it would care even it could hear...


Near Losses:

Perhaps a testament to how good this team is, there was only one true 'close call' where I flirted with death. It was the only time Registeel fainted other than in my losing battle.

Battle 251 vs. Veteran Costin using Latias, Heatran, Regirock

946 | Latias | Modest | White Herb | Mist Ball | Draco Meteor | Thunderbolt | Surf | SpA/Spe

1. Uxie Tricks and gets the White Herb ... Latias uses Draco Meteor and misses (lol, 10%)
2. Latias is obviously now faster and uses Draco Meteor, a critical hit, Uxie faints >_>
3. I send out Registeel, take only 21 HP damage from the -2 DM, use Substitute
4. DM again, Steel uses Amnesia
5. Same as previous turn, after which DM has no PP left
6. Latias gets a critical hit Struggle but Sub is still intact, I use Amnesia again (now +6)
7. After 3 turns of using Curse, a final Struggle breaks my Sub as Latias faints

Veteran Costin sends out 934 | Heatran | Modest | Brightpowder | Flamethrower | Earth Power | Dragon Pulse | Dark Pulse | HP/SpA

10. Flamethrower hits then I Sub
11. Flamethrower, Sub, Curse, repeat...
+. Now at +6 from Curse, have only done about 50% total damage to Heatran, breaks my Sub
+. Flamethrower on non-Sub Steel burns...
+. Burn damage kills Steel
+. Send out Garchomp, KO with Earthquake (no Brightpowder hax luckily, as it had Dragon Pulse...)
+. Regirock is sent out... oh crap, an unboosted Garchomp with no Sub against something with 200 base Defense...
+. I use Earthquake, critical hit, I win, exclamation mark and sigh of relief

I'll never know if it was this one which could actually kill me without breaking a sweat (a sweating rock... mmyep)

915 | Regirock | Adamant | Razor Claw | Fire Punch | ThunderPunch | Ice Punch | Drain Punch | HP/Atk


Notes About my Streak:

These are some things I learned and/or observed during my streak:

*I encountered very few PI trainers after 200, thankfully
*This might tick off Peterko and especially Jumpman16: I never encountered the Guillotine Kingler
*I also NEVER encountered "gastro from hell" - Sticky Hold lead Gastrodon! Sorry to tell you that, Peterko... I did once face a lead Sticky Hold Muk, but it was set 3 and couldn't really touch Registeel
*One thing I did encounter, 3 times in fact, was a lead Metagross 4 - many Trick team users here are scared of it... for some reason, I found it not at all problematic... I guess I was lucky that it hardly ever got Attack raises, didn't get Quick Claw hax before Trick, and missed quite a few times with MM
*I swear, not once did a Focus Blast user hit less than 4 times on Registeel... acccuracy hax is notorious in the Tower (and most of the time they hit me with 5/5 FBs)
*My luck with Stone Edge from the opponents was equally bad, but at least Garchomp resists it and can stall it out easily...
*Work out the foe's Speed stat with a Choice Scarf if it's a OHKO user... slower means safer
*I was very lucky in terms of Quick Claws - only about 2 times in the entire streak did a lead go first against Uxie via QC... and none of these were OHKO users
*It sucks that Flame Body can affect you through Substitutes... almost lost Registeel to burn damage from a Magmortar
*Flare Blitz is one of the worst moves for an enemy lead to be Tricked into... if Uxie faints before getting to Memento, it's all down to luck with Garchomp
*Seriously, Flare Blitz is too overpowered IMO, as a bit of recoil damage is a very minor drawback for 100% accuracy with 120 base power
*I encountered far too many Blazikens and Infernapes for my liking...
*Choice item leads are bastards, especially Choice Band Brave Bird Staraptor... had somewhat of a dangerous battle after a lead one appeared
*Against Trick Room leads who have been Tricked, think carefully about how to time the setup with Garchomp, and the possibility of Sub breaking from a first-turn attack
*Don't hesitate to use +6 Outrage on Bronzong, every time I used that it was a OHKO
*651 | Dewgong | Calm | Salac Berry | Sheer Cold | Horn Drill | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Def/SpD = Dewgong from hell... had a bad time with a lead one and only survived due to constant misses
*If setting up Garchomp on a Drifblim, never Sub down to 1/4 of your HP... don't take the risk
*Water is the only type my team has no resistance to... hence why I had problems with a lead Gyarados Tricked into Waterfall...
*Never use Thunder Wave on a Pokemon that may have Guts... well, almost never...
*Against moves that hit your weak point for MASSIVE DAMAGE, such as Heracross' Megahorn, don't hesitate to Trick them into these moves, as Registeel can cope with them
*Perhaps the scariest lead I faced was 602 | Lapras | Impish | Quick Claw | Sheer Cold | Perish Song | Sing | Confuse Ray | Def/SpD ... Perish Song messes with many of my usual actions, as the trainer actually switches out... very rare occurrence in any CPU battle

