QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
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Challenge 4th Generation Battle Facilities Discussion and Records
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First time poster in this thread looking for a little advice. After working on ongoing streaks in Emerald Battle Palace, and Platinum Multi Battle w/ in-game Trainer (which will hopefully have their own separate posts soon), I have decided to take a short break and try and focus on a challenge/ aspirational run I have been thinking about for a while. I want to try and go for a long winning streak in the Battle Hall and Battle Tower with Sunflora.
Sunflora obviously brings its fair share of obstacles to any challenge, and so one centered in the Battle Frontier will prove to be especially difficult; however, I am determined to give it the best possible shot before completely writing it off. That being said, I have been looking over the options for Gen IV Sunflora, and they are quite humbling. I do like to theory craft with fringe Pokés as often as possible, and I have seen good success working in the Gen III Frontier with Pokés like Stantler and Megainium. BUT, I haven't worked a ton with the Gen IV Frontier and so I am asking for any potential sets/ theories that might help make this streak a reality. For the Battle Hall I plan on working with a couple of different sets, most likely around lv.30-lv.45 but any advice from more experienced veterans would be helpful.
The goal for the tower is at least to reach a streak of 100 (so Sunflora can get the ribbon) but I would like Sunflora to participate in the streak as opposed to just bringing it to the last set. I also have a copy of Pokémon Diamond, so I may end up trying to achieve the tower streak there as I know it is significantly less difficult than achieving it in Platinum.
I have some preliminary sets conjured up that are mostly just standard special offense with earth power/ leaf storm, as well as some potential special *wall* sets, but I suppose I came to seek alternative creative options for Sunflora that I may have missed or failed to imagine. As a side note, I am so happy to see this thread is alive an active, and I hope I become a more regular familiar face soon!
Sunflora obviously brings its fair share of obstacles to any challenge, and so one centered in the Battle Frontier will prove to be especially difficult; however, I am determined to give it the best possible shot before completely writing it off. That being said, I have been looking over the options for Gen IV Sunflora, and they are quite humbling. I do like to theory craft with fringe Pokés as often as possible, and I have seen good success working in the Gen III Frontier with Pokés like Stantler and Megainium. BUT, I haven't worked a ton with the Gen IV Frontier and so I am asking for any potential sets/ theories that might help make this streak a reality. For the Battle Hall I plan on working with a couple of different sets, most likely around lv.30-lv.45 but any advice from more experienced veterans would be helpful.
The goal for the tower is at least to reach a streak of 100 (so Sunflora can get the ribbon) but I would like Sunflora to participate in the streak as opposed to just bringing it to the last set. I also have a copy of Pokémon Diamond, so I may end up trying to achieve the tower streak there as I know it is significantly less difficult than achieving it in Platinum.
I have some preliminary sets conjured up that are mostly just standard special offense with earth power/ leaf storm, as well as some potential special *wall* sets, but I suppose I came to seek alternative creative options for Sunflora that I may have missed or failed to imagine. As a side note, I am so happy to see this thread is alive an active, and I hope I become a more regular familiar face soon!
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Sunflora's an old favourite of mine so I hope you succeed in this. It's not an easy Pokemon to use effectively; it doesn't even have the luxury of a wide movepool but does get Earth Power in Gen IV which alongside Sludge Bomb and Hidden Power gives it just enough moves for passably decent coverage. It also does benefit from being a Grass-type as this gives it a handful of useful options to play with.
Sunflora's main problems are that it's slow and quite frail, so those are the things to work on patching up. Looking at its moveset and abilities, some ways to use it spring to mind but all have their own pitfalls
- It can set up a few different ways as it learns Growth, Swords Dance, and Curse. The issue with that is that its Attack and Defense... still aren't terribly impressive even at +6, and it can't really do much with those boosts as it doesn't learn many useful physical moves. Setting up with Growth plays more to Sunflora's strengths, but the boost rate isn't fast enough to make using it worthwhile: you're still slow and frail.
- it gets a good array of support options like Leech Seed, Ingrain, Grasswhistle, Encore, and Worry Seed. A staller set making use of Leech Seed in conjunction with Grasswhistle, Substitute, and potentially Double Team is possible: find the right opponent to set up on and you can potentially outlast a lot of Pokemon. The trouble is that it's too frail to set this up reliably and it's blocked by a fairly wide range of stuff - anything immune to sleep or which knows Aerial Ace will ruin you.
- You can go all-out with offense: Leaf Storm, Sludge Bomb, Earth Power, and a Hidden Power (Ice or Fire or Electric all have their merits but Ice is probably the best overall). The problem with this is that it's way too slow to beat things effectively; most Water-types will kill you with Ice Beam before you can kill them, and a lot of the stuff you can outrun like Snorlax and Steelix and Slowbro and Bastiodon are bulky enough to take a hit and OHKO you in return.
- Early Bird looks kind of interesting in conjunction with Rest as it halves the time spent asleep. While this does give you a more efficient healing option, it's not particularly effective on such a frail Pokemon since a lot of attacks will just 2HKO you anyway: at best, you'll end up in a constant cycle of having to heal again as soon as you wake up.
- Solar Power looks tempting, but Sunflora is too slow to enjoy the offensive boost unless you're able to Baton Pass it a hell of a lot of speed
- Operating under sun is probably the most reliable way to use Sunflora. Even though it's incredibly slow Chlorophyll allows even a neutral natured Sunflora to outrun a wide range of foes. This also means you can run Solarbeam over Leaf Storm, allowing Sunflora to hold a better item than White Herb - an Expert Belt or even a Life Orb will help to push some 2HKOs into OHKOs. The major issue with this strategy is that Sunflora will struggle to set up Sunny Day itself; it's better to have a teammate do it instead, which might push you to focus your whole team around sunny weather.
That said I think running 4 offensive moves is a waste (outside of the Battle Hall at least where you generally want to be KOing things in one hit). I did the Battle Hall a while back as part of a wider Frontier challenge and I found that the key to success there was to study the opponent sets really thoroughly and have a plan for every single opponent you'll face for each type. Also for the Hall specifically I'd recommend running it at as low a level as possible, at higher levels it'll be way too difficult to KO foes efficiently.
Definitely would advise attempting a Tower streak on DP, I believe opponents in DP's Tower have randomised natures so that makes things that little bit easier.
Sprout Tower Flower Without looking too much into it, I don't think Sunflora has good prospects in Hall without heavy reliance on both hitting and getting more than 1 sleep turn out of Grasswhistle, and you'd also need to make many sets to improve your chances. If you're not necessarily going after Gold Print, Sunflora would probably be more capable of performing well in Hall Doubles with Sunny Day Chlorophyll.
Reporting a heartbreaking 48 win streak on Level 50 Battle Factory Singles on cartridge.
Was an overall weird run but felt good to PB into Round 7, ran into an unfortunate Thorton matchup that would have required either an OHKO fish or an insane amount of luck. Still, after coming back to grinding after years of not playing felt good to get this streak, feels like it's still within striking distance as well so I'll definitely continue going for it. Felt I'd report this run while it's fresh in my mind and cause there were a few interesting scenarios. The first 6 rounds were done a few days ago and round 7 was last night, so some of the details on some of the earlier or insignificant battles/swaps I'm a bit hazy on.
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Again, not a whole lot to remember from this round. Charmeleon was my elevation, was unsurprisingly traded within the first round. Venomoth was in my draft and Crawdaunt was picked up later so the team ended up pretty solid.
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Actually great draft, Kangaskhan does great against Thorton in general with Reversal + Salac and just nukes the entirity of Round 3 with Double-Edge. Crobat was an ok elavation, but I ended up swapping it out for Swellow for that higher firepower cleaning up whatever Kanga can weaken. I don't really remember much about the second filler besides starting out with Carnivine as to not crumble to Electabuzz 2.
Only thing I recall about the Thorton battle was chipping his 2nd mon Gallade with Reversal to get an easy Toxic Orb proc on Swellow, but overall it went smoothly.
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Elevations were Exeggutor and Kangaskhan in the draft, only took Exeggutor since the first battle was against a Thunderbolt user, and figured that the rest of my draft couldn't handle Buzz 2 or other strong Electric types. It was Buzz 2 which was walled completely by Eggy. Buzz ended up doing really great against the majority of Round 4, just ended up taking Magnezone towards the end for more potential Elevations and I think a better matchup against battle 7.
