SwSh Battle Facilities Discussion & Records

[Worldie]

Speaking of Tower, I have been trying to make "Sun" archetype work a few times, but I keep hitting a hardwall on Leon.
So far I have managed to muscle through more or less any regular opponent, even the Dynamaxers, I did lose a few times and made adjustments (hence why you'll see more than 4 pokemon mentioned), but no matter what, Leon and specifically Charizard don't look something I can beat consistently. If Charizard shows up at same time as Cinderace, MrRime, or a set-up Haxorus, I just lose, and to be fair I once lost to literally Charizard 1v4ing me. Which is... fitting I suppose considering I'm running sun, but what's killing me is usually just the Max Airstreams setting up Charizard and everything else to outspeed me and beat my pokemon before I can even attack.
My only "reliable" answer is Heliolisk, and that's ONLY if he's on the field BEFORE max Airstream hits

The Pokemon I have tried so far are the following:

Ninetales

Ninetales @ Heat Rock
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Energy Ball
- Psyshock
- Protect

The lead and setter, nothing fancy, thought of using Foul Play instead of Psyshock but I'm almost always clicking Flamethrower anyway...

My lead so far has always been Ninetales + either Venusaur or Heliolisk

Venusaur

Venusaur @ Assault Vest
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
- Earth Power

I was very hyped when Venusaur was revealed getting WeatherBall and EarthPower, but on practice it feels this thing lacks power. I tried giving it Choice Specs but its stabs feel very meh to get locked in, however without a Power item it doesnt really feel like he does much if he's not hitting supereffectively and sometimes even if he is.

Heliolisk

Heliolisk @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hyper Voice
- Weather Ball
- Grass Knot

Similar to above, I was very hyped when I learned he was getting Weather Ball, and honestly he doesnt lack damage at all, and is one of the fastest Pokemon you can use this gen. I didn't give it Protect since honestly it dies super fast with LO + SolarPower recoils anyway, but I wouldn't know what to remove to get it. Originally I had Specs on Heliolisk, but I ran in same issue of Venusaur where locking myself into his stabs could easily result in having no damage the next turns.

Charizard

Charizard @ Charti Berry
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam
- Air Slash
- Protect

My original 4th member, including memeing myself with Focus Sash at start then reminding Solar Power is a thing right after. I don't mind running Air Slash this gen as 95% accuracy is dealable with and overally Tower is less punishing on a single miss than Tree was, plus if I'm clicking Air Slash it means I don't exactly have much to click anyway. That said, I realized that having 3 special attackers might not be exactly ideal, as when I ran into specially bulky Pokemon (expecially TR-oriented ones) I couldnt break them, and not like Psyshock from Ninetales accomplishes much in that case...

Arcanine

Arcanine @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge

I tried this as alternative to Charizard since banded ES felt like solid damage, and Intimidate lets it tecnically tank a rock slide / EQ or two and revenge kill. However, it didn't really solve the fact that all it took was a single Airstream from Leon to get run over *again*

Shiftry

Shiftry @ Focus Sash
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- Leaf Blade
- Protect
I have tried this one as alternative but ... Fake out also doesn't solve much for the Charizard issue, it doesn't really do anything that Venusaur can't and stacks weaknesses .. bit of a shame as I got a shiny one off GTS ages ago and never got to actually make it work :x

At this point I am up for suggestion, I've carried over all my gen 7 bank by now so I could get breeding stuff if needed. Was even thinking to use Scarf HA cinderace, that's how meme Leon's Charizard has become for me :x

 

[phoenix0wright]

Have you thought about including some pokemon that don't overtly benefit from sun? A lot of doubles teams(I assume this is a doubles team, since you mention four pokemon) only use one or two pokemon that really abuse the weather they set; think Excadrill/TTar cores, with the other mons supporting that duo or providing an alternative win condition. In this case, you could try including another pokemon that doesn't benefit from sun itself, but helps check pokemon that may give sun teams trouble. In this case, running a pokemon to specifically handle Charizard may be beneficial, even if it means cutting a sun abuser.

If you're having issues with Charizard's speed and want a new team member, what about paralyzing it? Something like this may work:

Grimmsnarl@Leftovers/Sitrus Berry
Careful Nature, 252 HP/4Def/252SpD
Ability: Prankster
Thunder Wave
Spirit Break
Fake Out/Protect/Sunny Day/Fake Tears/Whatever
Fake Out/Protect/Sunny Day/Fake Tears/Whatever

Grimmsnarl is a highly versatile pokemon thanks to Prankster, and can provide utility for your team depending on what you need. Speed control? Grimmsnarl's got it. Special Attack drops? He's got it. Dual Screens? He can do it. Alternative weather setter (Tower teams love to switch the weather)? You get the idea. You can play around with the set a lot to suit your needs, but Thunder Wave is the selling point for you; 90% chance to cripple Charizard or Cinderace to the point that Heliolisk can OHKO it, even if zard reaches +2. However, Grimmsnarl also provides a lot of other use that can come in handy during other matches. For instance, I like priority Fake Tears with your team, as halving Special Defense can let Heliolisk and Venusaur score KOs they otherwise would miss out on. Because your Ninetales is offensive, I think you can afford to run a more defensive set and still have enough firepower.

In terms of your existing pokemon, I will also add that I think you could tweak your Venusaur set. Assault Vest seems like an odd choice given how offensive it is. I get you can't use double Life Orb and agree Heliolisk is awesome, but what about something like Focus Sash (guarantees you survive a hit) or Poison Barb (to power up your hardest-hitting STAB)? You may also want to consider Heat Wave or Overheat on Ninetales over Psyshock. I can't think of anything relevant that Psyshock really scares, but Heat Wave is a spread move (great for spamming in Sun) and Overheat lets Ninetales overcome its mediocre Special Attack for one strike.

 

[hearthebeard]

Just had a short streak snapped at 59. Simple mistake but would love some feedback before starting back at the top.

The team is based on one of Eisen’s tree TR teams because I had the mons mostly on hand. However, Eisen’s version made a lot of use of psych up, where as this team mostly just abuses ally switch and power.

The team:

Dusclops @ eviolite
Frisk, Relaxed - 252 hp 130 def 126SpD
-Trick Room
-Night Shade
-Ally Switch
-Gravity

Good setter. Immune to explosion. Has ally switch. Frisk tells you which set you’re facing immediately to find fake outs and protects. Gravity was kinda filler but it helps Earthquake be better. Never failed to get Trick Room up. Might have a better fourth move?

Silvally @ Choice Band
RKS, Jolly - 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP

Double-Edge
Parting Shot
Explosion
Shadow Claw

Mostly clicks explosion unless two ghosts or two potential protects. Cleans house for Trick Room and at least a 3-on-3 usually a 3-on-2. Double edge over multi-attack to kill yourself with recoil and set TR after ally switching around if there are damp mons. Parting shot on double ghost. Never really clicked shadow claw, but thought it might be helpful.

