SwSh Battle Facilities Discussion & Records

168 in elec still blows my frigging mind. That was a sight to wake up to in the early morning. Even if it resulted in a tie, sb is something else.

Rando Dump VI: Something Old & Something New

I was more excited than anything else for the Mythicals being allowed into Galar, but Crown Tundra still gave me plenty of toys with which to amuse myself. My (well, Coeur's) faithful rando bot EVELYN gorged herself on new additions but was well overdue for an overhaul, namely the setter roll, as well as making the more overpowered stuff more difficult to use. After thinking about it some, I figured sequestering them into their own, perhaps not aptly named category "Heavies" (like Mega Evos previously) was the way to go; however, unlike Megas, I also rolled for the opportunity to be allowed to use them. 2/5 odds seemed like a good place to start, and I was pleased to find that in 40 teams exactly 16 rolls allowed a Heavy to be used, which is 2/5s on the dot. Good girl, EVELYN.

If you're curious, I named the category Heavies instead of the bland "Myth/Legends" after Final Fantasy V's enemy class type. In FFV, an enemy with the Heavy subtype was immune to a number of control effects and instant death; while the OP legendary and mythical pokes aren't immune to those things under normal circumstances, they're still much too difficult for the AI to remove from the field before they can destroy most teams, so I liked the way it sounded.

Obtaining 0 or acceptably low speeds for the several new legends in CT was predictably troublesome. Calyrex took 89 resets, a fraction of what I'd spent last gen, compensating for that low amount by being merciless on the shitty rate of Premier Balls. I also wasn't able to Synchronize them. To speed check, I followed SadisticMystic's suggestion of using an Unnerve poke; if faster, it would proc before As One. I settled for one point higher than a neutral speed at 0IV to increase my odds of finding it, though I still caught four negative-natured duds before landing on the precious zero. Well worth it.

While EVELYN didn't roll each of the new toys at least once, there were more than enough to keep most rolls fresh. I also frequently ran two teams off the same roll, simply because I wanted to use them sooner than later. It ended up being a lot more fun, though I still feel a bit of burnout after all this. I can't take a long hiatus until I've had the chance to try Articuno...

Unlike the previous couple rando dumps I lost several times throughout and I don't think any of these streaks come close to surpassing my personal best.
:oranguru::sudowoodo::cursola::escavalier:
Melmetal allowed. This squad was nearly destroyed by a Lapras2/Dragapult1/Goodra1/Mamoswine1, that last set being one of the reasons I pulled through. Goodra also attempted a Counter from below full health, which allowed me to defeat it without suffering additional punishment.

Sudowoodo was alright, but without Gravity needed a Wide Lens. Compared to the other Head Smash users on my roster it's by far the weakest.

:oranguru::regidrago::diancie::volcarona:
Melmetal denied. I'd forgotten that Diamond Storm is a two-stage boost! I didn't have time to forget that Fairy types were a thing, because this team ran into a ton of them, as well as annoying 252/252+ SpD spreads, which really cut into my efforts for Dragon Energy floor wipes. My first clean Regidrago sweep came to a mono-ice team, of all things. If nothing else, Drago makes excellent Protect bait, and was even taking a lot of things I usually see aimed at the setters, like Entrainment and Trick.

:musharna::yveltal::metagross::bewear:
Absolutely retarded. Yveltal went 10-0 and even OHKO'd Leon's Charizard, sweeping most opponents with only occasional assistance from After You. It's also one of my rare mixed sets, as LO Dark Aura Sucker Punch is too good to pass up. I couldn't resist running Yveltal the moment it was allowed, as it's my favorite 0 speed legendary.

:comfey::slowbro-galar::trevenant::melmetal:
I rolled Landorus for this team and really wanted to run it, but GF kept High Horsepower off its TR listing and I didn't have much that could eat those Earthquakes.

This run featured a lot of pleasurable outcomes off of events that normally would have been irritating. A Sableye attempted to Taunt Comfey in Rime's psyterrain, but it had rolled Prankster and was blocked; Raichu uses Discharge, not only killing its ally Gengar but having the move disabled by Curse Body; Libero Cinderace3 flinches Comfey with Iron Head and ultimately prevents TR being set, and would have made this a downhill battle had Slowbro not QCQD'd 4 consecutive times and simply swept uninhibited. Later, Slowbro would determinedly try to snipe a Wishiwashi with QCQD procs and miss each time because of fucking Brightpowder. The one greatly displeasing outcome from this run was Leon's Rhyperior3 eating a HH boosted Grass Knot. Without Solid Rock, the Rindo wouldn't have prevented the OHKO.

:musharna::dracozolt::pincurchin::rillaboom-gmax:
Xerneas allowed. It seems to me that Polteageist AI likes to use Teatime as long as someone on the field holds a berry, regardless of the berry having an applicable effect; Dracozolt killed its partner T1 and Oranguru2 replaced it; Polteageist used Teatime once more, which looked very odd until realising exactly what happened. This also means that Polteageist has been yeeting the Sitrus Berries I gave to most of my setters! Gah!

This was mostly an easy run, with Room Service Dracozolt having no problem netting OHKOs without the Life Orb usually equipped (given to Coeurchin, as its unboosted damage is often disappointing.) Leon still managed to provide substantial difficulty with Inteleon4/Rhyperior3/Rime3, and I was compelled to dmax for the first time.

:hatterene-gmax::kingler::vikavolt::genesect:
White Kyurem denied. But who cares? Genesect appeared!

The theory that AI chooses moves for its dmax-capable pokes without considering what the move will become as dmax is pretty sound. Eva's Ribombee8 opened with QC Max Guard, and all of the instances I've fought it in recent memory, it's opened with Speed Swap.

Encore! :hatterene-gmax::genesect::kingler::mamoswine:
I had initially thought an Espeon1 Skill Swapped its Magic Bounce with Hatterene, displaying no message because they both kept their original abilties, but SM pointed out the absence of an ability prompt means it swapped with its partner instead.

Genesect is one of the more potent and especially moldable flunkies, being able to use a bunch of different moves to good effect, but I don't believe it's by any means broken. On this particular team, it was running Iron Head/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower/Ice Beam. Iron Head is the least likely to change as at +1 it was ripping most things to shreds.

:oranguru::diancie::shiinotic::xerneas:
Diamond Storm is infuriating when it's inconsistent. During one battle it was used three consecutive times without a single boost. Leon had a backline Aegislash3; despite not leading, it was still a major pain in the ass. The only upside is that it can't use King's Shield and Guru has no trouble using Foul Play on it.

:musharna::omastar::scizor::grimmsnarl-gmax:
Xerneas denied. Power Herb Omastar is fun and quite strong. It spent most battles spewing out souped up Scalds, but there was enough trash left for my backline to get some action as well.

Extra! :comfey::moltres-galar::stunfisk::escavalier:
Moltres was not caught at the time of the mass EVELYN rolling, but I had gotten and trained it that day, and was pretty eager to take it for a spin! Eisen had mentioned a streamer using Weakness Policy Moltres with a Comfey, to not only trip the boost with a weak priority move, but supply Floral Healing for repeated Berserk triggers. It sounded like a lot of fun in randos, even without the speed halving, so I was eager to try it.

I have yet to settle on a spread for it. With Relaxed and full bulk it was incredibly chunky, but needed to be +5/6 to sweep more often than not, and getting there on T1 was not always easy, let alone consistent. But then full bulk did allow for some stupid survivals with crits, and because of Triage it really didn't matter if Moltres couldn't OHKO most things. Fiery Wrath didn't flinch very often, but that rarely mattered, also. Nasty Plot/Fiery Wrath/Air Slash/Protect is the set, though Foul Play was also used for a brief time as HH allowed it some quick OHKOs without boosts.

Stunfisk and Escavalier were hand-picked as backup, and I ran at least 40 battles with this team before moving back to the legitimate rolls.

:porygon2::machamp-gmax::rhyperior::vaporeon:
Necrozma denied and Regice passed over. P2 and Champ solo'd nearly every battle, though with Machamp going Gmax that was to be expected.

:hatterene-gmax::dracovish::roserade::mamoswine:
Yveltal was allowed and almost taken. This team lost battle 7 to a rain team, as Pelipper2/Inteleon4 doubled into Hatterene. My backline couldn't inflict enough damage in time, and Inteleon4 holding a Sash didn't help in the least. I let these guys finish their run.

Revenge! :hatterene-gmax::yveltal::dracovish::mamoswine:
leon fucking asked for it
Extra! :comfey::zygarde::slowbro-galar::escavalier:
While doing some evening cardio I was thinking about Zygarde, as I had learned earlier that Swsh allowed you to freely switch between Aura Break and Power Construct, which made my uncaught Zygarde in X potentially worth something. Unlike SUMO it was not restricted to a regular Poke Ball and could be caught in my preferred Dusk. What's more, the Zygarde Cube in SUMO would even allow any Zygarde to be taught Extremespeed, the one move not imported to its natural movepool in gen8.

Why Zygarde? Because like Moltres, it could be EV'd to be stupidly bulky, had an excellent spread move, and was easy fodder for Comfey's Draining Kiss. Unlike Moltres, I pumped its Atk full of EVs and intended to let most of its HP come from the sickening Power Construct boost. Unsurprisingly, it excelled for the few runs I tried it, in no small part because Thousand Arrows is an idiotic spammy move and Zygarde almost never needed to click anything else. The frequent T1 Coil, or a stray Espeed or Outrage here and there, but otherwise it was all arrows all the time. Like Moltres, life clung to Zygarde like a disease, though perhaps it didn't rely on Floral Healing as much.

Oh, did I mention my absurd luck in catching this thing with 0 speed without even checking it as the battle started? I couldn't believe it!

:diancie::slowking-galar::centiskorch::cresselia:
Ho-oh denied, and this was a tough roll all around. It included Weezing, Roserade and Rhyperior, to overlap weaknesses all over the place. I would eventually begin running semi-mono teams for the fun of it, but in the meantime I was more interested in some semblance of balance.

Neither of Slowking's signatures appealed to me. I was far more likely to kill my own WP or Hammer Arm drops with Curious Medicine than a stray Intimidate, so Regen was the only choice. Eerie Spell looked like a cool move until I noticed it was 80BP with 5PP, which seemed hardly justified for randos, where 3PP loss was not going to do much. While this did kind of make it bring nothing to the table I wasn't already getting with Slowbro, GF did decide to give Slowking 110 SpA, so at least it was hitting a fair bit harder. I decided to make an offensive setter out of him, and ended up enjoying it, as the Sitrus Berry was consumed fairly often and Belch packed quite a wallop.

As for the run, this team was nearly ripped apart by a Dracozolt4 and won because of Cress coming in clutch with Ally Switch. These guys also had a rough start against lead Weavile4 and Impostor Ditto.

:mimikyu::lapras-gmax::metagross::torkoal:
White Kyurem denied. This was a mostly merciless sweep by the frontline, though two separate battles were handled largely by Metagross and Torkoal. I hated Mimikyu as a setter last gen but it's really been earning its keep as of late.

During the Leon battle, Dragapult burned Mimikyu with Scald on the Disguise break, and Aegislash would Shadow Ball it to 1HP. ...but TR went up, and that's all that mattered!

:oranguru::tapu lele::lurantis::blastoise-gmax:
Magearna denied. This team faced Escavalier1/Aegislash4 leads, which is very scary looking when you don't yet know the sets. I attempted to Foul Play the snail while Mindstorming it before realising that it was quite harmless. Later, Dusknoir would lead with Pincurchin and match my TR as I damaged the urchin with Psychic; I figured the AI would try that again, and it did, so I happily obliged Lele with Instruct to finish the urchin off.

:mesprit::haxorus::frosmoth::dhelmise:
Yveltal denied. I expected nothing of Mesprit and was very pleasantly surprised, particularly with its help in killing everything. It used Helping Hand as a fourth move, but I wouldn't have minded running a third attack. TR was still prevented once by a Dracovish4, and Haxorus/Frosmoth had to sweep without it. Unlike the past few teams, everyone on this squad got their fair share of screen time.

:musharna::aurorus::marowak-alola::celesteela:
Melmetal allowed. A ballsy move in not running Protect on Aurorus, instead trying to plan around fighting attacks going into Marowak (in hindsight I could have forsaken Mush's Psychic for Ally Switch.) Things ended up working out as hoped, and Aurorus was quite the destructive force if not immediately threatened. I love Meteor Beam. If I were to put Protect back on the set, I have no idea which move I'd reluctantly part with.

Celesteela was every bit as hard to kill as in tree, and a wrecking ball once she got those metal bamboo arms moving.

:mimikyu::tapu fini::dhelmise::drednaw:
Yveltal denied. This might've been the first time Drednaw was run on a team that successfully completed its venture without losing to Leon or someone else. Fini missed only a single Swagger out of every attempt, a nice surprise. This allowed Mimi to get to killing as soon as TR was up.