Hardly used Kang at all, but I grabbed Lax 1 over it pretty early on after getting lucky with some Will-O's and Focus Blasts with Magmortar.
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I honestly should not have made it past this round. Elevations were Gengar, Aggron, and I believe Breloom. Gengar 3 is OK but I ended up leading it considering it's decent synergy with Aggron covering each other's weaknesses pretty well. Gardevoir was the last mon for a special wall alongside being able to deal with a lot of Round 5 stally bullshit really well.
First battle had Drapion 1 which could have been a lot scarier but thankfully Aggron was able to land enough Iron Tails to take care of it pretty well. Ended up swapping Aggron for it considering it covered a lot of the same weaknesses for Gengar and in general was more consistent. Turned out to be a bit of a risk immediately as I was forced to play around Yanmega 2 with Speed Boost who beats both Gengar and Gard head on. It U-Turns on Drapion first switchin and when I bring it back out later against it, I predict another Turn and hard switch into Gengar to not take more chip. It works out, and I'm able to deal with the back mon and Yanmega through a crit.
At some point I had to deal with Lapras 2 which is always just miserable, but I just decided to Energy Ball it a bunch hoping that if I get OHKO'd Garde or Drapion could pick it off depending on its HP. Thankfully it only went for one Sheer Cold and had one Quick Claw proc so that situation got diffused pretty quickly.
Battle 5 should have been where I lost. Umbreon 1 lead which I matchup against ridiculously poorly. I could have tried to go for 2 Focus Blasts or a Focus Blast and some chip w Gengar in hindsight, but I went for Drapion and rolling the dice on Acupressure to try to get the right boosts considering that's how I lost the matchup on the opposite side before on a Thorton battle in the past. Unfortunately, the only worthwhile boost I get was in evasiveness, while everything else was in speed or special defense. They end up Baton Passing into Granbull, where I just decide to try to get some Poison Jab chip with Drapion while I can. Luckily get the poison, which put it in range to be revenged by Garde. Umbreon is sent right back out though, and at this point the only hope I have is to get some crits, high rolls, or paralysis. Confuse Ray isn't really an option since Umbreon barely takes any confusion damage which gets healed off with Leftovers anyways. After Garde goes down, I hit the Focus Blast on Gengar, but it just lives with a sliver of HP. At this point, I think the run's over as a +1 Payback kills, but for some reason it curses again, letting me Energy Ball safely for the kill. Jolteon comes out next, which requires a lot of luck to take out still, as it outspeeds, 2HKOs with Thunderbolt, and has Focus Sash so I can't crit fish. I go for a Confuse Ray while it goes for a Thunder Wave on me. It hits itself in confusion once as I get a crit Psychic to win the game. I don't know what luck I had to get for that outcome, but I'm just amazed it happened to work out. I end up taking Umbreon 1 over Drapion as it has more sustain overall for a defensive switch.
Battle 7 starts with Flareon 3, who honestly I thought would've been a lot scarier to deal with. It OHKOs Gengar, can burn Umbreon, and has Shadow Ball for Gardevoir. My plan was to gimp it with a Garde switch for Overheat, get some chip and either setup on it with Umbreon or Garde, or finish it with Gengar. I didn't realize that Garde has Trace, meaning the switch on the Overheat was completely free. While it worked out, I'm still at risk from Shadow Ball so I decide to try to PP stall its Overheats by switching between Umbreon and Garde. For some dumbass reason though, it decides to Will-O on the switch to Umbreon, leaving me with a gimped Umbreon. While annoying, I figure my other best option is to just setup with Garde instead. What ends up happening is that it Overheats twice, missing the first one and having the 2nd one blanked by Flash Fire as I go for 2 or 3 Calm Minds as it continues to go for Will-Os that don't work into Garde. Get into a position to one shot the Flareon, one shot the Granbull that comes in next, and whatever their 3rd mon in the back was for a Round 5 clear.
I may or may not have misplayed the Flareon situation, but dumbass AI kind of solved that issue for me regardless.
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After the whirlwind that was my Round 5, luck decided to smile down on my draft for Round 6. The standout was an Elevated Salamence, who I lead with to chunk everything with Outrage and potentially cycle intimidates. Empoleon 3 was good for general coverage and made it so I don't have to deal with other Quick Claw BS, and Technician Ambipom 3 rounded out the set as a fast back cleaner. However, the real star of the show turned out to be Skarm 2 that I snagged from the first battle after managing to not get unlucky on hitting Surfs with Empoleon. I swap out with Ambipom, which leaves me vulnerable to Bolt Beam coverage, but being able to switch Skarm in off of Intimidate let me pull some nasty shit against the rest of the wave. 3 times I used Rhydon 3 to setup max evasion on and Toxic stall the rest of the battle.
Battle 6 turned out dicey though, as the Boltbeam coverage that always on the back of my mind rears its head with with Porygon2 (3) lead. It isn't OHKO'd by Outrage due to Trace Intimidate and hits everything on my team supereffectively. I decide to go into Empoleon to tank an Ice Beam and a Thunderbolt, hopefully not getting frozen or Para'd and maybe getting some Quick Claw hax off. 1 Torrent boosted Surf is all I get though, which leaves Pory vulnerable to Mence but only to Outrage. I roll the dice hoping I can at least take out two mons with it, but the 3rd Rhydon rears its head and Outrages back to KO. I have to hope that Skarm can solo whatever is in the back, though honestly this Rhydon was particularly vicious on bringing skarm to low health trying to setup Double Team, leaving Roost as a risky click due to Hammer Arm. I actually decide to heal through some Fly stalling, Toxic when its low and Skarm is almost at full, and Fly as Rhydon goes down to hit the 3rd mon in case it was something like a frailer fire. The last mon turned out to be Mr. Mime, who carried TBolt that could've gotten ugly but Skarm decides to OHKO on the crit fly for the win. I took Pory2 over Emp for Battle 7 as it had a better neutral matchup against a lot of mons and I had two Flying types to deal with any fighting types.
Battle 7 was also scary with a lead Blastoise 4 who has SE coverage for Mence, Pory2, and a Hydro Cannon to nuke Skarm. I run the risk of losing Skarm 2 by switching in against an Ice Beam, putting me at range for Hydro Cannon. I switch back and forth between Skarm and Mence expecting the Hydro to come out on Skarm, yet what ends up happening is that it went for a Focus Blast instead. In hindsight it could've been an Ice Beam which would have been a shitshow but I switch Skarm back in to take another Ice Beam, thinking I'm going to lose it to another Beam and forced to get some damage with Pory2 instead. Fortunately it goes for another Focus Miss and I'm able to heal back the damage. It never ends up clicking Hydro Cannon, probably due to the AI's reluctance to select recharge moves I guess? But I start setting up some double teams, get a Toxic on it, and bizarrely it goes for a Hyper Beam that hits right before it goes down. 2nd Mon was Ambipom 4 which Mence would have lost to if I had to rely on it alone, but Ambi gets all the Fire Punches to KO Skarm at +2 evasion only taking one Fly for some chip. I send out Pory2 to finish it as it TPunches for minimal damage, and the last Mon is revealed to be Nidoking 4. I'm able to live one quake to guarantee the win, with Mence in the back, but Pory2 managed to deal with Nido on its own for my 2nd Round 6 clear in Factory ever.
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At this point I'm praying for at least a semi-decent draft and hoping I can potentially fix it along the way. My previous PB was 42 so getting one win would break it. The first round was against a Grass specialist, so taking 31 IV Zard 2 for that match and for a decent hole puncher early on was a no brainer. 31 IV Espeon 4 was also present which seemed very appealing for high speed and good power behind Psychic so I take that as well. Ended up taking 24 IV Miltank 4 just for something with OK coverage at least.
The battles throughout this round were honestly not super eventful. I took Torterra 4 Battle 1 for no other reason than to have an OK Rock/Ground and Electric matchup, but I feel it doesn't cover the water weakness that Zard presents as well.