Snorlax @ Sitrus Berry
Thick Fat, Relaxed - 252 HP, 192 Def, 60 SpD

-Belly Drum
-Earthquake
-Body Slam
-Ice Punch

Usually comes in after explosion and in TR. Ally switch+Belly drum and KO the last two mons either with gravity+EQ or one at a time. Body Slam and Ice Punch give you options to solve protect problems, resists, or times you don’t want to knock out Dusclops.

Torkoal @ Air Balloon
Quiet, 252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 Hp

-Eruption
-Heat Wave
-Solar Beam
-Protect

Just here for matchups where I want to parting shot out of exploding or to clean up in TR alongside Snorlax. Eruption and +6 EQ is basically unstoppable, so killing Dusclops with EQ often wins the game even if someone lives.

Actually lost to Leon. Didn’t check sets. Would have been fine. Libero focus blast took out Silvally and one way or another ended with Torkoal left against Charizard and had to set his Sun for him. Not good.

Basically everything about this strategy is worse this gen, between no distribution for psych-up, and the pinch-Berry nerfs, but it still seems like a powerful base. 8 out of 10 games are a breeze. Any suggestion for moveslot changes or switching out Torkoal?

 

[ReptoAbysmal]

Speaking for myself, I find Weather Ball the best alternative fire move for Torkoal. What you lack in spread you make up for with a really good singular hit. Speaking of Weather Ball, that move has been a regular on the latest installment of...

The Repto Rando Fun Show! Where awful teams accomplish great feats!* Starring your host, EVELYN!
*citation needed

I've been running Bronzong a lot more than I ever had in tree, largely in part after realising its support movepool, however limited, provided some excellent options I hadn't been using with any other setter; not just Bulldoze, but Rain Dance and Speed Swap. During one battle, a Ribombee stole Musharna's speed, then the following turn passed it to partner Rapidash, which moved immediately afterward. I haven't actually played with Speed Swap myself, yet, but I'm thinking it'll come in very useful eventually, particularly with something I prefer to keep holding an offensive item, like Kyurem. Until Gravity is given a move tutor in Swsh, it must remain a permanent fixture in Bronzong's set, but unlike other setters Zong does not really suffer 4MSS.

More Factory Waste

Displayed in a video in a previous post, I expected this team to struggle at least somewhat, but they had a pretty easy run. Phantom Force was even useful most of the time! I have yet to run Specs Dragapult, which has an issue or two that this one (Weakness Policy) does not, but it also runs 252 speed and may have additional perks. This Dragapult was Adamant with no EVs in speed, chosen after looking at a list and deciding there was no benchmark I needed to hit. One way or another this thing is not meant for TR, soooo I went with max HP to make better use of WP.


While it was odd to run a first-string abuser like Snorlax on the backline, I ended up not needing or wanting Belly Drum, and hadn't been able to freely abuse Rune's LO Earthquakes in a while. Primarina is an excellent beneficiary of Throat Spray.


It is here I mess with Rain Dance Zong and am immediately sold on the concept, especially after noting the fairly high volume of water moves amongst my flunkies. Hurricane/Weather Ball Frosmoth was always useful to have as opposed to situationally. Eisen had brought my attention to AV plus Mirror Coat for Leon's Zard after it quickly disposed of mine, but WB made for sweeter revenge this time. This was also Perrserker's first dip into randos, and I had no complaints (Tough Claws set.)


This team lost to Leon in an infuriating fashion. He lead LO Grassy Terrain Rillaboom and Rhyperior, and in spite of having an extremely guaranteed OHKO on Rotom, it decided to High Horsepower Jirachi, with no chance of OHKO. This allowed Rhyperior to easily finish me. Rotom comes back in and dmaxes and THEN eats Drum Beating, surviving enough to help Escavalier KO the frontline. AV snail survives Wildfire in the rain, and KOs Mr. Rime, but unfortunately falls to the passive damage. Drednaw can't possibly 1v1 Zard outside of TR. Nowhere near the angriest I've been, but I want to know what the fuck made the AI decide 80% > 200%. Had I stayed in and just Geyser'd Rhyperior I would've gotten my TR and easily swept.


Iron Ball Gardevoir 05/31/2020 [2:15 AM]
just about to lose another rando run to a flinch followed by back to back crits
clearly i was supposed to stop playing this shitty game
taking a shot in the fucking dark
a chance
ok i won
arctovish is the savior

Not a good mood fresh off that Leon shitfest, but I managed to survive. Leon's Inteleon Baton Passed to Charizard and I missed my chance to KO it without letting it Gmax for massive amounts of street cred.


"Hey there Repto, how goes the randos? Revolutionizing the shitmons? Makin’ us proud? Lemme see the team you’re using!"

"Uhhhhhhhhhh"

actually the least fair combatant on that team was the coeurchin, tell me what is fair about that speed


This team was supposed to be EZ Mode, with a suicidal Gigalith making floor wipes, but in practice I was facing a really uncooperative AI that didn't want to set off WP and preferred things like Will-O-Wisp. So often I found myself detonating Gigalith just to get it off the fucking field and let something with unhindered atk do cleaning. This marks my first time using Leek on TR Duck instead of Iron Ball, and I approve.


I remember being surprised that I was clicking Aqua Tail on Rhyperior and being glad I did. Megahorn also saw a lot of use.


Life Orb back on Araquanid I'm sorry I'll never remove it again Unlike Musharna's last adventure, this team had a very easy time. Soak even saw a bit of use! A certain someone was spamming the emote in Discord, but I resisted.


AV Beartic was eating a ton of abuse! I was also getting a lot more crits with Octillery (no Focus Energy) than I would expect from RNG, which was nice but not really needed. The backline didn't end up interfering with each other. I noted before this run that EVELYN draws Torkoal quite a lot.


This team encountered far too many anti-Rock/Water leads for my liking, but I had two excellent switches for grass especially and decent swaps for electric hits. I found myself liking Assurance on Barbarcle with it being the slowest unit on the team. It didn't have nearly as many crits as Octillery, but I did nab some OHKOs I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.


This roll included multiple apes, but I passed on Darmanitan in lieu of better speed and some great compatibility with Instruct. Rillaboom held AV instead of Iron Ball and was quite the destructive force, even sweeping a team in spite of Gyarados' Intimidate. I look forward to rolling it again.

Leon was a pain in the ass, easily stalling out a full round of TR with AV Rillaboom and max physical bulk Aegislash, but I had gotten TR back up in time for Charizard and Drampa had used both its Throat Spray and tripped Berserk, so it easily wiped the rest of his team. I was flummoxed that Aegislash had eaten Rillaboom's Knock Off in blade form and survived, before Eisen had pointed out the set in question ran 252/252+.