:cresselia::ferrothorn::politoed::beartic:
Yveltal denied. Ferro was attacked relentlessly by the AI, but at +3/3, which made them take tons of chip damage. It was also allowed to freely set up in the face of a Mamoswine1/Gourgeist1. Ally Switch was used cleverly to anticipate a Ditto attempting to transform into an abuser and instead force it to turn into Cress, which without that base HP was felled very quickly to Weather Ball.

Leon would lead Cinderace1 and lock into Fire Pledge because of Ferro, then refuse to switch after Politoed ate the pledge and began to leisurely nuke the rest of his team. At one point Cress would AS herself into Rime's Freeze Dry and be frozen, only to immediately eat another Fire Pledge and be thawed. Thanks Ace!

:gourgeist::coalossal-gmax::octillery::grimmsnarl-gmax:
Ho-oh denied. I unfairly put Gourgeist back into Home not long after importing it, originally because I had the other Grass/Ghost types which were more appealing. But Gourgeist has made a terrific setter and Ally Switch user, and with Power Whip and Poltergeist added to its moveset, it can inflict a nice sum of damage. Supersized has great bulk.

With Coalossal by its side, the backline saw no use.

:musharna::dragonite::armaldo::copperajah:
Kyurem Denied. In my haste to swat a Vikavolt, I neglected to note that the trainer using it could dmax, which it did.

I also suffered a loss to Leon with this team. I couldn't predict Aegislash1's KS usage worth a damn, which wasted what little time I had left after making the necessary KOs to Zard and Rhyperior3. Bad time to be running three physical abusers.

:cofagrigus::greedent::metagross::yveltal:
NEVER CROSS ME AGAIN LEON

Leon would bring Aegislash1 again but be swept by Metagross of all things, who took Zard down in a glorious Explosion.
:slowking-galar::dracovish::araquanid::victini:
Kyurem denied. A lead Water Absorb Quagsire4 and Avalugg2 would create some slight problems, more than Leon's Inteleon2 Baton Passing +2 evasion to Zard.

Encore! :gourgeist::victini::araquanid::dracovish:
Dracovish did too much of the killing last run, and I was dissatisfied with the amount of screen time given to newcomer Victini. Gourgeist's Frisk was a godsend in determining which between it and Victini should set TR. Plenty of rampaging with V-Create was had, including a Shiinotic/Escavalier combo and a couple of Dittos.

:cresselia::guzzlord::golisopod::stunfisk:
Xerneas denied. Because of the Sitrus Berry being on so many things including the Slowking I initially ran alongside Cress, she instead has been holding a Mental Herb and I haven't been missing the healing. No amount of health would've mattered the one time Cress fainted, to Sheer Cold (what else?) ... (yes yes horn drill and guillotine i get it)

Leon's Seismitoad2 and Rhyperior34 posed a challenge for building momentum, but Guzzlord was nonetheless able to sweep.

Encore! :cresselia::regidrago::golisopod::stunfisk:
I also rolled Regidrago and wanted to give it a second try, this time with helpings of hands and AS.

While it did have considerably more floor wipings this time, I was still running into "too many" fairies for my liking and encountered no Shedinjas I would've needed to Crunch. Running some quick calcs after the fact, HH Explosion without investment does severely damage or outright kill some Fairy types, but it's not enough to just make me delete Dragon Pulse or Protect, which are crucial. Crunch is just there, but without it the team would've been in checkmate the moment a Shedinja appeared, barring some stupid miracle like Sandstorm active from its partner and it being a set other than Safety Goggles.

:gourgeist::arctovish::vikavolt::kommo-o:
Melmetal allowed. Backline Vikavolts typically carry Assault Vest for eating grass/elec better for leads like Arctovish, but dumb luck with enemy assortment just as often renders that moot.

:slowbro::genesect::coalossal-gmax::gardevoir:
Xerneas denied. Because this was a backline Coalossal, I used my physical Flash Fire variant and it ended up being quite useful in that regard. I still had a rough battle with Ultan's Copperajah4.

:comfey::ho-oh::druddigon::octillery:
Merciless slaughter. Occasionally I think I'd like having Druddigon use Gunk Shot again, but can't bring myself to delete Crunch/Fire Punch/Rock Slide for it, so away it continues to stay.

:jellicent-f::gigalith::tsareena::magnezone:
White Kyurem allowed. The last time I'd tried WP Gigalith it was a disaster, with burns all over the place; B1T1 featured a Flareon do exactly that with Will-O-Wisp and I'd feared it was a sign of things to come. Fortunately, that was not the case and afterward things went as they ideally would on paper. The team had a nice smooth sailing overall.

:musharna::arctozolt::frosmoth::darmanitan-galar:
Xerneas denied. This team had an extremely close battle 4, during which Icicle Crash missed Mudsdale and resulted in a OHKO; Darma enters, OHKOs Mudsdale and meets Sudowoodo; the Dugtrio that led protected, and because I hadn't doubled into Sudowoodo, I lose Darma to it. I pick the two of them off and am met with Steelix. As a Hail Mary I dmax and opt to HH Hailstorm, and not only is Steelix not Sturdy, it attempted to Heavy Slam and failed.

TR was prevented during battle 7 by a Shiftry/Bisharp pair; as for Leon, he'd bring Rime3/Aegislash1/Rillaboom1 and Darmanitan was able to easily dispose of them. HH Flare in Sun was used to OHKO Aegis in shield form.

Encore! :diancie::buzzwole::excadrill::dragapult:
Fuck Arctovish4. All the fossil4s are nasty, but I routinely get QC spammed by this one the most. I fought them multiple times, and in addition to consecutive procs I repeatedly lost this roll: 252+ Atk Buzzwole Hammer Arm vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Arctovish: 158-188 (96.9 - 115.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO ...infuriating.

Leer from Mold Breaker Haxorus plus High Horsepower would prevent TR and force Dragapult to sweep Leon, which it managed to do fairly easily. This was the special attacking Life Orb user, Modest with 252 speed. Part of any nutritious TR lineup!

:magearna::mimikyu::sylveon::gastrodon:
Leon would lead Rillaboom1 and open with Snarl, and that one debuff was enough to prevent Magearna from making a clean sweep.

:jellicent-f::regirock::dhelmise::arctovish:
Xerneas allowed. Harvey with Rillaboom3/Flareon2/Cherrim3/Umbreon3 came to a 1v1, and a dual Rock Slide miss in the beginning did not help.

:musharna::crustle::tyrantrum::diancie:
Yveltal allowed. Like the Ice team, these guys actually managed a pretty easy run overall. As disappointed as I am with the sparse TR distribution to a lot of my new toys, I can at least rejoice that Tyrantrum received a lot of love, between High Horsepower and Close Combat.

Encore! :musharna::azumarill::conkeldurr::escavalier:
Mush would flinch from a Thievul Dark Pulse as Azumarill switched into Escavalier, learning the Dracozolt was set3 (Thunderbolt); knowing a Flamethrower is incoming, I switch back to Azumarill and eat a burn from that very attack, but not before Thievul Parting Shots Azumarill to add insult to injury. FML
:gourgeist::tapu fini::diggersby::politoed:
Necrozma denied. Diggersby loved Swagger boosts in terrain and because of them was often able to click High Horsepower in defiance of the type chart.

:oranguru::arctozolt::chandelure::tyranitar:
Magearna allowed. I've used Chandelure in TR quite a lot, and this set has not changed in several years, yet I'm still occasionally surprised by its damage. 145 and all that but I usually expect 90BP spread moves to suck without any boosts. I enjoyed eating a number of special hits with AV Tyranitar. I did not enjoy playing around Oranguru's Instruct being one point faster than it.

:dusclops::metagross::krookodile::togekiss:
Melmetal allowed. Krookodile with Lash Out appreciated Bulldoze from Dusclops a lot more than Metagross, since it could incur speed drops for Lash Out and easy Moxie boosts; Bulldoze tripped Metagross' WP, sure, but Clear Body prevented speed cuts. The floor effect was able to let a Vaporeon undercut Metagross and later finish it off before it could detonate.

:dusclops::carracosta::dhelmise::indeedee:
Magearna denied. B1T1, a Seaking freezes Clops with Blizzard, but thankfully the thawing comes immediately; Carracosta's WP tripped only twice, but there were plenty of Rock Slide flinches. Equally plenty were enemy Inteleon sets. Despite not dmaxing once, customary for a number of WP users, Carracosta continued its acceptable behavior of being a beast in TR.

:dusclops::kommo-o::hydreigon::drampa:
Xerneas denied, and, just, damn. This feels very similar to the one awful randos team I ran in tree, that made me declare semi-dragon as a failed experiment I would never attempt again. Obviously, I learned nothing, but I can easily blame that on all the fun I had running the three other semi-monotyped teams earlier in these batches of rolls. Anyway, I think I fought a fairy at least once per battle, and while Kommo was able to outspeed and OHKO two of them (Weezing, Mawile) those faster than it resulted in bloody and forced sacking. I lucked out with a Cherrim setting sun for me in one battle, which let HH bring Flare to lethal levels for an Alcremie & friends. Battle 9, on the other hand, brought a Diggersby and Togekiss, who promptly murdered Kommo and set me up for an easy loss had Diggersby not left Drampa alone and gone for Clops, allowing it to finally destroy Togekiss and sweep from there.

I'd expected Leon to be easier, since he lacked any fairies, but he still put up a hell of a fight. I won thanks to Aegislash1 Sword Dancing on its final turn instead of attempting a KO, and Rillaboom4 targeting the healthy (and dmaxed) Drampa with Superpower and not Hydreigon. This left both of mine alive enough to deliver OHKOs.

:musharna::tapu bulu::arctozolt::sandaconda-gmax:
Magearna denied. Leon's Rime4 froze Musharna with Blizzard and on top of never thawing, Arctozolt couldn't withstand much abuse from Rime afterward, and my Ice weaks sure as hell were not going to accomplish anything without Mush. I was feeling the effects of so much playing by this point and couldn't really be mad. My coworker suggested we watch an hour of anime (Fire Force), so we did.

:hatterene-gmax::togedemaru::sirfetchd::palossand:
Yveltal denied. It's not a full rando dump without at least one FEARdemaru team!

:mimikyu::silvally::conkeldurr::volcanion:
Necrozma denied. Eight out of the ten battles, Silvally killed the frontline along with itself. One of those attempts not made involved a Jellicent and Seaking, made more annoying when I attempted to Thunderpunch the fish and learned it was Lightningrod.

Encore!: :musharna::salamence::thundurus-therian::volcanion:
The return of one of the most inexcusably bad sets I've ever created, completely left out of last gen for that very reason! Hone Claws Mence, with Dragon Rush, Iron Tail and Stone Edge. Intimidate, not Moxie, because I'm not just dumb, I figured HH was all it needed to KO anything so bulky to withstand any hits. But forget about that!

I loved Volcanion for both runs with it. It held an Assault Vest and was very bulky, compensating for its generally meh speed by hitting extremely hard. Both times it delivered the OHKO to Leozard with vanilla Steam Eruption. I lucked out versus some bulky ground types, as they preferred to target Musharna instead. I ran Solarbeam on it, though as a circumstantial move it predictably didn't see a ton of use. I loved the quad resist to ice and fire, and having an auto-thaw if I needed it. I absolutely look forward to using it more; more than the other mythicals, even.

:hatterene-gmax::abomasnow::bouffalant::runerigus:
Melmetal denied. Abomasnow made much better bait than I'd hoped, drawing every single Fake Out and Steel attack the enemy frontlines dared to launch! Most enemies weren't too bulky to withstand its average assault (pre-WP) as well.

:diancie::dracozolt::omastar::golisopod:
Calyrex denied. I had a scary T1 miss against an Artist's Escavalier, but like the surprise Escavalier1s, this one was the equally trashy set2. Dracozolt missed a few times this particular battle, but thankfully landed everything else it used. I missed Room Service at times, but LO Hustle is just so frigging strong.

Encore! :mimikyu::calyrex-ice::golisopod::kommo-o:
Denial or not, I don't care, I want to use it!

I never doubted for an instant that Calyrex would be really dumb, and lo and behold. It never fainted once and, because of its typing, the AI launched plenty of attacks at it; 100/150/130 says "lol"

Even with the spread penalty, Glacial Lance inflicted retarded damage and netted multiple floor wipes, though I still used a few Horsepowers and some Zen Headbutts. I'm still struggling to choose between Heavy Slam and Seed Bomb for a fourth move. Both have their uses, but both also have the handicap of being mostly redundant the moment Calyrex hits +2, which is not particularly hard to do. Waters are common enough that Seed Bomb may be more useful for picking up T1 OHKOs if Lance is somehow not a good call.
It's time for bed. I hope that makes a nice skim for the randos fans.
 
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I joined with the same group as last time (doctordoak, JustinTR, Ullar) yesterday night for our second run, and this one brought us a whopping 157 Dynite Ore!

View attachment 287705
Huh, has anyone figured out the rewards formula for Dynite Ore for endless mode? I thought it was "number of wins * deepest floor reached", which matched everything until this post since 157 isn't a multiple of 31. The endless bonus does not look like either a multiplier cap or a hard cap, which is confusing me.
 