Battle 2 was the only real significant "scary" battle with Milotic 4 lead. The damage calc said that I only had a 0.4% chance to die to Surf in the Sun doing only 50.4% max, yet for some reason it rolled well over 50%??? Regardless, I get 2HKO'd for a very underwhelming Solar Beam. I'm at risk here since Espeon deals only under 1/2 HP with Psychic while Milotic has access to Recover, but luckily I get what I think was a high roll for the KO. The rest of the team was Quag and something else underwhelming. I wanted to take Milotic over Torterra, while it'd present an Electric weakness Espeon could hopefully clean? But the next battle was against a Fire specialist which Zard matches up very poorly against, so in the interest of trying to just make it to Thorton in the first place I swap Zard for Milotic.
Milotic cleans through the next team featuring Houndoom, Swampert, and Rapidash 3, which I end up swapping for Torterra for what ends up being a decent draft.
Thorton rolls around and I keep this team considering the rather mid options I had the battle before, and he leads with one of the worst possible Mons for my team to deal with: Dragonite. This always sees an OHKO on Milotic with Banded Outrage and outspeeds, so there's nothing I do about it, and very cleanly OHKO's the rest of my team. I have to let Milotic die to bring in Rapidash, my only realistic out of this situation was a Horn Drill, as Poison Jab with Poison proc or Iron Tail won't deal anywhere close to let Espeon finish it off, and a Flare Blitz burn would still not save Rapidash out of this situation. I click Horn Drill and... it misses... Bright Powder doesn't save me from taking the next Outrage as I'm left with just Espeon against an undamaged Thorton team. There's a flash of hope as Nite gets a 2 turn confusion with Outrage, and it proceeds to hit itself on the next turn. The next mon is Houndoom, which is probably one of the worst Dark types I could have come across, crit Signal Beam doesn't even KO. Espeon does manage to tank 1 Dark Pulse and get the confusion on the 2nd signal beam, which lets me miraculously get down to the last mon. At this point I'm praying it's some slow Poison or Fighting type or another specially frail mon I can one shot, but he sends out the last mon and reveals itself to be Quagsire. While this wasn't good, there is potential for a crit Psychic to kill and a chance it may click Stone Edge to miss, so it could've been worse? I considered going for another Signal Beam confusion, but to roll that 10% chance again and get another 50% chance for confusion damage seems less feasible than going for a 1/16 for Psychic crit. I click Psychic and... it doesn't KO. But it gets the Special Defense drop! Not that it matters since Quag clicks Ice Punch which is well over enough to take out my Espeon sitting at 6 HP. So my streak ended at 48 wins, with one hit away from finally claiming that Gold Print.
There were a lot of things to consider for that Thorton fight at the end of the day. First is that this was on HGSS, meaning that if Thorton brought the same team with Set 1s if I played on Platinum, this probably would have been an easy win as Milotic probably could've solo'd all those Mons' set 1s. 2nd is that if Milotic and Dragonite were the same IV tier, it would've outspeed to deal with Dragonite easily and deal with Quag a lot better after. 3rd is that if I kept Zard 2 in the front and anchored Milotic like I originally wanted, I could've gone for the Burn against Dragonite which would have put me in a much more favorable position. Lastly, if I hit that Horn Drill and was able to take out Nite, the battle could have looked a lot different, though knowing the full team I was probably in a losing situation anyways, as Rapidash probably would have had to hit another Horn Drill to take out Quag coming in anyways.
Overall, while it sucks not getting the print, this was a run that made it pretty damn far considering the situations I had deal with in Round 5 and the Thorton 2 battle. I'm gonna still grind out for the Gold Print on Level 50, since I find it more interesting with how Elevations work and general progression compared to Open Level, alongside the fact that HP bars go down a lot quicker. Unsure which would be easier to get gold print on, though considering how terrifying Round 6 and 7 can get with Good AI compared to Round 3 and 4 in Open Level and Thorton 1 bringing Set 1 mons in Open as well it's easy to assume that Open Level is probably easier on paper, though random mons in drafts and on NPC teams could be nightmarish to consider as well.
On to the next run I guess o7
Was an overall weird run but felt good to PB into Round 7, ran into an unfortunate Thorton matchup that would have required either an OHKO fish or an insane amount of luck. Still, after coming back to grinding after years of not playing felt good to get this streak, feels like it's still within striking distance as well so I'll definitely continue going for it. Felt I'd report this run while it's fresh in my mind and cause there were a few interesting scenarios. The first 6 rounds were done a few days ago and round 7 was last night, so some of the details on some of the earlier or insignificant battles/swaps I'm a bit hazy on.
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Don't really remember a lot about this round, just that I didn't have a really strong Mon to speed through it. I just remember Elekid Thunder Punching a lot and being surprised how effective it was compared to Plusle/Minun.
Don't really remember a lot about this round, just that I didn't have a really strong Mon to speed through it. I just remember Elekid Thunder Punching a lot and being surprised how effective it was compared to Plusle/Minun.
Again, not a whole lot to remember from this round. Charmeleon was my elevation, was unsurprisingly traded within the first round. Venomoth was in my draft and Crawdaunt was picked up later so the team ended up pretty solid.
Actually great draft, Kangaskhan does great against Thorton in general with Reversal + Salac and just nukes the entirity of Round 3 with Double-Edge. Crobat was an ok elavation, but I ended up swapping it out for Swellow for that higher firepower cleaning up whatever Kanga can weaken. I don't really remember much about the second filler besides starting out with Carnivine as to not crumble to Electabuzz 2.
Only thing I recall about the Thorton battle was chipping his 2nd mon Gallade with Reversal to get an easy Toxic Orb proc on Swellow, but overall it went smoothly.
--> Elevations were Exeggutor and Kangaskhan in the draft, only took Exeggutor since the first battle was against a Thunderbolt user, and figured that the rest of my draft couldn't handle Buzz 2 or other strong Electric types. It was Buzz 2 which was walled completely by Eggy. Buzz ended up doing really great against the majority of Round 4, just ended up taking Magnezone towards the end for more potential Elevations and I think a better matchup against battle 7.
Hardly used Kang at all, but I grabbed Lax 1 over it pretty early on after getting lucky with some Will-O's and Focus Blasts with Magmortar.
I honestly should not have made it past this round. Elevations were Gengar, Aggron, and I believe Breloom. Gengar 3 is OK but I ended up leading it considering it's decent synergy with Aggron covering each other's weaknesses pretty well. Gardevoir was the last mon for a special wall alongside being able to deal with a lot of Round 5 stally bullshit really well.
First battle had Drapion 1 which could have been a lot scarier but thankfully Aggron was able to land enough Iron Tails to take care of it pretty well. Ended up swapping Aggron for it considering it covered a lot of the same weaknesses for Gengar and in general was more consistent. Turned out to be a bit of a risk immediately as I was forced to play around Yanmega 2 with Speed Boost who beats both Gengar and Gard head on. It U-Turns on Drapion first switchin and when I bring it back out later against it, I predict another Turn and hard switch into Gengar to not take more chip. It works out, and I'm able to deal with the back mon and Yanmega through a crit.
At some point I had to deal with Lapras 2 which is always just miserable, but I just decided to Energy Ball it a bunch hoping that if I get OHKO'd Garde or Drapion could pick it off depending on its HP. Thankfully it only went for one Sheer Cold and had one Quick Claw proc so that situation got diffused pretty quickly.
Battle 5 should have been where I lost. Umbreon 1 lead which I matchup against ridiculously poorly. I could have tried to go for 2 Focus Blasts or a Focus Blast and some chip w Gengar in hindsight, but I went for Drapion and rolling the dice on Acupressure to try to get the right boosts considering that's how I lost the matchup on the opposite side before on a Thorton battle in the past. Unfortunately, the only worthwhile boost I get was in evasiveness, while everything else was in speed or special defense. They end up Baton Passing into Granbull, where I just decide to try to get some Poison Jab chip with Drapion while I can. Luckily get the poison, which put it in range to be revenged by Garde. Umbreon is sent right back out though, and at this point the only hope I have is to get some crits, high rolls, or paralysis. Confuse Ray isn't really an option since Umbreon barely takes any confusion damage which gets healed off with Leftovers anyways. After Garde goes down, I hit the Focus Blast on Gengar, but it just lives with a sliver of HP. At this point, I think the run's over as a +1 Payback kills, but for some reason it curses again, letting me Energy Ball safely for the kill. Jolteon comes out next, which requires a lot of luck to take out still, as it outspeeds, 2HKOs with Thunderbolt, and has Focus Sash so I can't crit fish. I go for a Confuse Ray while it goes for a Thunder Wave on me. It hits itself in confusion once as I get a crit Psychic to win the game. I don't know what luck I had to get for that outcome, but I'm just amazed it happened to work out. I end up taking Umbreon 1 over Drapion as it has more sustain overall for a defensive switch.