Chandelure held the Iron Ball (and now has Trick Room instead of Protect) and Kommo held Choice Specs. Kommo was easily the MVP this run, the driving force behind not one but two 2v4s after really bad starts. Aura Sphere was used a few times but otherwise it was cleaning house with Clanging Scales. I have come to really loathe facing Police Officers with fairy setters. Unfortunately Chandelure was one-upped by a Duraludon with Stone Edge, who again went for my setter T1 instead of launching that at Arctovish.


Not passing the opportunity to run Flapple alongside a Gravity user, but I was equally as eager to run Adaptability Crawdaunt with rain support outside of dmax. The only difficult battle of this run was against a Steelix I misjudged, dmaxing to block a Heavy Slam only to find that the next turn it'd go for Body Press and likely hit me harder than Heavy Slam would've. Crawdaunt held a Quick Claw and merely tripped it a disappointingly low three times. The day of this posting I faced a Grapploct that tripped it for all of its three turns until I paid attention to it (using only Mud Shot, so whatever.)

While Flapple is one of the newest High Priests in the Temple of Ferro, Acid Spray was never used, nor U-turn, preferring to take advantage of Hustle. Its set had Outrage for the minute it took me to realise that Hustle Dragon Rush is still 100% under Gravity.


Dracovish made this run extremely easy, doing almost all of the work. By attacking T1 (Choice Band) it made Guru's better TR speed much less of an issue. The highlight was OHKOing an Escavalier T1, next to a Ferrothorn, who was then 2HKO by Rend even after eating a Sitrus Berry (and no Iron Barbs for icing!) The backline still got a few pieces of meat and IIRC Copperajah was tasked with OHKOing Leon's Zard. This run faced two Dusknoirs that used only Pain Split for the purpose of healing me.

This roll amusingly contained nothing but Steel and Dragon types, apart from Oranguru whom I joked was there only because of Instruct, to be used on those types. I accused Coeur of programming EVELYN with a political agenda, lobbying hard for the Return of Gen IV Type Superiority, but all he would offer in defense was that she must've been corrupted by DANA. (joke about pokemon manifesto titled "Mein Typ" redacted)


I was hard on Grapploct at first, but putting both Sucker Punch onto its set and having rain support from Zong were enough to make me feel like it was pulling a lot more weight. I also dumped Stone Edge on Beartic for Liquidation. Mudsdale had to step in to handle some really nasty battles, one of which with a Rhyperior4 I misjudged after having a few joke encounters with it.


Scrafty running a fully supportive set was a byproduct of the tree days but never saw any action due to my never mustering the courage to run an inoffensive set in tree (also why Pyukumuku and Amoonguss stayed in Bank.) Here, though, I gave it a shot and was very pleasantly surprised. Max special bulk and Intimidate allows Scrafty to survive a ton of abuse; Knock Off was the only move unused and I may consider making Drain Punch a full time replacement, at least until I find an item that must be removed at all costs. This set was originally made for Assault Vest on top of Sassy, but this time I ran Iron Ball so it could Acid Spray or Super Fang targets for allies. Stonjourner also took a spin with a four-attacks set and Life Orb, which even ended up winning a battle for me (OHKOing a Noctowl and Indeedee.)

The most noteworthy thing about this run was that three of my four units had a -2 SDef crippler and I WHORED these moves. You could say I practice what I preach!


The Swsh AI either doesn't know how to play around FEAR or doesn't rabidly target them like they did in Gen 6, but that ended up being quite to my favor as any attack directed into my fat Aroma was another chance for Toge to do its thing. I played unusually well around RNG during this run, never once whiffing into Protect and planning several moves ahead. Toge fainted three times during the run and the two before Leon were deliberate sacks toward the end of the battle (one of them was to Clefable's Metronome, summoning Cut...) Only nuisance was a subbed Liepard whom I allowed to sit there, using Thunder Wave once and then slowly chipping me with Snarl until Avalugg put it to bed with Icicle Spear.

I did have one moment of hubris when I expected Endeavor to bring Leon's Zard to Moonblast-killing digits only to find that it used Zard's base HP in the damage calc and thus Moonblast had no chance in hell. I believe I was visibly pouting when I clicked Water Spout the following turn. Rime was last, and predicting FO into it only to dmax and Fire Blast felt great. This run otherwise had no dmaxing.

oh yeah just gonna leave this here

As hesitant as I was to run multiple Ghosts (EVELYN gave me a ton of them) I enjoyed the little bit of freedom in having two lead setters, on top of Fake Out immunity and Disguise on one of them. Mimikyu did a lot more than set TR, unlike the first time I'd used it in Tree. If it wasn't setting it was using Swords Dance, and there were enough flimsy things and/or fairy weaknesses for it to net many KOs. I had to remind myself that Hustle with Wide Lens isn't infalliable.

Cursola dropped Power Gem and Ice Beam for Giga Drain and Scald this run, and at times I missed having them since she hits so much harder than Jellicent.


Not a single Competitive boost this run, which kinda pissed me off, and if I'd known RNG was going to say "No" I probably wouldn't have run Milotic, who sacrifices a good chunk of offense for bulk. Even when I did get Intimidate leads, they ran some other ability. That being said, I got a shitload of Scald burns and Milotic refused to die, which made up for it. No quick sweeps for this team, but Clops was easily able to reset TR when needed. Since Milotic wasn't going to do anything to Leon's leads at the rate I'd prefer, the task of ripping his team apart was handed to Conkeldurr, who did an excellent job of it.

Highlight of this run was Frosmoth sort of soloing a Rillaboom/AV Tsareena/Dmax Togekiss/Shiinotic. I say sort of because HH was used liberally and Rillaboom protected on the turn it probably could've beaten it. Togekiss survived an Ice Beam while maxed but couldn't do anything else, and Shiinotic helpfully set sun for an easy Weather Ball KO outside of TR. Ice Scales with AV reduces neutral hits to pitifully low amounts, which looks amazing when it actually works.

I think I'm quickly running out of Pokemon that haven't been used, but fortunately it won't be long before Isle of Armor is here!

 

[phoenix0wright]

Just had a short streak snapped at 59. Simple mistake but would love some feedback before starting back at the top.

Cool team! I really like the look of it as-is. However, if you're actively looking to replace Torkoal, maybe something like Primarina? Its Hyper Voice won't be quite as strong as a Sun-boosted Eruption, but it's still monstrous and also helps beat some things that the real star of the show, Snorlax, may struggle with (e.g., Quick Claw Fighting Types and bulky Rhyperior). I also think that having a mon that blanks Cinderaces with Fighting coverage is important, given that you have a good chance of facing it every ten games. 99% of the time it won't matter, but it's better to prep for it just in case of those one-in-a-million setups that can end a streak.