Do you have a listing of all the sets you use in these random battles? This looks like a ton of fun.
I do, as a matter of fact, though it is woefully dated to around the time before Isle of Armor was released. If you're really curious I could take the time to update it. I trade them to Eisen while feeding his own pokes candies, and they routinely hurt his brain, so, view at your own risk.

That being said, randos is a ton of fun, and it's one of the best ways to enjoy gen8's tower in spite of the changes most people dislike. Eisen and Josh have messed with random teams plenty themselves, albeit with their own unique methods, and the more the merrier! The only really time consuming part is making several boxes of mons to use, if you don't already have them, but I've been accumulating these since gen V and some a little earlier.

P Mystery Edit: Ask and ye shall receive. Quality not guaranteed.
 
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I do, as a matter of fact, though it is woefully dated to around the time before Isle of Armor was released. If you're really curious I could take the time to update it. I trade them to Eisen while feeding his own pokes candies, and they routinely hurt his brain, so, view at your own risk.

That being said, randos is a ton of fun, and it's one of the best ways to enjoy gen8's tower in spite of the changes most people dislike. Eisen and Josh have messed with random teams plenty themselves, albeit with their own unique methods, and the more the merrier! The only really time consuming part is making several boxes of mons to use, if you don't already have them, but I've been accumulating these since gen V and some a little earlier.

P Mystery Edit: Ask and ye shall receive. Quality not guaranteed.
Thanks a lot for the list! I have a friend who just returned to playing Pokemon after not playing since DPP, and the one thing he said that he missed the most was the Battle Factory, so these random teams seem like the closest substitute. We also used to play a lot of Challenge Cup in Pokemon Stadium 2 many years ago, which was always his favorite way to play the game.

As for the sets, I'm surpised to see how much you prefer Iron Ball over Room Service. I always assumed that the initial speed before Trick Room would come in handy more often than your item choice indicates. It's also odd to see that the NPCs don't have any sets with Iron Ball in Sword and Shield, because they used the item a bit in previous generations' battle facilities. That definitely makes underspeeding them easier.
 
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Iron Ball vs Room Service is usually a pretty one-sided contest for most things. Preferably your speed will lie in the 40s, and 49 is automatically hit by base 50s. Something at base 75 like Dracozolt will hit 48 after triggering Room Service. It’s my favorite user of the item because that T1 speed you mentioned is enough to OHKO annoying slowmons like Wobbuffet if it leads, as you won’t get the Bolt Beak multiplier with TR up (in my experience Wobbs will always try to Encore the setter.)

But I digress. I have so many things with 80 speed or higher that Iron Ball is necessary just to get them to an acceptable benchmark, but this also puts those 80s at sub-40, which only increases the number of things they outspeed (like some negative-natured 30s.) Battles in randos can frequently take the full run of TR to complete, which makes the T1 advantage less useful. Using items for things besides speed is always ideal, but most of my Iron Ball users have 125 offense or better, so they don’t have problems with damage.

Those Iron Ball AI users were a real thorn in my side in earlier gens, especially Conkeldurr and Avalugg. I don’t miss them, but at least they’re not as nasty as the set4 fossils this gen!

Factory was always the inspiration behind randos, though I hated the facility RNG and always thought it was too punishing given the likelihood of having only poor quality sets to choose from. Using seven boxes of my own sets keeps the randomness intact and lets me look forward to trying them. Even better, there’s no need to trade in between battles and it’s much less likely that I get nothing but trash.
 
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Note: while playing this streak I noticed that some Pokemon are missing from the Honkalculator for Restricted Sparring. I noticed Gourgeist, Sirfetch'd, and both types of Lycanroc. But there could be more, those are just ones I spotted on my streak.

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After seeing all the new Rock types in the Tundra, I thought it would be a good time to pick this mode back up. First try was a fossil-based team, Kabutops/Terrakion/Cradily, which I got 25 with in the end. Kabutops ended up a bit useless and generally just died, but every time I put Terrakion first I got the worst matchups, so it just ended up like this.
However, Nihilego also joins in Tundra and seemed much more promising.

The Team:

Nihilego @ Black Sludge
Beast Boost
Timid, 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd
Power Gem
Sludge Wave
Grass Knot
Psychic


Beast Boost is amazing for this mode, of course! I had considered lowering the SpAtk evs and putting more into HP, so that Nihilego's Speed was chosen for Beast Boost instead. But actually, the Pokemon it's important to outspeed seemed fewer than the ones it's important to OHKO. The matchups it would have the most effect on are Barraskewda, Boltund, and Alakazam, which did cause problems (particularly Barraskewda!).
The handy thing about boosting SpAtk is that using Max Ooze is not required for boosting. Sludge Wave doesn't have great PP, so that's pretty helpful. I spotted Acid Spray in the moveset, which has great PP, but the 20 less base power as a Max Move seemed pretty large to me. Beast Boost does have to watch out for opponents dying to Sandstorm, which will not give you the boost.
Speaking of PP, though, Power Gem and Grass Knot are great. Power Gem is the standard damage-dealing move both in and out of Dynamax. Setting up a sandstorm, with Nihilego's SpDef, makes almost all Special attacks do just a tickle. And Max Overgrowth is great to have on hand to speed up healing, and deal with Water types which would usually be a problem for Rock teams.
The last slot could also have been filled with Dazzling Gleam, which deals much better with Dragons, Dark types, and Gallade. But the main problem is Scizor. After several early attempts died to a Scizor lead, I decided I had to do something. Scizor technically has a chance of dying to Max Rockfall, but the range is awful. Every time I've seen Scizor, it used Swords Dance 1st turn and then swept the whole team with Bullet Punch. So, if I could set up Psychic Terrain turn 1, I could then kill it turn 2 with no fear of priority. However, since making this moveset change, I've never faced a Scizor lead, and so have killed it handily with a boosted Max Rockfall.
Nihilego's main problems are with physical Ground moves and with Steel types. Most of the threats to Nihilego can be handled by Cradily, but the Steel types are scary for the whole team. But overall, very few Pokemon can stand up to Nihilego.


Terrakion @ Shell Bell
Justified
Jolly, 4Hp / 252Atk / 252Spd
Sacred Sword
Iron Head
Rock Slide
Zen Headbutt


This one seems pretty familiar, perhaps. I used Terrakion on my Kabutops team, where it did all the work. I found I wasn't able to use it much - it can't actually switch in to many things. But if Nihilego happens to die without the rest of the team going down too, Terrakion does an excellent job, just like in the other Rock streaks. Unfortunately by the time it gets in like this it's already taken some hits, so it doesn't do as well as it otherwise could.
Zen Headbutt goes in slot 4 here for the same reason Psychic does on Nihilego - because I'm terrified of Bullet Punch!


Cradily @ Leftovers
Storm Drain
Bold, 252HP / 252Def / 4SpDef
Leech Seed
Giga Drain
Recover
Earthquake


I never expected this fossil to be the one to stand out from the rest. But Cradily has proved to be a reliable tank, for the most part. The Ground moves that give the rest of the team such trouble are handled nicely by Cradily, and Storm Drain is an amazing ability to have on a Rock team. For example, Barraskewda, which is a huge threat to the team, can be Giga Drained to death without Cradily taking too much damage. It also gets the unfortunate job of dealing with Boltund, Goodra, Golurk, Magneton, Poliwrath, Rhyperior, and Trevenant. It kind of struggles with some of these, but can usually Recover to stall out things that do too much damage, or Giga Drain their health away.
That 4th slot is a bit of a problem. On my Kabutops team it was Sludge Wave, to deal with Grass types. But Nihilego takes care of those easily, so I put in Earthquake since Magneton is such a problem, and since I wanted to do damage to Goodra. Of course the Bold nature now works against me. The slot is still under consideration, but I want it to be an attack so that I'm not completely useless against Sap Sipper.


The Streak:
Unfortunately my memory is quite bad, and I didn't make any notes as I went. I was conscious as I was playing that my play was pretty bad. At first I was reluctant to switch out to Lileep unless absolutely necessary - I could have saved some early damage and a lot of PP. But I got a bit better as I went. There was an early issue where an attempt to kill a Milotic while giving Nihilego the Beast Boost while also avoiding the Scald burn had both Nihilego and Cradily frozen and injured, but I managed to get them unfrozen and heal their injuries with a lot of switching as Leech Seed recovered health. But Nihilego died quite fast, and at around 12 wins I took the first heal.
I misplayed in the next batch too and ended up healing somewhere around 20. But the last stretch lasted the same amount as both those sections combined.
At some point in the 30s I had to deal with Magneton, and instead of going for the kill it used Thunder Wave on Cradily, then Magnet Rise to dodge Earthquake. It died to Leech Seed, leaving Cradily at full health but paralysed. Then at 42 I faced a Barraskewda, with Cradily in red health. Stupidly I tried to Dynamax Nihilego and take the hit, but Drill Run crit, which I should have expected, and Cradily also died since its health was low. I should have sacrificed Cradily, probably. Then Barraskewda used Accupressure instead of killing Terrakion and died. Terrakion managed to take down the next few teams on its own, but ended up at around half health. Match 46 started with Ribombee, which outsped and KO'd Terrakion.


Major threats:
Klingklang, Perrserker, Scizor, Escavalier - Physical Steel Types that don't die in one hit to Nihilego. Scizor caused problems before but never ended up in that dangerous 1st slot this time. Perrserker I think caused me to take a heal earlier in the run. Klingklang did not show up this run, fortunately for the run, since I have little way to deal with it. But it ended some others handily. Escavalier can also do huge damage to every team member. Cradily can stall it out a bit with recover, but I seem to remember it ending an earlier run.
Barraskewda - despite my reliable strategy of switching to Cradily, this still is a major threat to the team, since it's fast and powerful and Drill Run usually crits.
Magneton, Magnezone - Actually quite different. Magneton really is a big threat - even Nihilego struggles with Flash Cannon, while being unable to do anything in return. It can paralyze as well. Seems like a huge threat to any Rock team.
Magnezone on the other hand is not as bad as I feared, or at least it wasn't the one time I faced it. It didn't try and use Steel Beam, the scary move, and Max Rockfall knocked it low enough that it wouldn't be able to anyway. It does have Screens though.
Alakazam - wasn't too bad when I faced it. More annoying for its Screens than for doing damage - Nihilego loses a third of its health in Dynamax and OHKOs in return. Also Cradily can Recover just well enough to deal with Psychic.
Golurk - could be a threat, but I was lucky enough to get a good range with Max Overgrowth when I faced it. A bad roll and a Dynamicpunch hit would be scary.
Poliwrath/Politoed - Oddly I haven't face them yet. They could be scary as leads, though I think Politoed would be more manageable, and could be taken care of by Cradily.
Goodra - a bit of a problem. Cradily has to Earthquake it down until Nihilego can take it out.
Steelix - actually fine in this run somehow? The cause of my only Cradily dynamax, since its most damaging moves don't work on Dynamax.
Beheeyem - this could actually do a decent chunk of damage to Nihilego with Psychic, since it survives 1 hit. It just chose not to.
Trevenant - This one surprised me. But it's got Earthquake, and resists or is immune to almost everything Cradily can throw at it. Cradily can Recover from most of its attacks, but that's a lot of PP to wear down...


What now:
After my run ended I came to the conclusion that Terrakion, which can deal with the Scary Steels a bit better, should be the lead rather than Nihilego. Terrakion also really struggled to switch into things, wheras Nihilego should be able to switch into special attacks sometimes. I also need to just get better at playing! This team can definitely go much further with better play. If I find an opportunity I could probably heal the team up all the way with Leech Seed. I need to consider switching more. And I've also been considering the possibility of not Dynamaxing with Nihilego when an OHKO with a regular move (that isn't Sludge Wave) is open, leaving the possibility of saving the Dynamax if I have to switch out.
 
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EmXPokDU0AEYdKW



Myself, Ullar and some discord friends got an Endless Dynamax Adventure streak of 42 on stream today!


Our deaths all came on the 11th floor, our team was weak to the Water legend at the end, so we opted to fight Altaria > Abomasnow > Bouffalant, and the Altaria just set Cotton Guard and walled our four physical attackers to death. Abomasnow took a kill as well, leaving us on one life remaining for Bouffalant who killed our weakened Azumarill to end the whole thing. We had been at it for over 3 hours and had started to play sloppy, as well as getting carried away with trying to get Swagger Sharpedo > Power-up Punch + Power Swap Grimmsnarl > Marowak against Altaria. I think we could have kept going otherwise!

This mode is so damn fun so I think we'll try breaking this again sometime when I know we have 3+ hours to kill lol
 
I didn't expect Fairy to give me so much trouble, especially after Crown Tundra released all the Tapus. I initially wanted a triple Tapu team, but that fell through very quickly when I realized Koko and Lele were not particularly great in RS. I spent a lot of time working on a Tapu Koko / Tapu Fini / Alcremie-Gmax team, then I drifted to a Togekiss / Tapu Fini / Tapu Bulu team, and finally, I came back to the old school...