 

[Jumpman16]

hi, nice writeup and awesome video as usual...the one thing i will say right now is that your garchomp shouldn't have 176 hp, as this may have cost you the battle right there. "he probably wouldn't have CHed four times in a row", but seriously an HP divisible by four only helps with pinch berries and possibly sitrus berry depending on how quickly you need your HP back

 

[Rook]

Hi everybody, I decided to take the battle frontier challenge, but first I have a question:

How did you guys manage to fit the tower/castle/arcade list into 8 pages? Mine is currently 28 pages, I can't really see how any amount of fiddling will get me to only 8 pages. :/

Edit: Ignore this, sorry, I got lazy. But, I will use this post to say hello, and you should hopefully be seeing me around here a lot more!

 

[DrDimentio]

hi, nice writeup and awesome video as usual...the one thing i will say right now is that your garchomp shouldn't have 176 hp, as this may have cost you the battle right there. "he probably wouldn't have CHed four times in a row", but seriously an HP divisible by four only helps with pinch berries and possibly sitrus berry depending on how quickly you need your HP back

I noticed the flaw in my Garchomp's HP divisibility even before I started the streak, and I guess the reason I didn't change that would be that this was somewhat of a test, as opposed to my definitive, final attempt at getting my highest streak possible. I also wanted to have a much higher place on the records in the meantime, which I have achieved (will be a while for them to be updated... but I bet you, Jumpman, will knock mine down easily).

So, what am I really trying to say? That I am planning on using something other than Garchomp next time. Yes, I'd be much more satisfied to get an even higher streak using something that has not yet been used on a highly-successful team.

And to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if the rigged Tower gave Machamp a fourth crit, since much worse things can happen.

By the way, your mention of Sitrus Berries got me interested... only trouble is the confusion from Outrage...

Edit: Forgot to mention that one advantage of evenly divisible HP with Sub, is that you won't be subjected to death if, say, the second Poke is Abomasnow... but of course, that's only one Pokemon in the entire Tower, so yeah...

 

[Peterko]

my initial thoughts while reading your nice post Dr.D

1. why didn´t garchomp sub once more against machamp? seriously, breed a better one (that is able to make 4 subs)
2. why didn´t you set up chomp on struggle latias in the other battle?

against special attacking 5 PP stuff just use amnesia on registeel and set up garchomp on struggle (with that awesome defense of his your´s doesn´t have yet, but still) as he´s way more effective against a legendary trainer than steel...

a) there´s a very high probability of facing a fire type legendary, and at the same time
b) your steel isn´t able to fully set up against DM

some of the basic rules of using registeel:
- non fully set up (or like 1 curse away from +6) registeel should (almost) never happen
- even if you´r not fully set up (in that particular case, you "should" have been at more than +3 with and behind a sub), you have to be at least behind a sub at all costs (this is why you should´ve subbed on latias´ last struggle..heatran needs 2 hits to break your sub, so you normally should be able to beat it (CHs throwers occur though)

 

[DrDimentio]

1. why didn´t garchomp sub once more against machamp? seriously, breed a better one (that is able to make 4 subs)

- I already failed several school subjects this year due to time spent playing Pokemon, and as such I have no intention of training a whole new one right now... also, I could just remove its 4 HP EVs with a Berry, then put them in something like Defense or something... would that be a better alternative?

2. why didn´t you set up chomp on struggle latias in the other battle?

against special attacking 5 PP stuff just use amnesia on registeel and set up garchomp on struggle (with that awesome defense of his your´s doesn´t have yet, but still) as he´s way more effective against a legendary trainer than steel...

- Well, unlike you I'm a noob, so I don't know what I'm doing... as I said, I just copied 2/3 of your team and got a rather mediocre record with it. All I ever wanted was a higher place on the records...

a) there´s a very high probability of facing a fire type legendary, and at the same time
b) your steel isn´t able to fully set up against DM

some of the basic rules of using registeel:
- non fully set up (or like 1 curse away from +6) registeel should (almost) never happen
- even if you´r not fully set up (in that particular case, you "should" have been at more than +3 with and behind a sub), you have to be at least behind a sub at all costs (this is why you should´ve subbed on latias´ last struggle..heatran needs 2 hits to break your sub, so you normally should be able to beat it (CHs throwers occur though)

- True, Fire is an abundant type of the Legendary trainers.
- But I don't see how Registeel could have beaten that Heatran even with +6/+6 when it got sent in

Basically, I wasn't even intending to get anywhere near your non-finished record (what now - 1600 yet?), since only the Registeel of mine has 'good' IVs - standards are ridiculously high in this post-RNG era. Although, it depresses me that at the only thing I enjoy in life and devote most of my time to, I still cannot make a noteworthy achievement... I only play this game in an attempt to justify my existence.