Primarina@Air Balloon/Life Orb
Quiet, 252 HP/252SpA/4SpD
Ability: Liquid Voice
Hyper Voice
Dazzling Gleam/Moonblast
Protect
Ice Beam/Life Dew

Fairy STAB depends on if you want more spread damage or raw power. Ice Beam is probably better, but I can imagine scenarios where healing up Snorlax is better than chipping away with your own attack. Item depends on if you want to spam both spread moves at once (Air Balloon) or see your fourth mon as more of a backup sweeper in its own right (Life Orb).

Also, if you never click Shadow Claw anyways, you may as well replace it with Crunch; the only real use case is to hit Ghost types if your two sweepers are dead. It's a little stronger hand can lower defense, which might make a minuscule difference one day.

 

[Eisenherz]

Reporting a streak of 310 for Classic Doubles (ie. no Dynamax)!

This is the first Tower team I built in SwSh back in December, so keep in mind that this was pre-Home!

Teambuilding process

Shortly after my first playthrough of the game, I knew I wanted my first team to feature new Pokémon, if only to try them out, and because a lot of them offered exciting features. Trick Room seemed to be the most straightforward path to take, and after learning what Magic Powder was when my Hatterene tried to learn it during my playthrough, I really wanted to make use of it. Which is why Grimmsnarl sort of imposed itself as a frontline partner: not only would Fake Out help me set up Trick Room, but Magic Powder + Dark is a combo I wanted to take advantage of. Looking among the new TR-compatible Pokémon, Copperajah stood out as one of the most powerful options (I also had a great experience with it when I used the in-game sample TR team to Tower to MAX rank). I wanted a special attacker as my last, so I decided to go with Cursola, a personal favourite among the new Pokémon, which happens to also pair really well with Magic Powder.



I don't remember how far I was able to take this, but I remember it didn't work out as well as I hoped. The team was overall too frail, and I struggled against Leon's Charizard particularly. At first I had Power Gem on Cursola for that, until I realized Leon always had Charti Berry as his item and Spell Tag-boosed Shadow Balls were doing nearly as much damage. Despite its great SpA, Cursola also kept barely missing out on OHKOs, while its horrible Def made its bulk feel bad (despite amazing SpD). Copperajah also felt a lot frailer than I had hoped, but it was at least pulling its weight offensively, so I decided to look for a Cursola replacement that would allow me to swiftly OHKO Leon's Charizard every time. Surprisingly few Pokémon can do it, so this old favourite made a return...



Several item changes later, I finally got to a version I was happy with... until Home happened, but that's for another time!

Team

@

Sassy | Magic Bounce
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/0
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 SpD
Trick Room / Psychic / Mystical Fire / Magic Powder

Hatterene

As mentioned, Magic Powder was the reason I wanted to use Trick Room and Hatterene in the first place. However, as a Trick Room setter, Hatterene isn't particularly bulky. 252 HP EVs goes a long way in patching its poor HP stat, but it remains frail on the physical side without further investment. I knew that if I went the more traditional, offensive Quiet 252 SpA route, it would be an unreliable setter for long streaks, even with Fake Out alongside. The now-classic HatDeedee combination can get away with an offensive Hatterene as the setter thanks to redirection, but it also utilizes an entire teamslot to make it happen; not necessarily a bad idea, but that went against my desire to make use of Magic Powder. Thus, I went the traditional bulky route for this set, but Hat's naturally high SpA means it's no slouch when used offensively regardless.

With TR and Magic Powder, as mandatory moves, I figured Psychic was also a must. Beside being Hatterene's strongest STAB, it handles Poison types, which are otherwise an obvious issue to the lead (oops, double-Fairy!)... as is Steel. This, in combination with the fact Grimmsnarl already provided a strong Fairy STAB, made me ditch Gleam in favor or Mystical Fire. The decision was rmade easier by my earlier usage of Hatterene with the sample rental team the game provides, in which Mystical Fire had proven incredibly useful. I had no idea how useful it would end up being simply as a debuffing move, it took me a while before I started using it well, but Mystical Fire and Spirit Break together gave me the option to get -2 SpA on an opposing Pokémon in a single turn all the while doing decent damage, even on resists. This, in turn, could allow me to make an opposing Pokémon very passive, and take advantage of that on the following turns by ignoring it and doubling up the partner (it's worth noting that Magic Powder also contributed to the debuffing a lot of the time, removing STAB is a big nerf to an opponent's damage output). Granted, doing this wasn't often better than going for straight damage, but it got me out of some sticky situations, particularly against G-Max Charizard (which, at -2, really doesn't hit too hard!).
With Magic Bounce, I figured a Lum Berry was overkill, so I first went with a

Wiki Berry, but found Hatterene was... too bulky for it? It wasn't activating very often, and rarely so in clutch situations. Hat was either getting 2HKOd or 3HKOd, and in those cases the berry did nothing, so I switched to Sitrus and never looked back. Hatterene has just the right bulk for the Sitrus to allow an extra hit, and that's exactly what it needed (especially if lead Aegislash happens to flinch it with Iron Head *cough*).

@

Brave | Frisk
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/0
EVs: 244 HP / 236 Def / 28 SpD
Fake Out / False Surrender / Spirit Break / Stomping Tantrum

Grimmsnarl

As far as partner leads that could take advantage of Magic Powder, the options were very slim. Grimmsnarl and... Scrafty? If Scrafty had access to Knock Off at the time maybe I would've considered it... there's no doubt Hatterene would benefit greatly from Intimidate. However, I needed this team slot to be a damage dealer, and Scrafty is weak. Besides, Frisk is arguably even better than Intimidate in Tower... knowing instantly which 2 sets you're facing allows for much more reliable decisions and game plans. Clearly, I also had no use for Prankster, as Grimm was there as a damage dealer, not a support.

The set went through a few changes as testing occurred. First, I used Room Service rather than Expert Belt; 60 base speed is notorious for being annoying on dedicated TR teams, as it gets outsped by a lot of stuff in TR (I've had my fair share of gripes with that speed tier last gen, hello Primarina). I really liked Room Service, because it allowed Grimm to outspeed and KO or heavily damage slower threats on turn 1 when Fake Out was unnecessary, stuff like Drampa or Cursola for example. It should be pretty obvious that scoring a KO before TR is even set is a huge advantage for a TR team when possible. But in the first few runs, Grimmsnarl kept disappointing me; it lacked damage output. The whole point of the team was to Magic Powder + False Surrender stuff, but Grimm missed out on a lot of OHKOs. This was even more true of Spirit Break, so many of the Fighting and Dragon types ended up living on like 5-10%, it was really frustrating, so I ended up switching to Expert Belt. I first considered Black Glasses, because Magic Powder meant I could just go with Dark STAB most of the time, but with how much usage I was getting out of Spirit Break, I figured E-Belt would allow for a lot of the OHKOs I was missing out on, and it ends up boosting False Surrender anytime I Magic Powder them too, so that was very helpful.