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S E T S
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Jolly | Disguise
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 236 Spe
Swords Dance / Play Rough / Shadow Claw / Wood Hammer

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Timid | Super Luck
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 52 HP / 4 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Air Slash / Draining Kiss / Flamethrower / Nasty Plot

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Modest | Misty Surge
IVs: 31/2/31/HT/31/HT
EVs: 44 HP / 12 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Surf / Moonblast / Draining Kiss / Calm Mind

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Many of the available Fairies are very good, especially when it comes to bulky switch-ins, but a handful of threats in RS are extremely oppressive for Mono Fairy (Magneton, Magnezone, Scizor, Klinklang, Garbodor, Escavalier, Steelix, Torkoal...). Tapu Bulu, Clefable, Sylveon... good Pokémon, but they don't offer a reliable switch-in into those threats, and therefore do very little to strengthen Mono Fairy's matchup. One thing I found to be very clear in early testing is that Fini was by far the best all-around switch-in to handle what my leads hated, and it doubled up as a very good sweeper. Togekiss I absolutely loved using as a lead, but if I was going to add Mimikyu, the lead was the only spot that made sense for it, so I relegated Togekiss to secondary sweeper for when Mimikyu would be out of PP, and Tapu Fini was going to be the backline glue that supported them both.

I changed Mimikyu's EVs from my Ghost run to outspeed Dedenne, since that was guaranteed to give me trouble and at the very least waste a lot of my PP. My initial plan was to run a bulkier Fini set and rely on setting up, but since it switched in on threats that it doesn't really wall (Scizor, Froslass, Magneton, etc.), it ended up needing enough firepower to dispose of them quickly. Max speed allows it to outspeed (and OHKO, if need be) Passimian, as well as Pikachu, Braviary and a couple other relevant enough threats that I didn't want to cut speed at all. 196 SpA ensures Surf will 2HKO Scizor and Max Geyser will OHKO Froslass without any boosts. The first few times I switched Fini on Froslass, I tried to setup and Draining Kiss the HP back, but Poltergeist does too much damage for it to be worthwhile, and Fini ends the encounter well below half HP, which is bad (if Poltergeist always hits). While instantly Dmaxing is usually not ideal, I found it to be the best option, and Fini is usually not in a bad spot above half HP with Rain-boosted Max Geysers at its disposal.

In typical RS fashion, my first run with this team brought me a great 1st leg, in which I healed at 46; Mimikyu exhausted all of its PP on battle 33, and then Togekiss was able to carry for quite a while, to the point Air Slash PP was running low. Leg 2 went poorly almost instantly when an Accelgor Sludge Bomb poisoned Mimikyu, and I quickly gave up. The next few runs presented me with more bad luck than I've ever encountered in RS. Not a single leg went by without multiple encounters with the magnets (one of my runs was ended by a team of Magnezone / Magneton / Escavalier, lol). It looked like I was going to successfully make it out alive (though injured) until I found out this cursed calc: +2 252 Atk Mimikyu Max Phantasm (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Escavalier: 165-195 (97.6 - 115.3%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO. Of course, Escavalier lived, and Metal Bursted the calc back into Mimikyu's (real) face.

Another run ended in cruel fashion when I decided to switch out Mimikyu into Fini on a Kingdra lead to make sure no Blizzard freeze happens on the setup, only for Kingdra to hit and crit 2 Sniper Hydro Pumps in a row on Fini, KOing it. Ironically, its initial Blizzard actually missed. So much for playing it safe...

One interesting thing I've noticed as I ended up doing many runs is the AI's peculiar behavior in front of Disguise. I talked about it in my Mono Ghost report, but I've had more chances to study it this time around, and it definitely throws you for a loop if you're used to regular RS AI behavior. If there's one conclusion I would draw, it's that absolutely any move can be used by the opponent except for attacks Mimikyu is immune to. At times, the move selection seems completely random (it definitely pays very little respect to type resistance or effectiveness, or to move base power, 2 things that are usually always taken into account). But anecdotally, it seemed like the AI slightly favored attacking over using status moves (which is a change for Pokémon that usually always use a status move on turn 1, like Wishiwashi or Cramorant), and crazily enough, the AI seemed to favor their least damaging move. Lopunny goes for Triple Axel, Drapion goes for Poison Fang, Sirfetch'd goes for Grassy Glide... I've even seen Volcarona use Struggle Bug. These are moves I don't think I've seen the AI use against any other team in the past. This can make switching into things really tricky, because the AI can basically be going for anything on those turns, while usually it's mostly possible to predict what you'll be switching into.

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I was really trying to get to 120 with the team since legs of 40+ were relatively common, but I'm glad I was at least able to pass 100. The 1st leg was overall good, Mimikyu was able to go through all of its PP and lasted until battle 34, where I dynamaxed Mimikyu with only 2 attacks left, not that it ended up being an issue...

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(+6 Struggle allowed to save one of Fini's PP!)

Togekiss was only able to carry me to 43 afterward, which still makes for a good leg, but it's not uncommon for Togekiss to carry ~15 battles along with Fini, so this was a bit disappointing.

Things unfortunately didn't improve for Togekiss after the heal... somewhere in the mid-50s, Amoonguss came out as the 3rd Pokémon against Mimikyu; Misty Terrain was up, so I went for a +2 Phantasm on the last Dmax turn, Amoonguss unsurprisingly Clear Smogged my boost... and Misty Terrain disappeared, as Dmax ended. I could finish it with a simple Shadow Claw, but I was terrified of Effect Spore. Amoonguss had yet to Ingrain, and I decided that the odds of Spore incoming were lower than the odds of Effect Spore, so I made a bold switch to Togekiss to finish it off with Flamethrower. Togekiss was at full, but Lycanroc had set Rocks I had forgotten about, so the switch itself hurt... and Spore came out. And then Amoonguss went straight for the Clear Smog and crit! Things were looking very bad, but I didn't want to leave Togekiss asleep in the backline, there are almost no Pokémon I could safely stall out this sleep on later on, so I kept trying. Togekiss woke up at 15 HP and finished off Amoonguss... At that point, the only way I saw of safely healing Togekiss was encountering a Scrafty. A few battles later, Falinks came out as 3rd Pokémon, and I thought this might be the only opportunity I'll get. Every other time, Falinks has gone for Bulk Up turn 1 vs. Mimikyu, so I went Togekiss, hoping to get back to the green with a Draining Kiss, but unfortunately, First Impression came out, and despite the 4x resist, I lost Togekiss.

Mimikyu + Fini still managed to somehow scrap to battle 69 on their own (the last 2 were a gamble, I had only Fini left, but it was fully healthy, and I was really hoping to get to 70 before healing). Fini finished battled 69 under half though, and so I healed there.

The last leg didn't go so well either; Mimikyu used about 2/3rd of its PP before it got poisoned by a Drapion Poison Fang in the late 80s (while already at half HP). Miraculously, it was able to heal enough with Shell Bell + Grassy Terrain, barely hanging on every time, and only went down on battle 95.

But not to fret, Togekiss was ready to take over! ...or was it...
Poor Togekiss could clearly not catch a break, as Trevenant was the lead of the next battle. If I Nasty Plot for a safer sweep, Togekiss took around 70% from Poltergeist on the setup; alternatively, I could Dmax instantly, and either get the 50% crit, or get a 50% Airstream roll, but that leaves Togekiss more vulnerable to the backline. I went for the setup since from experience, Togekiss finds several occasions to heal. The 3rd Pokémon the AI sends out is usually less threatening, and Togekiss can Max Guard to get a juicy +2 Draining Kiss or more. So I setup the Nasty Plot, took the big damage, Airstreamed... and second was Oranguru, a horrible sight for my remaining 2. Togekiss couldn't OHKO, so I set sun with Max Flare to reduce Thunder accuracy. To no avail; Thunder hit, left Togekiss in the red, and of course, it paralyzed. At that point, I realized I might not even hit 100 and I was devastated.

But as usual... Tapu Fini came to my rescue. This very Tapu Fini has brought me nothing but blessings in the past, and clearly, our bond is still intact after the move to Galar. She swept on her own until the end, encountering a Magneton and a Luxray along the way, yet healing it all back every time. On battle 103, Garbodor came out, and I knew that was it. I solemnly saluted Tapu Fini, the absolute best of all Fairy Pokémon. o7

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And now, I'm ready to move (back) to Mono Dragon! I'm sitting on a streak of 74 from a long time ago, but it ended after 2 legs and I'm not content with it. Crown Tundra brought some really nice options for Dragon, so this should be fun! famous last words
 
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[Restricted Sparring battle 145 post]

I only just saw this post from a few weeks ago, just wanted to say it's really nice that Jumpman is still on the top of a battle facility leaderboard, all these generations later! Congrats on your amazing streak, and for continuing to be a great source of team ideas.

As for me, I've only just got into Restricted Sparring since the Tundra update + Home gave me access to most of my old trained Pokemon. I probably won't attempt any record streaks, since the bar has been set very high and I don't enjoy PP-restoring strategies - I also don't feel like making teams specifically for this format. I've used mainly offense-focused teams, so far my best streak is 33 wins in Flying.

Flying-type Restricted Sparring: I led with Moxie Salamence which essentially gets a free Dragon Dance when it kills with Max Airstream (130 power, Fly as base move). Then I had Sheer Force Life Orb Landorus, and Celesteela. The latter had amazing longevity, which was great for Restricted Sparring:

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Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 228 HP, 44 Atk, 116 Def, 116 SpD, 4 Spe
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
- Heavy Slam, Fly, Leech Seed, Earthquake

I didn't make any EV spreads specifically for this format, this was just something I trained years ago - no idea what the EVs were originally intended for, other than the Attack boosts from Beast Boost. Fly was mainly for extra healing from Leftovers + Leech Seed, but the secondary STAB was also useful. It was also nice that I could boost either Def or Sp. Def with the Steel-type or Ground-type Dynamax moves. I've found Ultra Beasts especially useful for more offensive Restricted Sparring teams, due to Beast Boost - but even Celesteela's Attack boosts helped a lot.
 
And now, I'm ready to move (back) to Mono Dragon! I'm sitting on a streak of 74 from a long time ago, but it ended after 2 legs and I'm not content with it. Crown Tundra brought some really nice options for Dragon, so this should be fun! famous last words
Funnily enough, I am doing playtesting with Dragon and I think that with the CT roster 100 is certainly a possibility (I'm getting closer and closer to 30+ first legs, for the time being stopped at 29 and still working the nit and grit).

There's the huge issue of dealing with ice attacks outside of perfect conditions, but dragon is an interesting type in RS because if on one side STAB dragon has little SE coverage, on the other side given the insane power of both moves and mons coupled with the restricted number of Steel and Fairy options, Max Wyrmwind OHKOs a lot at neutral.

Good luck and see you soon!
 
Well, Dragon went way quicker than I expected. I might give the team a few more attempts, because it was basically my 2nd run with these, and while this was obviously not a bad run, I think there's room for improvement (I was still learning how to handle a few of the matchups). In any case, this is a number I'm happy with for now!

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Adamant | Moxie
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Aerial Ace / Dragon Claw / Earthquake / Steel Wing

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Timid | Beast Boost
IVs: 31/x/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 68 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 172 Spe
Dragon Pulse / Sludge Wave / Flamethrower / Thunderbolt

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Bold | Light Metal
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 SpD

Flash Cannon / Body Press / Iron Defense / Rest

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It took a pretty long time for this team to come together. I started almost at the same time as I did Mono Fairy, and did several runs in between my Fairy runs to keep me sane. All those early attempts included either Salamence or Naganadel lead with Appletun (several sets) and/or Turtonator in the back. It felt like no matter my setup, some things just outright beat me. Going 1 sweeper with 2 switch-ins ran into the issue of my main sweeper (no matter which of the 2) not having a massive enough PP bank to go super far, so while having 2 sweepers felt like a must, both Appletun and Turtonator failed to cover some of the key threats.

While both sweepers clearly have the potential to steamroll thanks to their ability, it became clear pretty quickly that Salamence had an easier time getting initial OHKOs and that it was the most solid lead to go for. I only decided to give defensive Duraludon a try today after reviewing for the 100th time the list of Dragon types trying to find something that can take on Froslass outside Turtonator. For some reason I had little faith in it, possibly because of its abysmal SpD, but I now very much regret sticking to Appletun and Turtonator over and over when Duraludon was right there.

:salamence: The challenge with Salamence was finding the right balance of PP and power. I used Fly over Aerial Ace for most tests, and there is certainly merit to it, it allows many OHKOs on turn 1 while also giving the speed boost which is incredibly valuable in outspeeding key threats like Weavile or Ribombee. Most of the things OHKOd by Airstream from Fly are also OHKOd by Wyrmwind, but without the speed boost, going for that makes things less safe (and also, Dragon Claw's PP isn't that high). Despite that, I found Aerial Ace to be worth; it does force a bit more PP usage in general because of its lower power, but that's what Steel Wing is for. With a whopping 40 PP, Steel Wing provides a large PP bank for finishing things off without wasting valuable STAB PP, and doubles up as an easy way to KO Fairies and most Rocks, and also often OHKO the 3rd Pokémon at +2. Earthquake was definitely the biggest dilemma, I went back and forth between it and Bulldoze, had many runs with each. EQ's low PP is certainly frustrating, but it provides valuable OHKOs (on Drednaw and Garbodor, for example) that Bulldoze doesn't, and that made the other runs shakier and even led to a loss once. Even still, I'm not fully decided on that one. I also tried Brick Break in that slot, but I was absolutely missing the Ground coverage, both for handling certain Pokémon and for the SpD boosts.