Battle 7 starts with Flareon 3, who honestly I thought would've been a lot scarier to deal with. It OHKOs Gengar, can burn Umbreon, and has Shadow Ball for Gardevoir. My plan was to gimp it with a Garde switch for Overheat, get some chip and either setup on it with Umbreon or Garde, or finish it with Gengar. I didn't realize that Garde has Trace, meaning the switch on the Overheat was completely free. While it worked out, I'm still at risk from Shadow Ball so I decide to try to PP stall its Overheats by switching between Umbreon and Garde. For some dumbass reason though, it decides to Will-O on the switch to Umbreon, leaving me with a gimped Umbreon. While annoying, I figure my other best option is to just setup with Garde instead. What ends up happening is that it Overheats twice, missing the first one and having the 2nd one blanked by Flash Fire as I go for 2 or 3 Calm Minds as it continues to go for Will-Os that don't work into Garde. Get into a position to one shot the Flareon, one shot the Granbull that comes in next, and whatever their 3rd mon in the back was for a Round 5 clear.
I may or may not have misplayed the Flareon situation, but dumbass AI kind of solved that issue for me regardless.
After the whirlwind that was my Round 5, luck decided to smile down on my draft for Round 6. The standout was an Elevated Salamence, who I lead with to chunk everything with Outrage and potentially cycle intimidates. Empoleon 3 was good for general coverage and made it so I don't have to deal with other Quick Claw BS, and Technician Ambipom 3 rounded out the set as a fast back cleaner. However, the real star of the show turned out to be Skarm 2 that I snagged from the first battle after managing to not get unlucky on hitting Surfs with Empoleon. I swap out with Ambipom, which leaves me vulnerable to Bolt Beam coverage, but being able to switch Skarm in off of Intimidate let me pull some nasty shit against the rest of the wave. 3 times I used Rhydon 3 to setup max evasion on and Toxic stall the rest of the battle.
Battle 6 turned out dicey though, as the Boltbeam coverage that always on the back of my mind rears its head with with Porygon2 (3) lead. It isn't OHKO'd by Outrage due to Trace Intimidate and hits everything on my team supereffectively. I decide to go into Empoleon to tank an Ice Beam and a Thunderbolt, hopefully not getting frozen or Para'd and maybe getting some Quick Claw hax off. 1 Torrent boosted Surf is all I get though, which leaves Pory vulnerable to Mence but only to Outrage. I roll the dice hoping I can at least take out two mons with it, but the 3rd Rhydon rears its head and Outrages back to KO. I have to hope that Skarm can solo whatever is in the back, though honestly this Rhydon was particularly vicious on bringing skarm to low health trying to setup Double Team, leaving Roost as a risky click due to Hammer Arm. I actually decide to heal through some Fly stalling, Toxic when its low and Skarm is almost at full, and Fly as Rhydon goes down to hit the 3rd mon in case it was something like a frailer fire. The last mon turned out to be Mr. Mime, who carried TBolt that could've gotten ugly but Skarm decides to OHKO on the crit fly for the win. I took Pory2 over Emp for Battle 7 as it had a better neutral matchup against a lot of mons and I had two Flying types to deal with any fighting types.
Battle 7 was also scary with a lead Blastoise 4 who has SE coverage for Mence, Pory2, and a Hydro Cannon to nuke Skarm. I run the risk of losing Skarm 2 by switching in against an Ice Beam, putting me at range for Hydro Cannon. I switch back and forth between Skarm and Mence expecting the Hydro to come out on Skarm, yet what ends up happening is that it went for a Focus Blast instead. In hindsight it could've been an Ice Beam which would have been a shitshow but I switch Skarm back in to take another Ice Beam, thinking I'm going to lose it to another Beam and forced to get some damage with Pory2 instead. Fortunately it goes for another Focus Miss and I'm able to heal back the damage. It never ends up clicking Hydro Cannon, probably due to the AI's reluctance to select recharge moves I guess? But I start setting up some double teams, get a Toxic on it, and bizarrely it goes for a Hyper Beam that hits right before it goes down. 2nd Mon was Ambipom 4 which Mence would have lost to if I had to rely on it alone, but Ambi gets all the Fire Punches to KO Skarm at +2 evasion only taking one Fly for some chip. I send out Pory2 to finish it as it TPunches for minimal damage, and the last Mon is revealed to be Nidoking 4. I'm able to live one quake to guarantee the win, with Mence in the back, but Pory2 managed to deal with Nido on its own for my 2nd Round 6 clear in Factory ever.
At this point I'm praying for at least a semi-decent draft and hoping I can potentially fix it along the way. My previous PB was 42 so getting one win would break it. The first round was against a Grass specialist, so taking 31 IV Zard 2 for that match and for a decent hole puncher early on was a no brainer. 31 IV Espeon 4 was also present which seemed very appealing for high speed and good power behind Psychic so I take that as well. Ended up taking 24 IV Miltank 4 just for something with OK coverage at least.
The battles throughout this round were honestly not super eventful. I took Torterra 4 Battle 1 for no other reason than to have an OK Rock/Ground and Electric matchup, but I feel it doesn't cover the water weakness that Zard presents as well.
Battle 2 was the only real significant "scary" battle with Milotic 4 lead. The damage calc said that I only had a 0.4% chance to die to Surf in the Sun doing only 50.4% max, yet for some reason it rolled well over 50%??? Regardless, I get 2HKO'd for a very underwhelming Solar Beam. I'm at risk here since Espeon deals only under 1/2 HP with Psychic while Milotic has access to Recover, but luckily I get what I think was a high roll for the KO. The rest of the team was Quag and something else underwhelming. I wanted to take Milotic over Torterra, while it'd present an Electric weakness Espeon could hopefully clean? But the next battle was against a Fire specialist which Zard matches up very poorly against, so in the interest of trying to just make it to Thorton in the first place I swap Zard for Milotic.
Milotic cleans through the next team featuring Houndoom, Swampert, and Rapidash 3, which I end up swapping for Torterra for what ends up being a decent draft.
Thorton rolls around and I keep this team considering the rather mid options I had the battle before, and he leads with one of the worst possible Mons for my team to deal with: Dragonite. This always sees an OHKO on Milotic with Banded Outrage and outspeeds, so there's nothing I do about it, and very cleanly OHKO's the rest of my team. I have to let Milotic die to bring in Rapidash, my only realistic out of this situation was a Horn Drill, as Poison Jab with Poison proc or Iron Tail won't deal anywhere close to let Espeon finish it off, and a Flare Blitz burn would still not save Rapidash out of this situation. I click Horn Drill and... it misses... Bright Powder doesn't save me from taking the next Outrage as I'm left with just Espeon against an undamaged Thorton team. There's a flash of hope as Nite gets a 2 turn confusion with Outrage, and it proceeds to hit itself on the next turn. The next mon is Houndoom, which is probably one of the worst Dark types I could have come across, crit Signal Beam doesn't even KO. Espeon does manage to tank 1 Dark Pulse and get the confusion on the 2nd signal beam, which lets me miraculously get down to the last mon. At this point I'm praying it's some slow Poison or Fighting type or another specially frail mon I can one shot, but he sends out the last mon and reveals itself to be Quagsire. While this wasn't good, there is potential for a crit Psychic to kill and a chance it may click Stone Edge to miss, so it could've been worse? I considered going for another Signal Beam confusion, but to roll that 10% chance again and get another 50% chance for confusion damage seems less feasible than going for a 1/16 for Psychic crit. I click Psychic and... it doesn't KO. But it gets the Special Defense drop! Not that it matters since Quag clicks Ice Punch which is well over enough to take out my Espeon sitting at 6 HP. So my streak ended at 48 wins, with one hit away from finally claiming that Gold Print.