At the time, I was using Drain Punch rather than Stomping Tantrum, but I didn't use it much, and never really got much benefit out of the healing. I switched to Stomping with low hopes; same BP, no healing... but it worked out a lot better. In addition to the obvious Steel types, being able to hit Poison for super effective (now with E-Belt) proved extremely useful, especially for stuff like Drapion or Skuntank (if I didn't end up using Magic Powder on them, anyway). Hitting Electrics for super effective also proved really useful, Grimm can get several OHKOs with E-Belt despite the low power.

The decision to use Spirit Break rather than Play Rough should be pretty self-explanatory (missing sucks, SpA debuffs are really good, entirely worth the damage trade), but maybe False Surrender could appear a little more puzzling when Darkest Lariat is an option. Granted, some additional damage would be nice (keep in mind it's merely a 5 BP difference), and I juggled with the idea a lot early on. But the increase of Bright Powder users in Tower compared to last gen is the big factor for me here. Missing is really costly for a TR team, it wastes a precious turn, and the trade-off in damage is pretty slim (the E-Belt more than makes up for it a lot of the time). I'm sure Darkest Lariat could be fine, but it leaves a little more to luck, which I personally dislike.

@

Brave | Sheer Force
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/0
EVs: 236 Atk / 132 Def / 140 SpD
Iron Head / High Horsepower / Rock Slide / Protect

Copperajah

Somehow, I feel like Copperajah looks so much cooler in its various promotional sprites than it actually does in-game. It might be the less vivid colours, or the fact its cubic behind seems more prominent. Either way, I was really excited for a strong Sheer Force Iron Head user to make its entrance and was very much looking forward to using it.

In the damage department, Copperajah certainly delivers. Sheer Force Life Orb Iron Head hits insanely hard, scoring even OHKOs on a lot of neutral targets, and 2HKOs on most resists. I know a lot of people prefer Heavy Metal Heavy Slam instead, but for Tower (and VGC, but that's irrelevant here), I think Sheer Force is pretty much strictly better. First, SFLO Iron Head does significantly more damage than Heavy Metal Heavy Slam (yes, even assuming max slam power); you could add a Life Orb to the Heavy Metal set, but that would be an unfair comparison since you actually take the LO recoil, and no LO recoil is one of the points of using SFLO (Heavy Metal usually runs AV in any case). Second, SFLO makes Rock Slide a potent spread move that does good damage despite non-STAB spread penalty, and that's Copperajah's best weapon against Charizard (it still doesn't KO though, stupid Charti Berry!!! Note that SFLO Iron Head still does min 33% to Charizard lol). Third, it limits Copperajah's option a ton when dealing with Dynamax since Heavy Slam (and Heat Crash) both auto-fail. Not many Pokémon Dynamax in Tower, but Charizard is a recurring foe, and even against the random Dmax user, I want Copperajah to at least have the option of using its main STAB on them (which is neutral on Magic Powdered targets - and a neutral SFLO Iron Head is often all that's needed).

High Horsepower is a blessing for Copper coverage-wise, much like Stomping Tantrum was to Mega Metagross last gen, and removes the need for Heat Crash to deal with Steels. I used it a lot more than Rock Slide in the end, though part of it has to be attributed to not clicking Rock Slide because of its 90% accuracy.

Protect was very important for Copper on this team, as the frontline doesn't have that option, and G-Max Charizard alone makes it a quasi-necessity (unsurprisingly, Wildfire very much OHKOs Copper and its entire family). As a matter of fact, this ties in to my main complaint about Copperajah: while its offenses deliver on the promises, its bulk is really mediocre. Interestingly, it's one of the very few Pokémon with high enough HP and low enough defenses to make splitting defense EVs through more optimal than running max HP:

252 SpA Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 140 SpD Copperajah: 152-182 (77.1 - 92.3%)
252 SpA Charizard Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Copperajah: 186-218 (81.2 - 95.1%)

Either way, something to notice from these calcs is that 80-90% is a ton of damage for a bulk-invested Pokémon. I'm used to Steel Pokémon being more defensive than specially defensive, but Copperajah isn't, it's just as frail on the physical side, so the Earthquakes and Drain Punches of this world hit it just as hard, and for me that's a bit of a disppointment. It also makes AV a lot less appealing as a patching option for the SpD, since being physically frail and having no option to Protect is a recipe for disaster. Using Copperajah as a switch-in is risky business either way.

@

Brave | Water Bubble
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/0
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Def
Liquidation / Leech Life / Wide Guard / Protect

Araquanid

Good old Araquanid! Water Bubble-boosted Liquidation is pretty much the Water version of Copperajah's SFLO Iron Head. However, unlike Copperajah, Araquanid also boasts excellent bulk (at least on the special side) and a very useful defensive typing. It was added mostly because it's one of the few Pokémon able to OHKO G-Max Charizard, but it turned out to fit really well on the team thanks to Leech Life pairing nicely with Magic Powder. Araquanid has no worthwhile coverage option (though it really doesn't need one given its bad offensive stats), so I settled for Wide Guard in the 3rd movelsot, which I remember saving me a couple of times against some Rock Slide spammers like Haxorus-13 and Rhyperior-23.

At first, I gave Araquanid a Mystic Water, since I knew it would mostly spam Liquidation. Except it didn't. Leech Life saw a lot of usage for this team, and to be honest, Liquidation didn't feel like it needed the boost, it's powerful enough as it is. Feeling paranoid of Leon's Charizard, I changed the item to a Coba Berry; in TR, Liquidation gets the easy OHKO, but what if I'm caught out of TR? Then Max Airstream has a chance to OHKO Araquanid, and I couldn't prevent that with a bulkier spread, so Coba Berry made sense to me as a safety measure. I kept it on for ~60 battles, and I'm not sure it even procced a single time through those. As much as I liked having a safety net, it felt like a huge waste having what was basically an itemless Araquanid for all these battles. Meanwhile, I noticed how reliably Araquanid kept being brought to the 25% range, and how good recovery would have been every time. Araquanid tends to get caught in attrition wars, where I'm trading 3-4HKOs, so the Aguav Berry really ends up making a big difference, especially combined with Leech Life recovery. It provides the team with some bulk it otherwise severely lacks.

Threats

I believe this is a pretty solid team, but definitely not without its flaws (I think it would be very lucky to get to 1000). The double-Fairy lead is dangerous business; I remember one of my early attempts ending in the 60s because of a lead Dmax Libero Cinderace from Allegra; it went for Max Steelspike on Hatterene, and I had absolutely no counterplay, especially with the Def boosts it was getting (and its partner, which I believe was Obstagoon). That's a pretty extreme example, though, and I don't see this team auto-losing to much outside of this Cinderace lead.