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:naganadel: Naganadel also went through many moveset changes. I first thought Air Slash was a no-brainer, then realized I rarely ever needed it for a KO, and that unlike Salamence, Naganadel already outspeeds most key threats, so Airstream isn't as necessary. Thunderbolt didn't feel like a move I'd want on Naganadel, but it turns out to be the most used (and useful), perhaps because of the overabundance of Water types in RS. It's worth including if only for Gyarados, which as a lead, hard walls Salamence and can't easily be handled by any of the Dragon walls; a quick switch to Duraludon on the Icy Wind, and then a switch to Naganadel on the Taunt ensures a safe OHKO with Thunderbolt, and probably an ensuing sweep. At one point, I got rid of Sludge Wave to have 3 coverage moves, but Sludge Wave's main value (outside Ooze boosts) is being a stronger move outside Dmax, something that had a tendency to come into play into many calcs. Naganadel has access to Nasty Plot and potentially room for it on the set, I certainly gave it a lot of thought, but it just doesn't get any occasions to setup because of how frail it is along with its lack of recovery. Thankfully, it doesn't really need the setup thanks to Beast Boost. Almost all my runs before this one had Black Sludge over Wise Glasses, and this allowed Naganadel to act as a switch-in every once in a while (on stuff like Accelgor or Skarmory for example), but the difference in power is big (as a visit to the mass calculator confirms), and as soon as it became the lead after Salamence went down, it crumbled, missing out on many of the turn 1 OHKOs the Wise Glasses grant it. However, changing the item meant that I had to be extra careful to preserve Naganadel during the Salamence phase of a leg, but as a reward, it gave me a genuine shot at getting 15+ extra battles after Salamence was down (ultimately coming down to Duraludon's health and PP), which is more than Salamence could ever grant regardless of moveset choices. The EV spread is just so Naganadel gets a SpA Beast Boost.

:duraludon: The glue of the team, handles all Triple Axel users. While it can come in on a wide variety of Pokémon that Salamence doesn't enjoy facing, I found that because of its very low PP bank (16 PP on both Flash Cannon and Body Press), it was best to keep it for "must" situations. A lot of the time, I would let Salamence tank rather than safely switch to Duraludon (for example in front of lead Milotic, Max Quake allows Salamence to not even take half from Ice Beam and provides a 2HKO, even though Duraludon handles Milotic more safely). Whether or not it gets to see a lot of actions really depends on RNG and what RS decides to throw at you. On my second leg, it barely saw any action before Salamence's PP was basically all depleted, but in the 3rd leg, I had to use it so many times early on that it was already down 2/3rd of its PP by battle 100. Sometimes, on things like Sandaconda, it's worth Dmaxing it, and I absolutely loved how that gave it strong Body Presses after the fact without having to use any Iron Defenses, but generally, ID/BP are the moves it uses. The EV spread invests heavily in SpD since those EVs make a massive difference in the calcs, and I wanted it to be able to take on as wide a variety of things as possible, because once it gets in and sets up, it's unclear whether there will be an occasion to switch back in the sweepers or not. Thankfully, I found that if it ever finds itself finishing a battle injured, it's not that hard to find something it can heal itself on in the next few battles.

Overall, I think the Salamence-Duraludon core is extremely solid. Naganadel is kind of the 3rd wheel, and could probably be replaced by other Pokémon, but it's hard to overlook how good Beast Boost is, as well as its speed tier. I think whatever is in that slot probably needs an Electric move for Gyarados though. I thought about trying out one of the Lati twins in that spot, but Naganadel has been good so I haven't really seen a reason to replace it... maybe something to try in the future.

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T H R E A T S
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:musharna: I think this is the only Pokémon that instantly became a thousand times scarier when I got rid of Appletun. It's unpredictable, and can put me in a predicament in a number of ways, just as it can throw its opportunities to damage my Pokémon heavily. I saw it twice in this run and definitely got lucky with it never attacking when it would've hurt the most.

:obstagoon: What an annoyance... it kind of forces a switch to Duraludon, otherwise it could stall out Salamence's entire Dynamax. Except it's very likely to Parting Shot on the switch, leaving Duraludon in a shaky spot. At one point, I faced a team of Obstagoon / Malamar / Emolga that kept Baton Passing into one another... that kind of stuff uses up sooo much PP, it's incredibly frustrating.

:corviknight: Salamence can't easy handle it, but trying to handle it with Duraludon could be incredibly costly because of Spite. Naganadel is the obvious answer, but when is it safe to switch it in without eating a Steel Beam?

:conkeldurr: One of the downsides of running Aerial Ace over Fly: Max Airstream doesn't OHKO. Life Orb Stone Edge hurts, even after a Steelspike, and it's a high crit move. There are also no switch-ins, unless Duraludon can be Dynamaxed.

:cloyster: This is a nightmare as a lead; it will most likely Shell Smash, and Salamence cannot OHKO it, so the best bet is to Airstream, after which... Salamence and Cloyster speed tie. Awkward! Better win that speed tie, or it's a loss. Thankfully, Max Wyrmwind is a blessed OHKO at +1, so as long as it's not the lead, all is good.
+1 252+ Atk Salamence Max Wyrmwind (130 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cloyster: 118-139 (100.8 - 118.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Alternatively, Duraludon can switch in on turn 1 and eat the +2 Icicle Spear, but that would leave it at practically no HP, so Dmaxing is almost mandatory, which can have a dangerous ripple effect on the rest of the battle.

There are several other threats that will likely put a large dent in Salamence's HP that will have to be Shell Belled back, but that's regular RS business I guess... : :ribombee: :starmie: :marowak: :dusknoir: :wishiwashi-school:

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I can't believe I'm finally done with all types! This took a lot longer than I expected, probably because RS has evolved a ton since I first ran that Indeedee Mono Normal team. Obviously, both that team and streak are incredibly outdated by now. I guess I'll revisit some of the types I've already done, with newfound knowledge and the new Crown Tundra Pokémon, I expect to be able to improve on a majority of my streaks. I'm not sure yet whether I'll go in type order again or will pick stuff I'm just excited to try out. I can't stop thinking about how many good options Flying has now. But I should really patch up that small Mono Normal streak first!
 
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Hi, here to contribute my first record: 117 with steel-type.

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First off, I wanted to thank this wonderful community and its resources. If it weren't for the things you all put together, there's no way I would have tackled RS. Especially sb's guide on how to build a team and the RS-specific damage calculators. Initially, I tried Jump's grass team to try to get a sense of the format (and because I'm a big fan of Appleton), but admittedly I struggled with it. Clearly that team is about its pilot / defensive strategy. So I thought about putting Kartana in over Ferrothorn, but I ended up messing with the core, and ultimately abandoned grass. All the while, I really liked Kartana (as sb and others have shown recently, Beast Boost is incredible). So I pivoted to steel and made Kartana the centerpiece.
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Kartana, Elysium @ Shell Bell
EVs: 12 HP | 252 Atk | 244 Spe
Adamant + Beast Boost
Razor Leaf (40 PP) | Knock Off (32 PP) | Aerial Ace (32 PP) | Sacred Sword (24 PP)

This thing annihilates so many things; it's so much fun. As I started testing, I immediately realized Leaf Blade wasn't going to do it from a longevity perspective. I also needed to go back to Ultra Sun wormholes and snag a Kartana and add Knock Off over Night Slash. Anyway, the power drop off from Leaf Blade wasn't noticeable, and I rarely use RL out of Dynamax. Knock Off has been tremendous, especially since I can OHKO Drifblim and other annoyances. Once I fixed those two slots, the team's first attempt got to 53 (way into uncharted territory for me). The next two attempts were ruined by our favorite foes: Magneton and Zoroark, which I honestly don't have an answer for quite frankly. If Magnet Pull Magneton leads off against Kartana, I get para'd, plain and simple. I try to keep Zoroark in mind, especially whenever I Knock Off / Max Darkness against a lead since those can't KO Zoro. I'm left trying to speculate whether an ability didn't appear because a lead has another ability, or if it's a Zoroark. I'm rather paranoid of it thanks to Flamethrower.
Read: I hate it.

Initially I started with a 252/252 spread, but the speed-tie with Emolga didn't seem worth it. 244 Speed EVs allows Kartana to outspeed Dedenne (Charm). The trouble with Adamant, however, is Mienshao is faster. After a Max Air boost though, Kartana outspeeds the entire list. I threw the remainder into HP as you never know. There may be further optimization here but I wanted to get the team runs going and not drown myself in overthink. I'm thrilled with this set, and Kartana makes many battles easy.

If you're lurking like I was and thinking about trying RS, the thing that helped me build a streak most was building a spreadsheet of all the RS pokemon, moves, and calcs for the team. I highlighted those with fire-type moves, tried to write out what I'd do vs. various leads as they arose. I wasn't getting anywhere before this without the resources here on hand.
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Heatran, Asphodel @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP | 252 SpA | 4 Spe
Modest + Flash Fire
Will-o-wisp (24 PP) | Lava Plume (24 PP) | Earth Power (16 PP) | Rest (16 PP)

Heatran fits so well with Kartana. To switch, soak up a Flash Fire boost, and reel off some damage in return never gets old (looking at you Torkoal, Turtonator, hell even Talonflame on the roost). There was also a great sequence at 68 where I switched Kartana out in front of Scizor, turns out it was Zoroark, get the FF boost, to then sun-boost Max Flare the Scizor in the back for 870-1001.1% damage. Fun.

I'm not as confident on the moveset. Lava Plume and Earth Power were clear choices. I've grown somewhat on Will-o and Rest. Heatran had a knack for soaking up paralysis, especially when Magneton doesn't have Magnet Pull and I get Kartana out of the way safely. This Heatran also came from Dyna Adventures, so no toxic, could be an option later. Will-o definitely served its use at points, but I also wonder about Metal Sound, Flash Cannon, or even Solar Beam? More testing is needed.
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Corviknight, Tartarus @ Rocky Helmet
Impish + Mirror Armor
EVs: 252 HP | 4 Atk | 116 Def | 132 SpD | 4 Spe
Pluck (32 PP) | Body Press (16 PP) | Bulk Up (32 PP) | Roost (16 PP)

Full disclosure: I shamelessly took Eisen's EV spread knowing he's smarter than I am, but then added Helmet and Pluck. Pluck is fun given the amount of sets using berries, though it's not the best (however it was enjoyable to take away Lycanroc-M's salac berry, or Wailord's Liechi). There were definitely a couple of moments I couldn't find the KO with Pluck, so I'll try more runs with Drill Peck. Rocky Helmet truly helped with playing around Talonflame, switching in on Fly.

Mirror Armor is hilarious. Goodra sitting there lowering its own attack. The amount of skitter smacks bounced back. Mandibuzz snarling itself. Plus, Corviknight laughs at Sandaconda, which I took great pleasure in considering Quick Claw Scorching Sands at Corviknight's teammates can be problematic. Though I will say my favorite Mirror Armor encounter was Skuntank using momento. Fantastic.

The 117 run itself started off rather flawlessly, healing at 55 when Kartana ran out of PP, and Heatran was low on lava. But mistakes were made in the second leg, and I failed to play around Boltund properly (figures), losing Kartana to a crit Fire Fang. I healed immediately after at 84, much earlier than I would have liked. The closer I got to Eisen's record, the more mistakes I made. I should have slept the Switch and tackled 110+ after some sleep, but instead I pushed through, to the team's detriment. A number of misplays led me to a weakened team without Heatran, a damaged Corviknight, and a roughed-up Kartana on 118. Wasn't meant to be, Mienshao showed up, crit Corviknight, and the record stalled to a tie.


I'm certain steel will be pulling some massive numbers thanks to its new toys with the Crown Tundra update. I'll keep going with this squad, there's still room in the tank and I know I can improve on my own play. Thanks everyone.
 
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Hello! The RIT Pokémon Club has another score to report. We were able to get to the 8th boss on fight 32. This boss was Groudon. We'll go into more a bit later about that. We definitely could have won but there were some outside factors that really destroyed us in the end.

Our team was the following:
pseudophysics (Hans)
Braxxus5th (Jack)
Banded Bonks (Bran Flakes)
AWood (Postal Dude)


Report:
We started with Hitmonlee, Lanturn, Liepard and Ditto. Liepard helped us start really banging the first few battles out through Screeching and helping the Hitmonlee. Lanturn was a beast in its own right (more on that later) and Ditto was an absolute boss that I carried to the end. More on that later. Uxie was our first boss and my Ditto started with 6 HP. Because of some clever playing I actually left the battle with more health and in fact we didn't drop a single Pokemon that battle. It was really quite nice.