There were a lot of things to consider for that Thorton fight at the end of the day. First is that this was on HGSS, meaning that if Thorton brought the same team with Set 1s if I played on Platinum, this probably would have been an easy win as Milotic probably could've solo'd all those Mons' set 1s. 2nd is that if Milotic and Dragonite were the same IV tier, it would've outspeed to deal with Dragonite easily and deal with Quag a lot better after. 3rd is that if I kept Zard 2 in the front and anchored Milotic like I originally wanted, I could've gone for the Burn against Dragonite which would have put me in a much more favorable position. Lastly, if I hit that Horn Drill and was able to take out Nite, the battle could have looked a lot different, though knowing the full team I was probably in a losing situation anyways, as Rapidash probably would have had to hit another Horn Drill to take out Quag coming in anyways.
Overall, while it sucks not getting the print, this was a run that made it pretty damn far considering the situations I had deal with in Round 5 and the Thorton 2 battle. I'm gonna still grind out for the Gold Print on Level 50, since I find it more interesting with how Elevations work and general progression compared to Open Level, alongside the fact that HP bars go down a lot quicker. Unsure which would be easier to get gold print on, though considering how terrifying Round 6 and 7 can get with Good AI compared to Round 3 and 4 in Open Level and Thorton 1 bringing Set 1 mons in Open as well it's easy to assume that Open Level is probably easier on paper, though random mons in drafts and on NPC teams could be nightmarish to consider as well.
On to the next run I guess o7
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QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
Coming in with a new Battle Hall record. As far as I can see no-one has attempted the Hall with Moltres, so I was keen to give it a go here and make a "Moltres is really good actually" post.
I've gotten really into the Battle Hall ever since doing my Adventures challenge with Froslass. Part of me really wants to get the coveted 10,000 wins and get Professor Oak as my fan. One day, perhaps... but the fact that each Pokemon you'll face here only has one fixed set has great appeal, since you can look at all the Pokemon in one type category and try to come up with a moveset that covers all of them. Of course, for a small type like Ghost or Dragon that's far easier than it is for a bigger bracket like Flying or Water. But it's still often very difficult, particularly for Pokemon with limited movesets. Some Pokemon can be OHKOed without a backwards glance, others need more careful handling. My planning is straightforward - I dumped all the sets, divided by type (thanks to Peterko for writing those up so conveniently) into an Excel doc, and outline how I intend to deal with each in turn. Already started doing this for a couple of different species I'd like to try this with sometime.
Of course, given Moltres' rather shallow moveset, I needed several different individuals to do this properly. After doing my planning, I decided I needed Moltres with five different HP types: Ice, Ground, Electric, Grass, and Dark, as well as one from XD for Extrasensory. Thankfully I already had three (one with HP Grass, one with HP Dark, and one with HP Ice) but that still left me needing a couple more. Fortunately I was able to trade over the GTS for the latter two individuals. All were Modest except for the Moltres I used for the Water, Ice, and Flying rounds which was Timid.
Below is the order I did the types in, and my notes on how to handle all the enemy sets within them for anyone interested.
I've gotten really into the Battle Hall ever since doing my Adventures challenge with Froslass. Part of me really wants to get the coveted 10,000 wins and get Professor Oak as my fan. One day, perhaps... but the fact that each Pokemon you'll face here only has one fixed set has great appeal, since you can look at all the Pokemon in one type category and try to come up with a moveset that covers all of them. Of course, for a small type like Ghost or Dragon that's far easier than it is for a bigger bracket like Flying or Water. But it's still often very difficult, particularly for Pokemon with limited movesets. Some Pokemon can be OHKOed without a backwards glance, others need more careful handling. My planning is straightforward - I dumped all the sets, divided by type (thanks to Peterko for writing those up so conveniently) into an Excel doc, and outline how I intend to deal with each in turn. Already started doing this for a couple of different species I'd like to try this with sometime.
Of course, given Moltres' rather shallow moveset, I needed several different individuals to do this properly. After doing my planning, I decided I needed Moltres with five different HP types: Ice, Ground, Electric, Grass, and Dark, as well as one from XD for Extrasensory. Thankfully I already had three (one with HP Grass, one with HP Dark, and one with HP Ice) but that still left me needing a couple more. Fortunately I was able to trade over the GTS for the latter two individuals. All were Modest except for the Moltres I used for the Water, Ice, and Flying rounds which was Timid.
Below is the order I did the types in, and my notes on how to handle all the enemy sets within them for anyone interested.
1. Rock
I initially went with Electric but Rock is the more sensible choice for first, with HP Grass as the coverage option. HP Fighting could OHKO Tyranitar, but too much else is OHKOed by Grass to forgo it. In the end, the only way to deal with Tyranitar is to simply hope not to see it. I lost to it once which was, indeed, the only time it showed up. Aerodactyl, too, is nigh unbeatable unless you get severely lucky.
2. Electric
There's a couple of very difficult foes here. Namely I wanted to avoid meeting Raikou. I was validated in this: even with lower levels Electric is a very dangerous round. I lost on my first attempt at battle #10 to Jolteon, who set up one Double Team and promptly avoided being hit twice in a row. Raikou's Thunder can fail to OHKO if it's low-levelled enough, but why take the risk?
3. Flying
Might seem an odd choice for third round, but Flying contains a lot of very tough foes - Zapdos, Staraptor, Gyarados, and of course Aerodactyl. Once that's done and there's no possibility of seeing it again the whole process becomes that much easier. I encountered Aerodactyl twice - and lost both times.
4. Water
Water is actually a far less troublesome round than it looks. This is admittedly because doing it at a fairly low level mitigates a lot of the damage the Water mons can do to you. Nevertheless, this is a round with a lot of variance, so it's important to have a wide spread of attacks. Since I can't use both HP Electric and HP Grass, I'm doing something else - Power Herb Solarbeam. Came in absolute cluctch because it OHKOs all manner of foes.
5. Dark
Tyranitar aside, Dark is not a difficult round, meaning I felt comfortable running Protect and Substitute for whatever Argenta might bring. This proved a good choice overall, as having that ability to stall out foes meant that I could counteract an awkward matchup. All my Argenta fights are detailed at the bottom: I fought her at 50 battles four times and won all of them.
6. Psychic
Psychic is a tricky round - so many foes that can hit you with a surprise super-effective move. With no reliable option, I chose to run a Focus Sash to ensure I could survive any hit and strike back. Luckily the fastest foes here are usually frail enough to die in one hit.
7 - Normal
Normal is one of the few rounds I felt I had to run a custom EV spread that differed markedly from "max offenses+at least a bit of speed". There are so many bulky fat foes here that the optimal way to deal with most of them was to simply burn them with Will-o-Wisp and avoid being hit until they die. This was certainly the way to go with Chansey and Blissey - I briefly considered the merits of Drill Peck and Sky Attack, but it would have been a really stupid way to go - and Snorlax, which otherwise you never beat. I ran into it a few times (including on my 179th battle) and was hoping it'd go for Giga Impact to make the process quicker, but it never did. Still won every time, though.
8 - Ground
Quite an easy round, this one. After several rounds of having to employ more strategic approaches, it was nice to have one where you can just slap on a pair of Choice Specs and annihilate everything you meet. Even Garchomp - which outspeeds you at higher levels and will cleanly OHKO with Outrage - is simply disposed of with Hyper Beam. Which is good because there's no room for HP Ice: too many Water/Grounds here for that.
9 - Fire
Fire next, because there's a couple of dicey foes here: that Camerupt (sneaky), and that dreaded Houndoom. It's a weirdly scary set to face. But otherwise, Fire is nice and easy: I considered running Ancientpower, but it's not even needed.
10 - Dragon
Never met either Latias or Latios on any of my attempts. Disappointing. Other than that, Dragon is straightforward except for Kingdra, which is loathsome - but once it runs out of Hydro Pump PP it usually just started using Yawn, which is hilarious when you've got a sub up. Honestly, if you've got an Ice move and a way to deal with Kingdra and the Lati twins, Dragon is such a filler round.
11 - Ghost
Not a particularly frightening round all told. Was on the verge of carrying a Focus Sash when some intuition tipped me off to run a Lum Berry instead. This helped, but not against Dusclops - on my winning run I fought Mismagius at battle 9, which outsped me and got a lucky paralysis with Thunderbolt. Damn you, witch.
12 - Ice
Ice sounds easy (and mostly, it is) but the handful of Water-types you'll see here gave me some indecision as to how to handle it. Initially, I ran a Lum Berry because for the majority of foes here Blizzard or Ice Beam is their best option against Moltres and I was concerned about the prospect of a stray freeze. However, I ended up losing to Walrein because it was too high-levelled: two high damage rolls could have won me the match, but I fell short. This is what convinced me I needed a damage-boosting item over a Lum Berry, no matter the risk.