Water-types can be a little rough to deal with, they tend to be bulky and run Protect, stalling out my TR turns (common offenders: ). Araquanid is my best check, which leads to long attrition wars, in which Magic Powder helps a lot. Gyarados is especially rough because of Intimidate (Rock Slide Copperajah particularly shines there), and teams that roll several Intimidate users tend to be an annoyance as well given the physical bias of my offenses. Double Intimidate combined with stuff like Eject Button/Pack can quickly force multiple switches from me and stall out my TR.

Quick Claw Copperajah , which is a very common foe due to being a guaranteed backliner for one of the trainers (Harvey?), is a big threat, especially if I've already taken some chip damage. Thankfully, my own Copperajah OHKOs it with High Horsepower (barely) – a testament to its mediocre bulk which goes in my favour for once.

Replays

I actually recorded this entire streak and uploaded it to YouTube as I went. I doubt it's too interesting to watch, but it can provide some insight for anyone curious about the team!

Follow-up

The release of Pokémon Home in February led to a new and improved version of the team, with which I have an ongoing streak. I'll wait until that streak is over before I post about it, but I'm confident it can get further than this version, it offers more flexibility and better typing synergy (despite having only one different team member).

Thanks for reading!

 

[Nightmare]

I can't remember the exact end, but I got ScarfDitto'ed in the low 200's. I'll say 207 to be safe.

Currently got an ongoing streak, at 344. So my current ongoing streak is 344-207.

Let you know when I lose.

-James

 

[SadisticMystic]

The new DLC introduces another challenge: Restricted Sparring, in the mold of Tower and similar facilities.

In contrast to Tower-8 this one does keep track of actual streaks, not just a total historical win count, and is therefore likely to be worthy of tracking here.

Specifics:
-You choose a type, and choose a monotype Singles team consisting of three Pokemon that have to include that type (and can optionally have a second type which doesn't have to match, just like Smogon Monotype).
-Your opponents are not beholden to the monotype restrictions. Their sets are at least distinct from the main Tower pool; how many trainers and sets there are to choose from is currently unclear.
-Your team does not get healed after matches by default. However, you do have the option to take a heal after a match, which you can only do twice per streak. Think Super Smash Bros. All-Star Mode.
-Each win is worth 3 BP (an improvement from the 2 you may have become used to from Tower wins), except that every 5th win in a streak is worth 20 BP, plus an additional 30 BP if this is your first time getting to the 5 benchmark with the chosen type. Getting a 5 streak in every type is therefore worth 1116 BP in all.

The limited heals, of course, figure to be the main limitation of streak longevity, without needing the opponents to dabble in high-variance sets using items like Quick Claw or Focus Band to try and force as many teams as possible to cope with that source of inevitability. Unless you're using something like a Leppa Berry/Recycle set that's somehow still robust enough to tank whatever the opponent throws at you without a care, if nothing else your PP supply can only hold out for so long using a minimum of 3 PP to KO the opposing team. The monotype restriction is fairly tame by comparison, but does invite a matchup-based source of disadvantages if an opponent rolls a set with the right type to prey on your team and you don't have coverage for them, or take too much indelible damage switching to the right team member who does have coverage.

Since the game tracks not only a streak but a streak for each type, there are a possible 18 separate leaderboards, if people want to try them all.

 

[Worldie]

After a bit of experimenting as well, I'd point that the AI even has sets tailored to screw up your Dynamax.
You do have Dynamax advantage like in Tower (I didn't meet any AI dynamaxer so far), however I met plenty of otherwisegimmicky sets like status, Yawn, semiinvul spammers, Protect and what not. Combined with the limited PPs and lack of healing, this actually makes the advantage less impactful than it seems as you can easily end up wasting 2/3 of the Dynamax turns, and since you don't get healed, you can't just swap out for free.

Also , I suspect each type-challenge features tailored enemy sets as well. Unless you're telling me that Absorb Bulb Alakazam (that I met on water challenge) is a common set...

 

[Photon]

Battle Tower did almost nothing to grab my attention outside of BP grinding (which was quickly invalidated anyway after consistently reaching Master Ball tier online.)

This though? This interests me.

 

[MrHands]

Battle Tower did almost nothing to grab my attention outside of BP grinding (which was quickly invalidated anyway after consistently reaching Master Ball tier online.

I think that was Gamefreak's plan. Make 6v6 singles all but impossible online (20 minute timer) and starve players out of BP so they HAVE to play VGC.

I don't mind VGC but if the anime, manga, Pokemon GO, all main series games, most casual matches, and even the movies are singles focused it would be nice if Gamefreak had some sort of doubles focus to ease us into it, instead of strong arming us into it immediately after Leon is defeated.

 

[Photon]

Did my first run with a slapped together Fairy-type team of lead Togekiss + Sylveon + Primarina. Ended up with a 13-win streak. Some initial observations:

• Since there is no auto-healing, items have some interesting caveats. It does not appear that you will permanently lose an item to Trick (I had a Flame Orb tricked to me but it reverted back after battle,) but you will permanently lose it to something like Knock Off. The knocked off item was restored via a full party heal, however.
• My first impressions on a desirable strategy is to definitely go for a Dynamax snowball lead. The quicker and more efficiently you power through the enemy team, the better chance you stand of minimizing wear and tear between battles. Dynamax bulk also helps mitigate wear and tear as well. Obviously this is easier said than done, but switching your second/third string into any kind of damage can be more dangerous in this format.
• Despite being my second string, it was not taking much to burn up Hyper Voice PP. This is partially expected of course, since that's generally what Sylveon spams when it comes in, but the lack of longevity was pretty obvious. Its definitely problematic from the standpoint of the long game: lose your main STAB option -> can't kill cleanly -> exposed to more damage.

 

[Worldie]

Did my first run with a slapped together Fairy-type team of lead Togekiss + Sylveon + Primarina. Ended up with a 13-win streak. Some initial observations:

Out of curiosity, did you also run into what I call "tailored sets"? Like idk, random poison/steel coverage on unexpected mons, kasib berries, etc? I ran into a couple sets of this kind while doing Water, so was curious if it's just a case or the facility has some "tailored" sets per each type.

 

[Eisenherz]

I've been working on a temporary spreadsheet to keep track of the sets until we get a datamined sheet with all the info. Unlike other facilities, it seems abilities are locked for these Pokémon [edit: just ran into the first non-HA Pincurchin in 6 encounters, abilities are not guaranteed!]. I made the spreadsheet public so everyone playing can contribute:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1laK9zLHqJcCqHlzY3NIte2cYSs2TVfbo-0cmCWUkIlg/edit#gid=0

It does not appear that you will permanently lose an item to Trick (I had a Flame Orb tricked to me but it reverted back after battle,) but you will permanently lose it to something like Knock Off. The knocked off item was restored via a full party heal, however.