Round 2 was Palkia and on the way there we got a Mienshao. It OHKO'd our Hitmonlee with an unlucky Mega Kick but we picked it up with the hope that Wide Guard would help out. The second boss was Palkia and it didn't go down too easily. However, Jack's Lanturn was really able to stall it out.

Round 3 had us scared with Kyogre but our Mienshao made the ultimate sacrifice. Jack and I were hitting it with Electric attacks (the Kyogre has Thunder and I had Ditto) and the Lanturn also had access to Confuse Ray as well. A Max Lightning went into Mienshao after it used Wide Guard and it fainted. Because of Mienshao's Wide Guard, we were able to live through an angry Kyogre's Origin Pulse in the rain as we were all protected from it. We will never forgetti 11/13 spaghetti.

We then ran into a string of two Tapus. Tapu Lele was taken care of with a Persian's Snarl while Ditto hit it with Charm. We were really debuffing it at this point. Lanturn was still very much in play at this point and we only swapped after this because it ran out of PP. Jack is going to name his firstborn Lanturn apparently. Let it be known here.

Tapu Bulu got destroyed as Jack had a Heatmor and Brian had the Barbacle with Poison Jab. We flawlessly got through that floor.

Buzzwole ended up being a bit tougher but it was still an easy floor. We planned to go against something that was 4x weak to Flying so we found a Scyther with Wing Attack. It unfortunately went down to a Raichu later on.

The 2nd to last floor was a bit difficult for us. We had to go against Tapu Koko and we used a Rimbombee's Fake Tears to really do some work.

The last floor was pretty bad. We got to Groudon with one life left due to a Maractus that nuked us of all things. All in all we were satisfied with the results.

So the lessons we learned from this are the following:
Against a Bug boss, always find a Flying type
Debuffs are our friend and constantly made battles easier for us
Speed control was important, but not non-damaging speed moves. Icy Wind/Rock Tomb/Low Sweep can be the difference between taking damage twice or just once in a battle.
Ditto is the best Pokemon hands down because you rarely have to swap it at all as you are never in danger of running out of PP. I should have swapped before Groudon but OTHER THAN THAT, the thing is usable in almost any scenario.
Once again, early Leftovers or general healing is good. We eventually had two people with a Shell Bell because that is generally better if damage is being dealt but early Leftovers was a blessing for Ditto.
 
Update here: 149 for Steel.

I'll start off with a big shout out to Kong Harald for helping me with improvements to the squad. Bouncing off ideas, talking situations, it really helped me get out of my own head, too. Another thanks goes out to the discord. sb literally walked me away from a cliff at 51, and helped me come to my senses to heal instead of risking just one more battle.
Turns out this ended up mattering a lot.

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[ Kartana actually wins this ]

All right, we know this team, we love this team. Let's recap and go over some of the changes from the 117 run.
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Elysium, "the section of the underworld reserved for those who were great heroes or particularly beloved by the gods in life."
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Kartana, Elysium @ Shell Bell
Jolly + Beast Boost
EVs: 12 HP | 252 Atk | 244 Spe
Razor Leaf (40 PP) | Knock Off (32 PP) | Aerial Ace (32 PP) | Sacred Sword (24 PP)


Asphodel, "having been flooded by the river Phlegethon, whose hideously superheated contents could bring death swiftly even to those resistant to most heat."
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Heatran, Asphodel @ Leftovers
Modest + Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP | 116 SpA | 140 Spe
Metal Sound (64 PP) | Flamethrower (24 PP) | Solar Beam (16 PP) | Rest (16 PP)


Tartarus, "a maze of dungeons and corridors which holds the souls of those who committed crimes and sins in their lives."
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Corviknight, Tartarus @ Bright Powder
Impish + Mirror Armor
EVs: 252 HP | 4 Atk | 116 Def | 132 SpD | 4 Spe
Drill Peck (32 PP) | Body Press (16 PP) | Bulk Up (32 PP) | Roost (16 PP)
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As detailed last night, Kartana dices most of the roster, and happily takes Beast Boosts for the joy of it. The set continues to please, with options to take down common annoyances like Steelix (2x Max Knuckle disposes of it without activating the berry), Drifblim (use dark move, pray it's not Zoroark), and many others. Jolly was the way to go with Kartana, and it's not close. I was drunk on OHKOs from the mass calcs with Adamant, but Jolly outspeeds several important troublemakers: Mienshao, Starmie, and Froslass. I was awkwardly playing around them and Jolly shored up that weak spot. 176 even avoids an awkward scenario earlier where Swoobat stole Beast Boost. I didn't max the speed as speed-tying Salazzle didn't seem worth it (I want to thank whoever didn't give Salazzle a fire move). There are a couple of scenarios where guaranteed KOs drop to chances, but the trade-offs were worth it. I do get a bit of anxiety from a lead Kingdra now, as Max Overgrow is a 75% OHKO and a Blizzard freeze ends a leg, but again, I'll take 3/4 over Starmie taking me to church.

Heatran is so incredibly versatile, it's truly the glue of the team. At first I simply had a 252/252 spread as I focused on Kartana. One of the things we dialed in on was the necessary speed. 140 EVs brings Heatran to 115, allowing it to dispatch the likes of Cloyster before losing a chunk of health. The set underwent some changes, Flamethrower for a bit of extra power, and Solar Beam to handle the water-types that would come out after a KO. Admittedly I was skeptical of running this without Earth Power, but Metal Sound made up for any worries. With a monstrous 64 PP, I can stall out the fire-types Heatran tends to switch in to, or weaken other foes to a point where I'm not using up multiple flamethrowers. I also tried some test runs where I gave Corviknight the lefties, but Heatran is such a common sponge it needed the healing.

Corviknight made the upgrade to Drill Peck. It was necessary. Pluck was fun for the memes but, as Eisen knew, we need knock outs. Bright Powder has come in clutch on several occasions, partly because Corviknight tends to switch on things like Focus Blast. It dodged 15 attacks this run, which saved me some roosts. Overall, I feel like I'm fully confident in my abilities with Kartana and Heatran, and I'm now learning to play better with Corviknight. I ran into some unfortunate situations (such as a burn from Gyarados), but learning more about how to play this set properly will come with time. The mistakes I made this attempt tended to be with Corviknight, so I expect my play to improve.

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As for the run itself, you don't get to 149 without some luck. Key things like Magnet Pull Magneton did not appear in the lead spot. Lots of rolls went my way. I was pleasantly surprised with several Pyukumuku sightings, which are an automatic rest stop for the team (especially at 78, we were roughed up after an unfortunate series, and switching and healing was just what we needed). I can't remember the first leg all too well, but I do remember it went smoothly for the most part. By the time we got to 51, Heatran was worn out, Kartana was on dangerously low amounts of PP, and Corviknight had died to a calc error on my part (I hadn't switched from Toxicroak to Obstagoon, and lost Corvi to Obsta's Counter). sb thankfully reasoned that it was time to heal, and we needed it. The rest of the second leg was exceptionally strong, and we managed to keep Corviknight alive.

I might have tried to extend the second leg, but we healed at 102 because Kartana got burned by flame body.
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Kartana was running low anyway, so I felt "fortunate" to get burned late in the 2nd leg.

I felt really good about the third leg. Frankly we didn't have much to lose. We either surpass our 117, or we learn a lot. I'll take both. I did get in a little bit of trouble through the third leg dancing around bulky water-types (some particular bouts with a Wishiwashi when we were caught out of position, that really hurt us). We also faced Intimidate Gyarados as a lead, twice. Heatran handled the first one quite well, using the sun and Max Overgrowth to great effect. The trouble was the second Gyarados, as Heatran wasn't doing well on health. We had to play around it, and this led to an early death by Corviknight due to a Scald burn. I can't remember which battle that was, but I think it was around ~135 or so. All I remember is hoping dearly that we could manage without a critical piece.

So we got lucky, and I put a major emphasis on Kartana without Corviknight around. Heatran didn't see much daylight as I didn't want to get caught out of position, and relied heavily on Beast Boost. Ultimately Kartana was worn out by 146 (as you can see above, it struggled Toxapex to death), and Heatran surged through the next few battles admirably. As we were wrapping up 150, Heatran hanging by a thread, Porygon-2 showed up. Shucks. And when I needed to hit the last Flamethrower to clinch, P2 converted to water-type. I stalled as much as I could to get Heatran to struggle and finished off P2, but I needed a struggle crit. Didn't get it. Of course the run ended with a hellacious PP struggle against a duck. Go figure.

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Threats include perennial favorites, such as: MP Magneton, Zoroark hiding behind a Knock Off or Max Darkness, Gyarados burns, and status early on in a leg or attempt. Also, I can't stand Boltund. It's not its strength, but more that it doesn't seem to do the same thing twice. I expect electrify, it fire fangs. I expect fire fang, electrify. I don't get it. Also annoyances but not necessarily threats are the Endure stallers. What would have become 1 PP becomes 2, again and again. Please stop.

Allies include: Pyukumuku (where you can switch all day, PP stall it and heal as necessary), Comfey (for Grassy Terrain), Tangrowth (knock off the Grassy Seed and thank it for the Terrain), Eldegoss (which had a knack for being the final pokemon of a set, and I could heal around). Hell, even Skuntank deserves some credit for this run. It memento'd into Mirror Armor 4 times. Love that for us. We have to champion the allies as much as we fear the threats. Thanks for always using Taunt on Kartana, Weavile.

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I still think this team has the right stuff. I'm not sure I want to give up on this squad until I know I've put everything into it. Much of the learning process has come from these being my first few attempts with RS, and not necessarily a fault of the team itself. I find RS very much like Pokemon's version of the game Hades (if you've picked up on the name inspiration), where you keep trying to reach the top, but will die several painful deaths along the way. We're all going the same way.

So screw you Magneton, I'll see you tomorrow.
 
Sup everyone, I'm here to record my first run using mono-Ice: 31 wins.

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So I was getting bored after completing the dex and Dynamax Adventures with 3 AIs was no fun, so I turned my attention to doing some Restrictive Sparring. After looking over all the streaks (props for the triple digit match streaks btw), I wanted to challenge myself my paying more attention to types with lower streaks, so Rock and Ice got my attention real quick. While putting this together, I did manage to try out the other Ice teams posted already, sadly i didn't have a Solarbeam Lapras so i couldn't pull off the strategy completely, i didn't get far cause of either bad luck or annoying low rolls, so I tried my own style version of Darmanitan-G/Mamoswine/Lapras-Gmax but the lack of speed once Darmanitan went down made me get overwhelmed by Mienshao and Mamoswine was a sitting duck against Air Balloon Magnezone once i lost Darmanitan and it was too offensive to last long without burning my heals early so i tried for a Mamo-less team and a better defensive backbone behind Darmanitan and honestly this version worked quite well despite feeling it could go further than this with some better luck.

:darmanitan-galar:

Darmanitan-Galar @ Shell Bell
Ability: Zen Mode
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
- Brick Break
- Zen Headbutt

Darmanitan-Galar was an obvious choice for Mono Ice, great speed and coverage, and while Zen Mode can be risky at times, it does come it clutch for me a number of times, main time being getting Zen mode in Dynamax and going for Max Flare to live Surf from Starmie, then killing it once dynamax ended with Fire Punch. Basically took Dialganet2's set and replaced Focus Punch with Brick Break for a more reliable coverage move post Dynamax, Zen Headbutt for Toxapex and Fighting-types specifically. Shell Bell for more recovery and it doesn't need the boost from Muscle Band since I will click Max Knuckle if the opponent is in range of dying.


:avalugg:

Avalugg @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Recover

Essentially the same set Eisenherz used for his run, but i just did Max HP / Max Def to maximize Avalugg's bulk and the power of Body Press. There were so many times where I thought Avalugg was gonna drop to a hit and it lives on a sliver of health. Main example that comes to mind was a Steelix lead against my Darmanitan and I sent in my 40 HP Avalugg as a sac to get Rocky Helmet chip and it lived on 3 HP and proceeded to heal back to full, fsr the Steelix went for Dig instead of clicking Heavy Slam again so I got back to full and went for Iron Defense twice and swept his team which also had Heracross right after the Steelix but it missed Stone Edge after going for Bulk Up and Avalugg 2HKOed with Body Press. Other than that, Avalugg is the physical check of choice for Mono-Ice and I wished I used it sooner.

:articuno:

Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 44 SpD / 212 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Air Slash
- Toxic
- Roost

I swear this thing was a godsend once Crown Tundra came out. After trying out Lapras-Gmax and realizing that while it was a solid option and Water immunity, it was too slow to function long term for me and tried out sb879's Frosmoth set, although I went RestTalk Frosmoth and forgoing QD altogether. Back to Articuno, this thing is the reason the streak actually got into the 30s as it solo'd my last 5 opponents before dropping to Rock Slide, but this is the Special check and Water check for the team. This run almost ended match 2 against Torkoal, but Articuno was able to PP stall it out of Lava Plume and proceed to Toxic Stall it down. The bulk overall is pretty important with the Speed being enough to outspeed Heracross and take it out with Air Slash and the added special bulk helps against specific pokemon like living 2 LO Thunderbolts from Starmie:

252 SpA Life Orb Starmie Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 44 SpD Articuno: 88-107 (44.6 - 54.3%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Honestly I would try again to see if I can get a higher streak going as I had to use my heals pretty early due to some bad luck, after 8 and 21 respectively, I feel it can reach 50 wins with some better luck. Next will be tackling Mono Rock, so hopefully will have better luck there.
 