13 - Bug
Really? Bug this early on? Mmmyeah. A few Bugs have Rock moves, and Scyther is actually pretty dangerous if it gets a couple of Swords Dances in - which it did the first time I encountered it and missed my first Air Slash. It's fine, though. Assuming you actually hit everything, you are in no danger from Bug-types. I'm just being overly cautious, I guess...
14 - Poison
And so we come to Poison. There are only one or two foes here that pose real trouble - I initially ran Expert Belt, but Muk in particular is such a bulky brute that without a Choice Specs Extrasensory can possibly only 3HKO. No thanks. Outside of that, Gengar is potentially a pain thanks to Hypnosis but to my recollection I never ran into it. Small mercies...
15 - Fighting
There is quite literally nothing to say about Fighting.
16 - Steel
Part of me thought that Steel, having a few Pokemon with secondary Rock-types, might be a little more challenging than expected. It wasn't until my penultimate attempt, at which I lost to, of all things... Bastiodon. Oh, the shame. Sometimes there really is nothing you can do but suck it up and move on. But when I'm not being haxed into stupidly unlikely situations, Steel is eminently manageable - HP Ground works a little better than HP Fighting, though I don't think there's that much in it.
17 - Grass
And the final round... is Grass. It's a mostly very easy round, as you'd expect, though there are a couple of troublesome foes. Literally just two, actually: Cradily and Ludicolo. Aaaaaand so of course it was that when I finally made it to this round, I came within a whisker of losing just three battles from the gold. The opponent sent out Ludicolo, I used Air Slash... which missed... and Ludicolo hit me with Water Pulse, doing just over half. I stupidly used Protect to recover some HP, which left me wide open to Ludicolo setting up Rain Dance. Thankfully it didn't have Swift Swim and my next Air Slash took it down. It was an error on my part, but Water Pulse does just over 50% damage so I figured two turns of Leftovers recovery would enable me to survive a second one. And that Ludicolo would do the obvious thing and go for the kill. Gen IV Frontier AI can sometimes be very janky.
I initially went with Electric but Rock is the more sensible choice for first, with HP Grass as the coverage option. HP Fighting could OHKO Tyranitar, but too much else is OHKOed by Grass to forgo it. In the end, the only way to deal with Tyranitar is to simply hope not to see it. I lost to it once which was, indeed, the only time it showed up. Aerodactyl, too, is nigh unbeatable unless you get severely lucky.
2. Electric
There's a couple of very difficult foes here. Namely I wanted to avoid meeting Raikou. I was validated in this: even with lower levels Electric is a very dangerous round. I lost on my first attempt at battle #10 to Jolteon, who set up one Double Team and promptly avoided being hit twice in a row. Raikou's Thunder can fail to OHKO if it's low-levelled enough, but why take the risk?
3. Flying
Might seem an odd choice for third round, but Flying contains a lot of very tough foes - Zapdos, Staraptor, Gyarados, and of course Aerodactyl. Once that's done and there's no possibility of seeing it again the whole process becomes that much easier. I encountered Aerodactyl twice - and lost both times.
4. Water
Water is actually a far less troublesome round than it looks. This is admittedly because doing it at a fairly low level mitigates a lot of the damage the Water mons can do to you. Nevertheless, this is a round with a lot of variance, so it's important to have a wide spread of attacks. Since I can't use both HP Electric and HP Grass, I'm doing something else - Power Herb Solarbeam. Came in absolute cluctch because it OHKOs all manner of foes.
5. Dark
Tyranitar aside, Dark is not a difficult round, meaning I felt comfortable running Protect and Substitute for whatever Argenta might bring. This proved a good choice overall, as having that ability to stall out foes meant that I could counteract an awkward matchup. All my Argenta fights are detailed at the bottom: I fought her at 50 battles four times and won all of them.
6. Psychic
Psychic is a tricky round - so many foes that can hit you with a surprise super-effective move. With no reliable option, I chose to run a Focus Sash to ensure I could survive any hit and strike back. Luckily the fastest foes here are usually frail enough to die in one hit.
7 - Normal
Normal is one of the few rounds I felt I had to run a custom EV spread that differed markedly from "max offenses+at least a bit of speed". There are so many bulky fat foes here that the optimal way to deal with most of them was to simply burn them with Will-o-Wisp and avoid being hit until they die. This was certainly the way to go with Chansey and Blissey - I briefly considered the merits of Drill Peck and Sky Attack, but it would have been a really stupid way to go - and Snorlax, which otherwise you never beat. I ran into it a few times (including on my 179th battle) and was hoping it'd go for Giga Impact to make the process quicker, but it never did. Still won every time, though.
8 - Ground
Quite an easy round, this one. After several rounds of having to employ more strategic approaches, it was nice to have one where you can just slap on a pair of Choice Specs and annihilate everything you meet. Even Garchomp - which outspeeds you at higher levels and will cleanly OHKO with Outrage - is simply disposed of with Hyper Beam. Which is good because there's no room for HP Ice: too many Water/Grounds here for that.
9 - Fire
Fire next, because there's a couple of dicey foes here: that Camerupt (sneaky), and that dreaded Houndoom. It's a weirdly scary set to face. But otherwise, Fire is nice and easy: I considered running Ancientpower, but it's not even needed.
10 - Dragon
Never met either Latias or Latios on any of my attempts. Disappointing. Other than that, Dragon is straightforward except for Kingdra, which is loathsome - but once it runs out of Hydro Pump PP it usually just started using Yawn, which is hilarious when you've got a sub up. Honestly, if you've got an Ice move and a way to deal with Kingdra and the Lati twins, Dragon is such a filler round.
11 - Ghost
Not a particularly frightening round all told. Was on the verge of carrying a Focus Sash when some intuition tipped me off to run a Lum Berry instead. This helped, but not against Dusclops - on my winning run I fought Mismagius at battle 9, which outsped me and got a lucky paralysis with Thunderbolt. Damn you, witch.
12 - Ice
Ice sounds easy (and mostly, it is) but the handful of Water-types you'll see here gave me some indecision as to how to handle it. Initially, I ran a Lum Berry because for the majority of foes here Blizzard or Ice Beam is their best option against Moltres and I was concerned about the prospect of a stray freeze. However, I ended up losing to Walrein because it was too high-levelled: two high damage rolls could have won me the match, but I fell short. This is what convinced me I needed a damage-boosting item over a Lum Berry, no matter the risk.
13 - Bug
Really? Bug this early on? Mmmyeah. A few Bugs have Rock moves, and Scyther is actually pretty dangerous if it gets a couple of Swords Dances in - which it did the first time I encountered it and missed my first Air Slash. It's fine, though. Assuming you actually hit everything, you are in no danger from Bug-types. I'm just being overly cautious, I guess...
14 - Poison
And so we come to Poison. There are only one or two foes here that pose real trouble - I initially ran Expert Belt, but Muk in particular is such a bulky brute that without a Choice Specs Extrasensory can possibly only 3HKO. No thanks. Outside of that, Gengar is potentially a pain thanks to Hypnosis but to my recollection I never ran into it. Small mercies...
15 - Fighting
There is quite literally nothing to say about Fighting.
16 - Steel
Part of me thought that Steel, having a few Pokemon with secondary Rock-types, might be a little more challenging than expected. It wasn't until my penultimate attempt, at which I lost to, of all things... Bastiodon. Oh, the shame. Sometimes there really is nothing you can do but suck it up and move on. But when I'm not being haxed into stupidly unlikely situations, Steel is eminently manageable - HP Ground works a little better than HP Fighting, though I don't think there's that much in it.
17 - Grass
And the final round... is Grass. It's a mostly very easy round, as you'd expect, though there are a couple of troublesome foes. Literally just two, actually: Cradily and Ludicolo. Aaaaaand so of course it was that when I finally made it to this round, I came within a whisker of losing just three battles from the gold. The opponent sent out Ludicolo, I used Air Slash... which missed... and Ludicolo hit me with Water Pulse, doing just over half. I stupidly used Protect to recover some HP, which left me wide open to Ludicolo setting up Rain Dance. Thankfully it didn't have Swift Swim and my next Air Slash took it down. It was an error on my part, but Water Pulse does just over 50% damage so I figured two turns of Leftovers recovery would enable me to survive a second one. And that Ludicolo would do the obvious thing and go for the kill. Gen IV Frontier AI can sometimes be very janky.