That's incorrect – unless there's an inconsistency, items lost to Knock Off and Corrosive Gas are back in the next battle (I had 2 items knocked off and double checked every time to make sure they were back after). However, consumable items like Berries or Throat Spray don't come back until a heal.

edit: tested a 3rd time, knocked off items definitely do come back on the next battle.

Out of curiosity, did you also run into what I call "tailored sets"? Like idk, random poison/steel coverage on unexpected mons, kasib berries, etc? I ran into a couple sets of this kind while doing Water, so was curious if it's just a case or the facility has some "tailored" sets per each type.

It would seem the sets are the same through all types, they're just really whack and niche. There's also only 1 set of each Pokémon.

 

[Photon]

That's incorrect – unless there's an inconsistency, items lost to Knock Off and Corrosive Gas are back in the next battle (I had 2 items knocked off and double checked every time to make sure they were back after). However, consumable items like Berries or Throat Spray don't come back until a heal.

edit: tested a 3rd time, knocked off items definitely do come back on the next battle.

I just did another run (Dragon-type this time) and I noticed this as well. On the first run, the item that I "lost" was a Sitrus Berry, so I wonder if it has something to do with the item being consumable.

Anyway, definitely think this is gonna be fun to toy with. On one hand, I feel like moves with minimum 15 PP (or minimum 24 PP when maxed out) that boost into 130 BP Max Moves are going to be very valuable, but on the other hand you have to be really solid to carry far enough to where that much PP even matters. When the team starts to crack, the sudden downward spiral can crush you pretty quickly.

 

[turskain]

I've added leaderboards for Restricted Sparring, one for each type waiting to be filled.

 

[Eisenherz]

Well then, might as well get things going! Level 51 threatened kindly encouraged me to try out Restricted Sparring, and he and I built a mono Normal team (well, mostly him!). We had a pretty decent first run (19), but I gave it more attempts afterwards, and was able to reach a respectable 27.

The team:

@

Timid | Psychic Surge
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Expanding Force / Dazzling Gleam / Mystical Fire / Shadow Ball

@

Jolly | Guts
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpDef / 252 Spe
Facade / Knock Off / Close Combat / Obstruct

@

Jolly | Huge Power
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Body Slam / Earthquake / Fire Punch / Bounce

It's a pretty straightforward team, it's meant to pick up OHKOs. Not a lot of switching happens, but it was not totally uncommon to go Obstagoon in front of a Dark type, of Diggersby on an Electric type (Pincurchin is a particularly safe switch). All 3 Pokémon are good as leads, so when the pieces start falling, every new lead can hope to achieve sweeps of its own. Sadly, Obstagoon tends to take some chip from both the burn and resisted hits on the switch, so its lifespan is often shorter than ideal, but on good runs it becomes a lead while still very healthy and can then carry the team for a bunch of battles.

Dynamaxing Indeedee is usually only done when really necessary, since Specs Expanding Force does significantly more. Same with Obstagoon, it's mostly done to reduce burn damage since Facade does more than any max move at neutral. However, if Max Knuckle picks up a KO, it's usually advantageous to go for it. Diggersby, on the other hand, really benefits from Dynamaxing every time it can, and if possible right away, because locking into Body Slam or EQ can leave it in a very bad spot against immune Pokémon; waiting to see the backline before locking yourself is really good, though banded EQ does more damage than the Max moves, so sometimes it's necessary to lock into it immediately. When any move will pick a KO, Max Airstream is pretty much always ideal.

PP hasn't been a huge issue with the team, except for Bounce on Diggersby, which I ran out of twice (it's only 8 PP, and Airstream tends to be really good), and Expanding Force on Indeedee, which I ran out of 3 times (fun fact, you can't dynamax to unlock yourself of a move that has no more PP, you're forced to Struggle or switch).

Threats to the team include Mienshao which basically plows through with HJK, and Zoroark, which can catch Indeedee going for Expanding Force and OHKO it.

I was streaming during that entire streak, so it can be watched in full:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Right after, I started working on a similar HO idea for Mono Fire, and after just a few test runs that were very promising, I ended up with a streak of 40.

The team:

@

Jolly | Libero
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Pyro Ball / High Jump Kick / Bounce / Sucker Punch

@

Timid | Solar Power
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Flamethrower / Air Slash / Solar Beam / Scorching Sands

@

Adamant | Sheer Force
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 236 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpDef / 252 Spe
Fire Punch / Rock Slide / Earthquake / Superpower

Even more true than with Mono Normal, this team almost never switches. I recall switching to Darmanitan on Turtonator twice and.... I think that's all. Cinderace is completely busted in this format. On a good run, it runs out of PP before dying:

(this is a rare feat, most of the time it has some left before going down)

G-Max was used because 160 BP picks up a lot of OHKOs at neutral. The hardest part of using Cinderace is truly PP management; you need to strategically pick moves to preserve PP on moves that don't have a lot, and get the right boosts at the right time. HJK and Sucker Punch have more expandable PP since HJK has quite a lot and SP is less often the ideal pick. I went with Expert Belt since this coverage tends to have super effective hits a lot of the time, and I would definitely not want Life Orb recoil shortening its lifespan. The inaccurate moves are less than ideal, but since those runs are short, it's easier to bank on good RNG and try again if you don't get it. However, a single HJK miss or even Bounce miss can entirely kill a run, so gambling is involved. Most of the time, though, these moves will be clicked as Max moves where they can't miss (I think I had to hit 5 HJKs in the entire run).

Charizard isn't G-Max because the wildfire chip would rarely matter here, either it OHKOs stuff, or it 2HKOs, in which case it's usually good to get a speed boost in there, then set the sun and OHKO the next target thanks to Solar Power. The Solar Power recoil is unfortunate, but is pretty small when Dynamaxed, and the increase in power is very much worth, allowing Charizard to OHKO a lot of stuff. Scorching Sands mostly came useful for free Max Quake boosts when they would matter, I don't think I ever locked myself into it. Since Charizard doesn't always Dynamax and can sometimes simply sweep with Specs, having accurate moves in Flamethrower and Air Slash was important to me - imagine the nightmare of hitting Hurricanes in the sun!

Darmanitan was initially Scarf and had Flare Blitz, but both were very awkward. Flare Blitz was often the best move but also meant going down to recoil, which loses the streak... Scarf was handy but moves like EQ really lacked power. Changing both of these helped Darm so much; it entirely soloed the last 7 battles of the streak, and bowed down at 41 to Quagsire. The lesser damage of Fire Punch was barely noticeable, since I could usually set the sun with Max Flare and have an insanely powerful Fire Punch later on if need be. EQ was very useful as well, for Max Quake too, while Rock Slide was used to OHKO a Cloyster but not much else (I had no desire to set Sand). Superpower was never used as a non-Max move, the drawbacks are too big and likely to lead to a loss, even if Superpower meant an OHKO. Max Knuckle saw plenty of usage though!