Fighting is one of those types that seems really good for RS on its face, since it has both STAB Max Knuckle and STAB Drain Punch. And that's not completely off the mark; its lead options are bountiful (Heracross, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Blaziken, Zapdos), and its switch-ins can keep healed with said Drain Punch. But a closer look reveals an annoying problem. These Pokemon are great in conventional situations, but RS has many problems that often can't be punched through with brute force - Porygon2, Musharna, Magneton, Froslass, Pyukumuku. The Trick Room threats can be neutralized with a Dark/Fighting-type, but the status threats are horrible. Pokemon with inherent immunities to these statuses are rare and also just not very good, with the exception of Blaziken and Cobalion, sort of. Furthermore, other options of neutralizing status like Heal Bell, Aromatherapy, and Natural Cure are completely absent from the Fighting-type roster. That basically just leaves Rest. A move with proven success, to be sure, but also not one Fighting-types are particularly good at using. They often have "good" defenses, but not really good enough to easily Rest, especially since they also lack key resistances to problematic types. Defensive-boosting moves can help, but relying on them makes crits very, very problematic when you have to spend extra turns sleeping. Still, it's really the only option Fighting has for status protection.

Things were a bit more rosy for the lead, at least. I liked Zapdos the best, though a good case can be made for Blaziken too. While it lacks an amazing ability like the others (Defiant is merely good), the Flying-STAB is incredible, letting it get Airstream boosts with remarkable ease while hitting many Pokemon super-effectively. Notably, this includes Passimian and Sirfetch'd, both of which are basically impossible to switch in to with Fighting-types. It also has a really good start with PP due to both Low Kick and Drill Peck having 32. While I felt pretty good about it, the backline was where things got a bit awkward. I started with Blaziken as a secondary sweeper that could absorb Froslass's Will-O-Wisp, and a very janky Lum Berry Pangoro to absorb the rest. The idea was that it could switch in on Magneton's Thunder Wave, and then Magneton wouldn't use it since it was already faster. Alternatively, it could switch in on Pyukumuku, and either KO with +2 Max Darkness or +4 Drain Punch, ignoring Unaware with Mold Breaker. While that's multiple Toxic chances, Pyukumuku doesn't use Toxic that frequently. Obviously in either case it's a one time deal, but it's not like I would be constantly running into Magneton and Pyukumuku, and worst case Pangoro just takes one of the statuses. All things considered this team had an incredibly good run with a status absorber like that - 101, but I knew I could do better. Not a lot, but better.

I tried a specially-defensive Scrafty with BU/Rest over Pangoro to take status instead. Shed Skin seems like an obvious ability for this, but it had an annoying issue. Without a Toxic immunity or way to OHKO Pyukumuku, the safest way to deal with it is to force a Toxic-immunity by having a statused Pokemon, either by Rest or taking Toxic on something with Leftovers, at which point Pyukumuku can be switch-stalled. But with Shed Skin, Scrafty could heal its status when it switched in, at which point Pyukumuku would deem Toxic a viable option to whatever I switched in again. So instead I used Intimidate. I also had the Leftovers on Blaziken which were nice since it ran Protect anyways, but this meant Scrafty had to use the Big Root, further nerfing its durability. This made it barely workable versus special Pokemon it had to Rest versus, often winning at only half-health. Still, it seemed to be the best it could do, so I took the team for a whirl. This team was having a good run, but at battle 86 an ill-advised switch to Milotic with Scrafty triggered its Competitive, though an Ice Beam freeze on the switch meant nothing would've worked out anyways. I also noticed on this run an annoying problem with using sleeping Scrafty to stall out Pyukumuku. Once it's out of Counter and Spite, it only has Mirror Coat and Toxic left. Normally this is fine, but Scrafty is immune to Mirror Coat, so at that point even a sleeping Scrafty can provoke a Toxic, as they're equally worthless in its eyes.

Now, while I liked Blaziken, it really didn't do a lot but beat Froslass, and switch in to some mildly annoying Steel- and Fairy-types. And with just Protect+Leftovers to heal, it got worn down quickly. But Froslass is really, really difficult for Fighting-types to deal with. The fast burn is horrendous when so many are physical, and even if you have Guts it's immune to Drain Punch and Poltergeist hurts. Scrafty resists it, but Froslass annoyingly also has Draining Kiss, which even from an uninvested stat and weak as it is, is still far too much for Scrafty to safely handle. So for a long time I thought Blaziken was basically required.

EnHTh2aVQAAjqGQ


But what if it wasn't?

145-g.png

Zapdos-G @ Shell Bell
Adamant/Defiant
252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spd
Low Kick/Drill Peck/Brave Bird/Stomping Tantrum

Fighting and Flying are an insanely good pair of STABs, easily disposing of most Pokemon by themselves and propelling Zapdos to unstoppable heights. As such, Zapdos only has one coverage move in Stomping Tantrum. I initially had Throat Chop over Brave Bird, but damn near any KO Max Darkness achieved could also be done if I just had a slightly stronger Airstream, as well as a number of other things like Kingdra and Golduck. Hence, Brave Bird. The only real casualty of losing Throat Chop was Rotom, but it's not hard for this team to deal with. This also gives Zapdos nearly free reign to get speed boosts while paying minimal attention to its 56 total Flying PP. The closest thing to a hole its STABs have are Electric-types, which need to be hit with the weaker, neutral, Fighting STAB. So Max Quake deals with those, mainly Luxray and Pincurchin. It also gets some KOs on bulkier foes like Garbodor.

Stomping Tantrum's PP is a little unfortunate and I wouldn't say it's strictly necessary (Luxray can roll Intimidate which helps you, Pincurchin "only" does half even with Surge RV), but I'm not sure if anything else is worth running. High PP moves like U-turn and Steel Wing have very little utility and are hard to deplete without Moxie or its ilk giving you absurd attack. An extra Fighting STAB like Low Sweep might be workable for a good 16 PP boost, though the 85 max power is weak. Reversal has 100 like Low Kick, but I'm not sure an 8 PP boost is really worth Tantrum's consistency.

640.png

Virizion @ Life Orb
Timid/Justified
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spd
Giga Drain/Air Slash/Calm Mind/Rest

To address the obvious question - what's the use of Life Orb in a format like this? It's mostly because of this calc:

+1 252 SpA Life Orb Virizion Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Froslass: 142-169 (103.6 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Virizion also outspeeds Froslass, so it can switch in on the Will-O-Wisp, Calm Mind, then OHKO with Giga Drain. The Poltergeist it takes does a lot of damage, but Giga Drain keeps Virizion in a solid position. Froslass could theoretically OHKO Virizion with Triple Axel, but Poltergeist is clearly stronger than that 20 BP move. Rest lets it heal the burn later, as well as keep its health up better versus stuff that can't be easily Giga Drained. It also gives a non-Mirror Coat immune, and thus better, way to switch-stall Pyukumuku. In fact, Scrafty's Mirror Coat immunity helps out now, since once Pyukumuku is down to Mirror Coat and Toxic it will always Toxic on the switch back to sleeping Virizion.

Anyways, while Froslass is the main reason for Life Orb, the implication of needing one to OHKO Froslass with a +1 STAB move means it really needs the power to get OHKOs, especially in situations like Quagsire and Slurpuff where Virizion can't amass too many boosts. It can be kind of detrimental versus Pokemon like Rotom and Dubwool where Virizion can set up however much it pleases, but Giga Drain, Grassy Terrain, and Rest still counteract the recoil well enough. On that note, Rotom is a particularly nice mon for Virizion to be able to set up on, since it stops Zapdos and can Volt Switch away from Scrafty, potentially leaving it underboosted and at bad health. The Electric resistance seems to completely nullify the chance of that happening (which I also observed with Raikou in mono-Electric).

Oh, and if Air Slash seems like kind of a mediocre coverage move - well, it is, but the options are Swift/Hyper Beam (lol) or Focus Blast (maybe an even bigger lol), so...

560.png

Scrafty @ Leftovers
Careful/Shed Skin
252 HP/4 Atk/252 SpD
Drain Punch/Crunch/Bulk Up/Rest

Virizion greatly improves Scrafty's ability to tank, both by letting it use the Leftovers instead, and by letting it run Shed Skin since Virizion is the "Toxic-immune" Pokemon now. While Shed Skin can be frustrating sometimes, it still is very helpful overall. This is a pretty standard Bulk Up set, and it lets Scrafty (kind of precariously) deal with Boltund and Talonflame while still letting it invest in special defense to deal with various status threats like Magneton, Milotic, and Torkoal. Dual STABs leave Scrafty in a bad position versus Fairies, but this is more workable than you might expect. Azumarill, Gardevoir, and Klefki don't have Fairy moves, and Slurpuff and Alcremie can only attack with Misty Explosion, which can be baited out with a Max Guard. This leaves Dedenne, Aromatisse, are Ribombee. Dedenne is too weak to be that much of a threat, but the other two are indeed very bad to run into and may require a sacrifice if Scrafty isn't boosted enough or at lower HP. As such I don't dynamax with Scrafty until I see the second mon, since Ribombee can potentally sweep if I deprive myself of that option. Though Virizion stands a better chance than you might expect:

252 SpA Pixie Plate Ribombee Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Virizion: 120-144 (71.8 - 86.2%)
252 SpA Life Orb Virizion Air Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Ribombee: 130-153 (102.3 - 120.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Oh, and Sirfetch'd is also awful to run into, since Scrafty needs to be at +5 to KO it guaranteed even in dynamax while a crit Meteor Assault cleaves through it no matter what. Zapdos can kind of switch in though, "only" taking up to 75% from a crit Meteor Assault.

Lastly Knock Off is probably better than Crunch but I didn't feel like bugging someone for a transfer lol

Threats

:skarmory:
Outside of Blaziken, Zapdos deals with this better than any other viable Fighting lead, and it still sucks. Max Knuckle is a clean 2HKO due to the attack boost, but Skarmory can get Weak Armor, which means it gets to attack twice, dealing up to 75% with a quad Wingbeat. It's also worth noting that Dual Wingbeat's "40" power gives Skarmory an unduly low priority to be sent out, which means last mon Skarmory is more common than it should be and boy is that horrendous if Zapdos doesn't have an attack boost going into it. Also, this is really bad for Virizion. While it only needs to be at +3 to KO Skarmory with Max Airstream, that's not always possible plus Skarmory can roll Sturdy anyways. And with LO recoil Wingbeat is likely to KO it even in dynamax.

:talonflame:
Dumb as always for leads that provoke Fly, and Fighting has it particularly rough since it's not easy to switch in on that. Since it's a two turn move, Scrafty can set up Bulk Ups and heal more than usual, but crits are likely disastrous here.

:ribombee:
A lot of fast threats can give Zapdos a heavy hit and are worth noting, but they're often not an issue due to Airstream spam. This gets extra attention though due to screwing Scrafty up massively.

:scizor:
Unlike Skarmory, Scizor at least goes down if Zapdos is at +1, even post-dmax due to Brave Bird. But if it gets Technician, Dual Wingbeat is REALLY painful.

:escavalier:
2HKOd, but Metal Burst is really strong even when using the weaker Max Knuckle for the first hit. Screech prevents Scrafty from being a good switch unfortunately.

:drapion:
I used Zapdos a lot, and until this final run I didn't even notice this was a threat. I didn't realize I speed-tied it, and that Max Quake was only a 50% roll. And for another fun coinflip there's Poison Fang versus Acupressure, and then another one from the Toxic chance from Poison Fang itself. How I went so long without being screwed by this surprises me. Scrafty can switch in and set-up, but Acupressure can get real stupid real quick, so idk.

:meowstic:
This is kind of embarrasing, but when your Leftovers user is 4x weak to Disarming Voice this can be a little rough. Since it's mainly dangerous in the lead, I have Zapdos Drill Peck it, take Yawn, go to Virizion on the Disarming Voice, then CM and Rest to offset its Yawn with a consistent sleep. Crits can be pretty bad though.

The Run

The first leg had a rather unfortunate Slurpuff that only let Virizion set up to +1 before its creamy explosion (um...) into Skarmory. Determined to win, though, Virizion simply flinched it twice with Air Slash (a rare situation where its Maranga Berry comes into play) and finished with Airstream. With that crisis averted, the team marched on solidly into the 30s. But then I ran into Gyarados. Now, Gyarados really should not be a problem with Defiant, since Intimidate is inverted and Icy Wind's speed drop leads to more attack while the nerf is offset by Airstream. But for whatever dumb reason, it went for Scald instead, burning Zapdos. Thankfully, Zapdos only had around 15 total PP when this happened, so this wasn't as impactful as it could've been. Virizion and Scrafty hung in for a few battles, ending the leg at 36.