Silver
First time I fought Argenta she used... Swampert. Well, that's fine, even without HP Grass. I simply stalled out five turns of Muddy Water with Protect and Substitute; after that, Swampert can't touch me. I could have ran it out of Rest and Substitute PP and possibly even have made it Struggle to death (all my PP was maxed) but Air Slash is a 3HKO and even with frequent Brightpowder-induced misses I eventually managed three hits in a row.
Second time I fought her she used... Houndoom. Oh man. Scary fight. Houndoom outspeeds, and with Dark Pulse can both 2HKO me and flinch me. Luckily, Protect+Leftovers makes the 2HKO much less likely but I still had my heart in my mouth expecting a flinch. Fortunately it didn't happen and I was able to recover enough HP to survive the second hit and beat her.
Third time... Sceptile. Easiest fight yet.
Fourth time... Blissey. Well, that's a pain, but I'm more than capable of outlasting it. Blissey can't break my sub easily, so I set one up and began using Flamethrower over and over to try and inflict a burn. That, and the more I attack, the more likely it is to use up all its Softboiled PP. Luckily all my PP is maxed so she'll definitely end up Struggling first. Eventually successfully burned it twice (the first being healed by its Lum Berry): once that was done getting it down to Struggle was off the table: the burn damage killed it before it had run out of Minimise PP.
Gold
Argenta's Gold Pokemon was... Crobat. Mmmph.
Expecting a Brave Bird, I used Protect, but it used Double Team; I used Substitute as it used Double Team again, and then used Flamethrower as it used Double Team once more, unexpectedly getting a critical hit which took it down in one. Nice.
First time I fought Argenta she used... Swampert. Well, that's fine, even without HP Grass. I simply stalled out five turns of Muddy Water with Protect and Substitute; after that, Swampert can't touch me. I could have ran it out of Rest and Substitute PP and possibly even have made it Struggle to death (all my PP was maxed) but Air Slash is a 3HKO and even with frequent Brightpowder-induced misses I eventually managed three hits in a row.
Second time I fought her she used... Houndoom. Oh man. Scary fight. Houndoom outspeeds, and with Dark Pulse can both 2HKO me and flinch me. Luckily, Protect+Leftovers makes the 2HKO much less likely but I still had my heart in my mouth expecting a flinch. Fortunately it didn't happen and I was able to recover enough HP to survive the second hit and beat her.
Third time... Sceptile. Easiest fight yet.
Fourth time... Blissey. Well, that's a pain, but I'm more than capable of outlasting it. Blissey can't break my sub easily, so I set one up and began using Flamethrower over and over to try and inflict a burn. That, and the more I attack, the more likely it is to use up all its Softboiled PP. Luckily all my PP is maxed so she'll definitely end up Struggling first. Eventually successfully burned it twice (the first being healed by its Lum Berry): once that was done getting it down to Struggle was off the table: the burn damage killed it before it had run out of Minimise PP.
Gold
Argenta's Gold Pokemon was... Crobat. Mmmph.
Expecting a Brave Bird, I used Protect, but it used Double Team; I used Substitute as it used Double Team again, and then used Flamethrower as it used Double Team once more, unexpectedly getting a critical hit which took it down in one. Nice.
Once I was at 170, I successfully made it a further ten battles in the order Fighting-Grass-Bug-Steel-Poison-Fire-Ice-Ghost-Normal-Psychic using the same Moltres I'd used for Argenta Silver and Gold (Modest, Flamethrower/Air Slash/Protect/Substitute, holding Leftovers). However, I chose Dragon for the 181st battle and came up against a Dragonite, which shrugged off Air Slash, used Dragon Dance, and subsequently knocked me out with Outrage, ending my streak.
Shame, but there was no realistic way to cover every dangerous type at rank 10 in one moveset. Still, well done, Moltres. You did good.
Shame, but there was no realistic way to cover every dangerous type at rank 10 in one moveset. Still, well done, Moltres. You did good.
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Submitting a Battle Hall Singles Streak of 170 with Pikachu on retail.
I've been working on my Battle Hall 10.000 total winstreak for a long time now so figured it's about time I put myself on the Leaderboards and I think Pikachu is a pretty cool Pokemon to get Gold Print with, and it'd be pretty cool to do something special for reaching 5.000 wins, so here we are! Before I speak about all the sets I used and my strategies for each type, I have to give full credit to atsync who was the first one to do Hall attempts with Pikachu before me, he gave me all his sets and made my life when trying to come up with strategies and what order to tackle each type in a lot easier, his Rock set in particular (which is one of the few sets I straight up lifted from him) is amazing, I don't think I would've come up with that and being able to leave Rock this late enabled me to put other problem types earlier and improve my chances.
So I had to make 17 unique Pikachu for this endeavor, and yes, as you can probably guess, that includes Flying & Surfing Pikachu, which meant I also had to pick up some new gadgets and skills along the way. Namely, I bought a Pokewalker and learned how to do RNG manip on it, I connected to altwfc for the first time to download Yellow Forest, and because Pokewalker RNG Manip is a giant pain in the butt (I did manage to manip 2 out of the 3 Pikachu I used for this) I learned how to do the Rage Glitch to give my Pikachu a custom moveset and I'll go a bit into that later simply for legality purposes.
Okay, here are are the sets I did this with and some notes (not super detailed since I didn't write them down when actually coming up with the sets) about them, all at LV30.
I've been working on my Battle Hall 10.000 total winstreak for a long time now so figured it's about time I put myself on the Leaderboards and I think Pikachu is a pretty cool Pokemon to get Gold Print with, and it'd be pretty cool to do something special for reaching 5.000 wins, so here we are! Before I speak about all the sets I used and my strategies for each type, I have to give full credit to atsync who was the first one to do Hall attempts with Pikachu before me, he gave me all his sets and made my life when trying to come up with strategies and what order to tackle each type in a lot easier, his Rock set in particular (which is one of the few sets I straight up lifted from him) is amazing, I don't think I would've come up with that and being able to leave Rock this late enabled me to put other problem types earlier and improve my chances.
So I had to make 17 unique Pikachu for this endeavor, and yes, as you can probably guess, that includes Flying & Surfing Pikachu, which meant I also had to pick up some new gadgets and skills along the way. Namely, I bought a Pokewalker and learned how to do RNG manip on it, I connected to altwfc for the first time to download Yellow Forest, and because Pokewalker RNG Manip is a giant pain in the butt (I did manage to manip 2 out of the 3 Pikachu I used for this) I learned how to do the Rage Glitch to give my Pikachu a custom moveset and I'll go a bit into that later simply for legality purposes.
Okay, here are are the sets I did this with and some notes (not super detailed since I didn't write them down when actually coming up with the sets) about them, all at LV30.
1:Poison: Volt Tackle, Thunderbolt, Dig, Fake Out (Female Adamant Light Ball 232Atk/24Def/252Spe)
24Def EVs ensure Smart AI Nidoking attacks with Dig so I can beat it with some Pokemon Stadium 1 strats, namely using Dig after it. Pikachu is female to not give it Rivalry boost, but bad AI Nidoking is one of the Pokemon that can beat me since it has a 1/4 chance of using Dig and I just have to risk it. The other Pokemon I can lose to is Crobat, it has Brightpowder and outspeeds me. It usually goes for Double Team, I have Thunderbolt here because Cross Poison + recoil from Volt Tackle will almost always kill me. Everything else is free, even the Grass/Poison types because Pikachu is a beast, especially early on with a Level advantage.
2:Psychic: Volt Tackle, Thunder, Signal Beam, Fake Out (Male Hasty Light Ball 252Atk/44SpA/212Spe)
44SpA EVs needed to kill Metagross with Fake Out + Thunder and Claydol with Fake Out + Signal Beam, 212Spe EVs outspeed everything. I can die to Brightpowder from Starmie/Jynx/Espeon, missing Thunder/Quick Claw from Metagross, Uxie living with Focus Band, Latias killing with a critical Dragon Pulse. Pikachu is male to try to bait Captivate from it, Rank9 Latias dies to Fake Out + Volt Tackle, strat for Rank10 is x2 Signal Beam which doesn't proc Salac Berry and always 2hkos if it attacks with Dragon Pulse otherwise Volt Tackle turn2 in case it uses Captivate.