Threats to the team include Quagsire (mostly to Cinderace and Darm) and Magneton (Sturdy into Thunder Wave just ends one of your Pokémon's career until the next heal, very bad if it happens shortly after a heal).

I would recommend this team to anyone looking to farm BP, it's very straightforward to use, and Cinderace might just be the best overall Pokémon for this format!

Thank you for reading!

 

[hearthebeard]

I've added leaderboards for Restricted Sparring, one for each type waiting to be filled.

Awesome! Thoughts on a leaderboard for total across all types in addition to each individual type? Or would that be too dynamic?

 

[Tmi489]

Just to be clear, the legendaries/mythicals are not banned right?
If they are then do Zacian/Zamazenta-C count as steel types?

Psychic Team Idea by someone who doesn't own S/S, let alone what they're doing

Mewtwo @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psystrike
- Flamethrower
- Aura Sphere
- Shadow Ball

Jirachi @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Serious Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Recycle
- Protect / Moonblast
- Toxic

Slowbro @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Bubble Beam
- Scald
- Body Press
- Slack Off

Jirachi and Slowbro attempt to stall out the opponent with Toxic. Slowbro's Regen+Wish theoretically should let it survive for a long ass time. Mewtwo's here to defeat pesky 'mons that dont die to the stall, or to clean up shop for the first few rounds. It could be easily replaced by another mon if mewtwo taints the team.

 

[Eisenherz]

Just to be clear, the legendaries/mythicals are not banned right?
If they are then do Zacian/Zamazenta-C count as steel types?

They are banned; the banlist appears to be the regular one from Battle Stadium / old battle facilities (no cover legends, no mythicals).

 

[Jibaku]

Well this is just inconvenient - it appears that you cannot use rental teams for Restricted Sparring

 

[Photon]

Well this is just inconvenient - it appears that you cannot use rental teams for Restricted Sparring

Yeah, that is a bit weird. Granted, a rental team would have to be specifically tailored to Restricted Sparring since it requires only 3 Pokemon be on the team. Still, it seems like a strange restriction given that they're tying them to battle teams in the first place.

 

[Rarycaris]

They are banned; the banlist appears to be the regular one from Battle Stadium / old battle facilities (no cover legends, no mythicals).

Kinda glad about this. I'd like an unrestricted mode for fun, though, even if you don't get many BP for it, but the game needs a more "competitive" mode.

Does Restricted Sparring enforce Species Clause? Does it let you use Urshifu?

 

[Worldie]

Does Restricted Sparring enforce Species Clause?

Yes, the rules are basically the same as VGC (species/item clause, no restricted) combined with sharing a type

 

[Eisenherz]

Thanks to everyone who has been contributing to the spreadsheet of the AI sets, we have quite a few complete sets on there and the essential parts of most others!

I tackled Mono Water today, to pretty good results (I think the team could definitely go further, too):

The team:

@

Adamant | Strong Jaw
IVs: HT/HT/HT/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpDef / 252 Spe
Fishious Rend / Crunch / Psychic Fangs / Outrage

@

Jolly | Moxie
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Waterfall / Bounce / Power Whip / Earthquake

@

Calm | Storm Drain
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
EVs: 212 HP / 156 Def / 140 SpDef
Scald / Earth Power / Toxic / Recover

Despite what its record might indicate, this team is not as much of a sledgehammer as Mono Fire was. However, it could often enough go 15+ battles without healing for me to think it wouldn't be overly difficult to take it to 50+. It took me around 15 runs to get this record, most of the other runs I just cancelled after the first few battles went unfavourably. At first, I was leading Gyarados, but this created the issue that any switch I ever did was to Gastrodon, so both Gyarados and Gastrodon got to share the work until they were worn down, leaving Dracovish on its own. The issue is that having Dracovish left alone at the end is super awkward; it can steamroll through a team in 3 turns, but it can also encounter a roadblock at any time where it just loses, so if it's my last, I never know when to heal, and every battle is just a gamble. I decided it would be smarter to lead it, get everything I can out of it until it goes down, and then let the Gyarados-Gastro duo go to work (well, Gastro does work in tandem with Dracovish too).

I found it essential to have a safe switch-in to Electric moves, as several Pokémon would outspeed Gyarados and obviously OHKO. I thought of going for an offensive Seismitoad, but it's too weak to OHKO stuff, even with Specs, and if I'm going to get 2HKOs, Gastrodon is way better since it has reliable recovery for the hits it will necessarily have to tank (I did consider Quagsire too!). After using it as a switch-in, I was usually able to (slowly) run through teams with Gastrodon. I was worried at first that toxic stalling in this format would be a problem in the PP department, but it wasn't, since at best I could get 5-6 wins out of Gastrodon alone before having to heal the entire team, which wasn't enough to drain all my PP (I did only have 1 Recover left on the very last battle). I was also able to get a few nice Dynamax sweeps out of Gastro, thanks to Storm Drain boosts the AI gifted (Dynamaxing Gastro was also done defensively a few times, to survive an additional hit or Max Guard an additional turn of toxic damage).

Dracovish is obviously very straightforward. But it really comes down to the luck of the draw; you can go for 4-5 battles that get entirely swept by Fishious Rend, to the point where you can use up all of its PP, but most of the time, roadblocks will come sooner than later, and I often found myself having to Dynamax it in order to survive (Max Wyrmwind was extremely useful, though I never locked myself into Outrage). On a good run, Dracovish could sweep 7-8 teams before going down. On the average run, it probably muscled through 3-4.

The real star of the team, however, was Gyarados! It usually was able to rack up as many sweeps as Bounce PP allowed (Airstream usage was usually restricted to 1 per battle, because of how precious that PP is), sometimes a few more if I was lucky enough. Obviously, having a switch-in for things that threaten it really helped it stick around and shine. Airstream, Geyser and Moxie help Gyarados just snowball through teams in no time.

Many runs (at least 4) were singlehandedly lost to Pyukumuku. Using Gastrodon to toxic it is a bad idea, because it can toxic Gastro back, and that's the end of Gastro (which is way too important for the team to ever let it go down before the sweepers). With Dracovish in, it will almost always Counter. Dmaxing to 2HKO with Wyrmwind means eating a Counter, which obviously does a ton, and then possibly Innards Out. Any other max move doesn't 2HKO and means eating 2 or 3 Counters, ie. the end of Dracovish. Not Dynamaxing means getting Red Carded and something will eat a Counter and lose practically their entire HP. Gyarados can OHKO it with banded Power Whip (it might be a roll, but I've gotten it every time so far if it is), however, Innards Out can activate and destroy Gyarados right back. There's no good solution, really. In this particular streak, I've encountered it twice, used Power Whip and was simply lucky enough for it to be Unaware.

I plan on returning to this team to beat 43 eventually, but for now I'm excited to get through all the typings, so I'll just keep going and go for Electric next! (I might be slightly addicted) (help)