The second leg is where I was introduced to the terror of Drapion, getting poisoned by Poison Fang around battle 56. I honestly had no idea Max Quake wasn't a guaranteed KO. Pretty big oops! The shocking part, though, was that Zapdos just kept...hanging in there. It barely net health even with the poison, and I had switch-ins for what it would take damage from. It wasn't until a Ribombee lead at battle 66 or so forced its health down lower, and from there it hung in til 70 before uh...something knocked it out. Most of its PP did end up being used, so the poison was less impactful than expected. Virizion and Scrafty again hung in for a few battles until 74, for a leg of 38. I should note that I'm very risk-averse with this pair, since Flying-leads are extremely bad even when they're both at full.

The last leg progressed pretty smoothly for a while, particuarly with a Musharna lead where Scrafty rode its Trick Room to victory versus an otherwise problematic backline of Mantine and Butterfree. But its luck ran out later at 99, where Zapdos first got hit hard by a lead Starmie, then faced last mon Escavalier without an attack boost. While Zapdos still had a turn of dmax left, I really didn't want to take the potential Metal Burst damage when I was only at 60% or so, so I tried Scrafty. It used Smart Strike on the switch, then Screech twice as I used Bulk Up. At this point I had to Drain Punch if I wanted to survive Smart Strike, so I did that and it finally used Metal Burst. Obviously it couldn't do that as I was setting up! I then tried to use Crunch to finish it off, but both it and Drain Punch got low rolls and left Escavalier alive, finishing off Scrafty. Zapdos and Virizion still stuck around for a good bit, including one particularly heroic battle for Virizion. There was a Slurpuff lead, which it managed to get to +3 on before the explosion. Then Ribombee came out. It doesn't do that much to Virizion with 3 CMs, but I dynamaxed in case of a crit and to not miss. A crit happened yet Virizion still survived, leaving it with 6 HP after the LO recoil. And then the last mon was Musharna, which Virizion KOd before the recoil depleted its last sliver of health. Slurpuff/Ribombee/Musharna is an absurdly bad encounter for Zapdos, so Virizion taking care of it was a godsend. Zapdos trucked along until battle 111, where I was forced to use my last 2 Airstreams on an Exeggutor and a Beheeyem, which left last mon Passimian. Zapdos still would've easily beat it with a 2HKO, but Zapdos FPd twice and Passimian was victorious, screwing me out a cool number of 111, which, honestly, I was kind of annoyed about! What's the point of a streak without a cool number...

Anyways, despite a number of bad things happening in this run, they mostly happened at the end of legs, so this is still a pretty good run, not too far off this team's realistic cap of 120 or so. Fighting definitely ended up being a harder type than expected, but I'm happy with the result.
 
So a new one for me, I ran into a Lapras with Perish Song in the battle tower. If we were both on our last mons, and we both go down, I assume that's a loss since you can't really tie? I still had one out back so it was basically an auto win in my instance, which made it a weird play for the AI.
 
So a new one for me, I ran into a Lapras with Perish Song in the battle tower. If we were both on our last mons, and we both go down, I assume that's a loss since you can't really tie? I still had one out back so it was basically an auto win in my instance, which made it a weird play for the AI.
the slowest mon on the field faints last and thus wins the match
 
Makes sense, thanks.

Overall my disappointment in the Tower has lessened, but I still think it's easier than the Tree last generation. I'm currently 60(+) wins into a no dmax singles run with Nidoqueen, Corviknight and Suicune that I put together on a whim because I caught a Sheer Power Nidoqueen in a raid and wanted to try it. I don't think I have the patience to maximize PP usage in Restricted Sparring though, so I'll see how long this run goes before trying some other random team.
 
Overall my disappointment in the Tower has lessened, but I still think it's easier than the Tree last generation.
It is mainly due how much lower the powercreep is.

You don't have to deal with inflated BST megas, legendaries and Z-moves, AND the AI has lower IVs (iirc outside of Leon, noone has 31 IV), and the base roster of SwSh didn't have a whole lot of ""uber tier" regular mons.

Honestly it's a shame that AI Dynamaxers are so rare. If the AI always Dynamaxed, it'd be a pretty decent challenge (albeith... quite slow due to animation times)
 
I am honestly a little surprised Crown Tundra didn't come with a "Super Battle Tower" mode that added more, harder trainers with all the DLC pokemon.
 
I am honestly a little surprised Crown Tundra didn't come with a "Super Battle Tower" mode that added more, harder trainers with all the DLC pokemon.
I'm not really. Remember it's already a very niche part of the game that very few people play.

If anything I was surprised that Isle of Armor has a facility.

(Tecnically btw, Dynamax adventures is a battle facility with its endless mode. You can think of it like a iteration of the Rental based ones)
 
in b4 jump posts something insane like 184+
steeltypeisbesttype.jpg

All right folks, I'm convinced shinies are good luck. This team w/ no shinies? 117. This team with a shiny Corviknight? 149. Swap for a shiny Heatran? 183! Coincidence? I think not. Imagine what I could accomplish with a shiny Kartana.

798MS8.png
Kartana, Elysium @ Shell Bell
Jolly + Beast Boost
EVs: 12 HP | 252 Atk | 244 Spe
Razor Leaf (40 PP) | Knock Off (32 PP) | Aerial Ace (32 PP) | Sacred Sword (24 PP)

heatran.png
Heatran, Asphodel @ Leftovers
Modest + Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP | 116 SpA | 140 Spe
Flamethrower (24 PP) | Solar Beam (16 PP) | Earth Power (16 PP) | Rest (16 PP)

corviknight.png
Corviknight, Tartarus @ Bright Powder
Impish + Mirror Armor
EVs: 252 HP | 4 Atk | 116 Def | 132 SpD | 4 Spe
Drill Peck (32 PP) | Body Press (16 PP) | Bulk Up (32 PP) | Roost (16 PP)

Only one brief edit to the line-up: Earth Power over Metal Sound. Mostly for quality of life. I can't stand Talonflame, and annihilating it with Earth Power on the roost is so damn satisfying. Other than that, I tinkered around with different things: various Celesteela sets, seeing if I could get lucky enough without Shell Bell, swapping around leftovers onto Corviknight, etc. And yet, I kept coming back to this line-up. Eisen asked earlier why I keep coming back with steel, and it's because I knew I left something on the field in the prior runs. Steel got way better with Crown Tundra; it was bound for numbers like these, without a doubt.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

THE RUN
First leg: this was unbelievably smooth. Not too many Pressure appearances, lots of Misty Explosion / Self-destruct friends, and three pyukumuku sightings (aka healing stations). We ran into a slight snag in the early 50s where Corviknight got paralyzed, but it had done so much work up to that point that I needed it around for Mirror Armor and the ground immunity, and less the sweeps. I finally figured out how to pilot this thing correctly, and understand Eisen's praise for this set he had. Once we got past 55, I was teetering on whether or not to heal. The 149 attempt healed at 52, so I knew I was pushing my luck a bit. However, I kept thinking how it's going to take some risks to surpass 150+, so we kept at it. Frankly, I should have healed at 62, but I winged it with the gas gauge on E. The lead was Mantine (a 75% chance to OHKO), and thankfully my last Max Overgrow did the trick, so one down. But next up was Drifblim. All I had left on Kartana and Corviknight were fighting-type moves, and 1 Flamethrower, 1 Solar Beam and 3 Earth Powers left on Heatran. Drifblim tricked the flame orb onto Kartana as we couldn't touch with the last Max Knuckle. But struggle took quite a chunk out of Drifblim, which is exactly what we needed. After Kartana went down, we ended up finishing Drifblim off with Heatran. Last mon up? Lickylicky. Just what the Corviknight ordered. Throwing everything left (except 1 Earth Power), we managed to squeak it out and heal. 63 was my best leg yet, so I was determined to take this run as far as I could.

Second leg: early on, Magneton appeared in the lead spot (uh oh), but it wasn't Magnet Pull and Heatran dispatched it. Whew. It would up showing again, and once more in the third leg. But I got lucky, 0/3 Magneton were Magnet Pull, which usually leaves Kartana paralyzed. Other than that, the second leg went rather well. There was a Clawtizer that caught me out of position on Corviknight that could've ended the leg if it confused Kartana, but we pulled through. 115, there was a clutch sleep powder dodge from Corviknight. The biggest thing about this leg was PP management. My goal before I started the run was 112, and with that surpassed I shot for 118, but we still had juice. And toward the end of the leg, I actually had trouble finding windows of opportunity for Heatran. That's pretty rare given Heatran's resistances, but Kartana needed to cut things. We ran out of Kartana's PP at 124. Heatran had a little bit left in the tank, but with the run already doing so well, I didn't want to risk a couple battles of it going against the RS roster on its own. Corviknight also did really well this leg, every drop of effort was used. Felt good to finally figure it out.

Third leg: this is where my anxiety spikes, because I can tell what's at stake here. Things were rather clear cut until 145, where a Talonflame / Passimian duo nearly wiped an injured team (but thankfully I had the flash fire boost to OHKO Passimian <3). Then the next big moment was 150, where I lost to a P2 last time. But it was rather uneventful despite the number's importance in surpassing the 149 streak. Wailord, Mantine, and Starmie. Kartana cut 'em down. The run steadied a bit until 159, where Corviknight got paralyzed on an effect spore. Thankfully I had managed just fine with the paralysis in the first leg, so we knew it could still pull its weight in switching situations.

But man, 161 to 169 was brutal. Part from the pressure, but also because nearly every battle had a solid Kartana check/counter that I needed to dance around (Garbador, for instance, isn't worth the body slam para risk to Kartana). I also got caught out of position on a Dedenne, which super fang'd Heatran a lot, which was annoying. 166 was a Drapion, and as I switch to Heatran I find out it's a Zoroark! Whew, that was a close shave. 167 was the dreaded Magnet Pull Magne... zone, actually. I couldn't switch so I max knuckled, took a chunk over half, it used steel beam, missed, and fainted. Ya love to see it.

All of a sudden, we were at the door of 169. How could I possibly manage this? Naturally, the lead is Talonflame, but we were too locked in to lose here. It activated Flash Fire, then it u-turned against Corviknight switching in. Kommo-o arrives. And despite the paralysis, Corviknight managed to take it down because Kommo-o got greedy and kept trying to boost with Clang Soul. Talonflame returned, and I switched to Heatran to soak up the Overheat. Talonflame u-turned once more, and this time we nailed Cloyster on the switch-in with Earth Power for 98% or so. EV'd specifically to outspeed Cloyster, we finished it off. Talonflame returned, and we've become so accustomed to it by now we were able to Max Guard as it attacked with Fly, and then obliterate it with Max Quake on the Roost. That felt great.


Starting 170 we had a Kartana at ~30% or so in terms of PP, a heavily depleted Heatran from constant Kartana counters appearing, and a deeply drained and paralyzed Corviknight. So it was pretty much cut things down with Kartana until we hit a wall. And what a run, Kartana managed to roll into 183 with a few PP left. Of course, out comes the Toxapex lead. I had to burn PP just to get around it, only for Kartana to be up against Conkeldurr. Max Air did a chunk. And Struggle negated the Focus Punch! Amazing. Kartana finished off Conkeldurr with struggle and out came Druddigon. We used struggle again (took about 50%), got dragon tail'd to Corviknight, who uses its last body press to do some more damage, to finally fall to rocky helmet. Then Heatran comes in and cleans up. But we were all out of gas for 184. Out came Mienshao. Struggle did a chunk before Kartana died, and then Heatran did manage to finish it with its last Max Overgrow. But with two mons remaining and no attacks left, Dusknoir appeared, ready to help us cross the River Styx.

goodnightsweetAsphodel.jpg

look at that smile in the face of death

I leave you with stats of this run that I obsessively tracked in my spreadsheet
550 KOs
313 Kartana OHKOs

12 Pressure foes
10 Endured/Protect'd/Baneful Bunker'd malarkey

7 Skuntank Memento'd into Mirror Armor
6 Pyukumuku healing stations
3 Magneton
2 Magnezone
1 Magnet Pull
1 Zoroark
& best of all: 26 bright powder dodges

:blobthumbsup:
 
Endless Dynamax Adventures - AI only - 14 wins

dynamaxrecord.jpg


This was a few days ago so I've forgotten most of it but there was a string of battles where AI Noah had a 5% HP Barraskewda- Every fight he'd spam Endure, and then occasionally use Aqua Jet and somehow not get targetted on those turns. He went around 4-6 fights at a low health, never switching. One fight he actually got hit but then managed to proc his Focus Band to stay in it, the legend. Then he switched with a Coalossal, presumably to pull off a father-son Kamehameha Meteor Beam with the Carkoal. Unfortunately, he couldn't protect his child from a vicious Charjabug's Max Quake.

Thank you for the memories (and 56 dynite ore), Noah
 
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