3:Grass: Fly, Brick Break, HP Ice, Magnet Rise (Hasty Light Ball 252Atk/100SpD/156Spe)
156Spe EVs outspeed all enemy Pokemon, dumped everything else into SpD to potentially tank a critical hit from smart AI Cradily which Brick Break 2hkos after evading Earth Power with Magnet Rise. Obviously can die to missing Fly vs a lot of opponents considering Pikachu is so frail, Focus Sash Venusaur and Meganium and also Tangrowth which avoids the 2hko being particularly dangerous thanks to always getting a chance to attack and land a critical hit. HP Ice always kills Torterra unlike Fly and it also helps with playing around Meganium's Counter.
4:Steel: Volt Tackle, Thunderbolt, Dig, Fake Out (Naughty Light Ball 252Atk/252SpA)
No need for Speed EVs here since Pikachu outspeeds everything uninvested, can only die to Quick Claw and Focus Band since Pikachu gets to attack at full power from both sides of the spectrum.
5:Dark: Volt Tackle, Brick Break, Fake Out, Substitute (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
I use my first skip here since there are a lot of Quick Claws that can kill me in Rank9-10 like Tyranitar/Crawdaunt/Honchkrow, Substitute is to block Umbreon's Confuse Ray, technically can spam it vs Cacturne as well to try and bait Sucker Punch but the AI is really bad with actually using this move so it's not worth it. As for the Silver Print fight I didn't put much thought into it since my opponents are usually Pokemon like the mighty Caterpie and Metapod. (I did actually fight both of them vs Argenta)
You could have a move to cover Shedinja and something for Ground types I guess, my most difficult fight was vs Cubone which didn't die to Fake Out + Brick Break but failed to kill me with Double Edge which it picked over Bonemerang as a kill move, Pikachu's frailty saved it in this situation 252+ Atk Lv. 30 Cubone Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Lv. 30 Pikachu: 62-74 (88.6 - 105.7%); recoil damage: 20-23 (25.3 - 29.1%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
6:Ghost: Volt Tackle, Thunder Punch, Knock Off, Charge (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
Knock Off kills Shedinja and removes Quick Claw from Dusclops Dusknoir for Volt Tackle to kill safely turn2, so I only need to dodge the critical hit turn1. Thunderpunch kills Rotom in 2 hits and doesn't proc Petaya Berry meaning I can tank a hit from it. Charge is a meme move I picked since I had a free moveslot, and if you pretend I don't have Knock Off, when fighting Rank8 Rotom specifically Charge has a use since Thunderpunch has an outside chance of activating Rotom's Petaya Berry and then it will kill me but if I use Charge I get to both raise my Special Defense and ohko with Thunderpunch turn2 which is a pretty funny albeit unnecessary way to beat it.
7:Ice: Volt Tackle, Iron Tail, Dig, Fake Out (Jolly Light Ball 220Atk/116Def/172Spe)
116Def EVs to tank a hit from Weavile, 172Spe EVs outspeed everything else. Using Iron Tail because it covers both Abomasnow/Piloswine/Mamoswine and is a move everyone associates with Pikachu which I'll probably never use on another Pokemon, so now was the perfect chance to use it! Dig is to beat smart AI Piloswine with Stadium strats again and it's even reliable vs Weavile, always kills Rank9 and better chances to kill Rank10 than hitting Iron Tail, always in conjuction with Fake Out of course
8:Fire: Thunderbolt, Surf, Dig, Headbutt (Naive Light Ball 252SpA/252Spe)
Can basically only lose to Focus Band Heatran and Lax Incense Magmortar and guess what, I lost to both of them...
Technically there's an outside chance of dying to Focus Sash Charizard if it crits Air Slash and gets a good roll, which is why I slapped Headbutt on this for the flinch chance.
9:Bug: Thunder, HP Fire, Fake Out, Protect (Naive Light Ball 144Def/228SpA/136Spe)
144Def EVs tank a hit from Scyther and force it to use Swords Dance so Fake Out + HP Fire kills, easy as long as Thunder hits vs Armaldo/Heracross. Protect technically covers both bad and smart AI Ninjask so it's unfortunately better than Magnet Rise, I say unfortunately because it means I have to stall out Dig PP vs smart AI which takes a lot of time but is safe, it would be tragic if I got crit at the end of all that but thankfully only had to do that once and it went just fine.
10:Normal: Volt Tackle, Reversal, Fake Out, Substitute (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
Loses to Rank10 Lopunny because it outspeeds, beats everything else other than hax items, or the rare case of bad AI Staraptor getting a critical hit with Quick Attack.
11:Ground: Surf, HP Ice, Grass Knot, Magnet Rise (Timid Light Ball 252SpA/72SpD/184Spe)
Rage glitch Pikachu, bred in Emerald with the same IVs as Seed BC020034 Frame 35 for legality purposes if you care about that stuff, though I think there were better ones available on Pokewalker reseeds but I didn't bother figuring those out and like the only situations where this matters is if I miss Surf vs Piloswine it can pick Body Slam on top of Dig/Ice Fang.
Anyways there is a big problem Pokemon here and it's name is Dugtrio, I can't outspeed it most of the time and it can ohko me. The thing however is, that Dugtrio will also be bad AI most of the time so the strategy is to just yolo it. I only had to face it once and I was lucky enough to get it at a Rank where I can still outspeed it so I had no problems with it, used the Rest Exploit to try to avoid it at Rank8 as well which is the only Smart AI slot it occupies. Other than that Rank10 Nidoqueen/Gastrodon are favorable ranges at Rank10, the other big problem Pokemon is Whiscash, it's light enough to tank 2 Grass Knots and that's why 72SpD EVs are needed, to tank a Blizzard after using Magnet Rise. Unfortunately Whiscash like all fully evolved Water/Ground Types not named Quagsire has Lax Incense so I did get a loss vs it once...
12:Fighting: Volt Tackle, HP Flying, Fake Out, Tickle (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
I outspeed everything, HP Flying is for Breloom, Tickle is another one of those free moveslot meme moves that I picked, only useful for Rank10 Intimidate Hitmontop which can tank Fake Out + Volt Tackle and outspeed with Salac Berry turn2. Machamp is the biggest problem but I never ran into it, it's a range to die to Fake Out + Volt Tackle and it has Focus Band. Also one potential problem I had to face was bad AI Hitmonlee using Endure and outspeeding with Salac Berry turn 2, thankfully it used Bounce afterwards...
13:Rock: Brick Break, Grass Knot, Reversal, Counter (Lonely Focus Sash 236Atk/92SpA/104SpD/76Spe)
Atsync's genius set, could potentially struggle vs something like bad AI Cradily or Flame Body Magcargo but is very consistent vs smart AI against pretty much anything not named Shuckle. 104Spd EVs force Tyranitar to attack on the physical side and ensure Omastar doesn't see the kill with Ancient Power to potentially get omniboosts, 76Spe EVs outspeed everything bar Aerodactyl which dies to Counter, Brick Break + Reversal kills Cradily and anything else that lives x2 Brick Break or x2 Grass Knot like Rank10 Lunatone for example.
14:Dragon: HP Ice, Flail, Fake Out, Substitute (Naive Light Ball 152Atk/132SpA/224Spe)
Literally outspeeds and beats everything with HP Ice other than Kingdra and the Latis, which die to Fake Out + Flail
15:Electric: Volt Tackle, Dig, HP Dark, Fake Out (Jolly 29IV SpA Light Ball 180Atk/76SpD/252Spe)
29IV SpA is for HP Dark59 which 2hkos Rotom without procing Petaya Berry, same for 76Spd EVs which are used for tanking a hit from Rotom. Volt Tackle is for Zapdos, Fake Out + Dig takes care of everything else, needs to dodge static from Pokemon like Focus Sash Manectric and Ampharos, break through paralysis and hit through Double Teams vs Jolteon, potentially Thunder Raikou and Intimidate Luxray, and dodge the critical hit Brine from Lanturn. And there's always King's Rock Electrode to contend with. I particularly like the interaction vs Raikou which outspeeds me. After Fake Out turn1 it either uses Thunder and then is forced to pick Quick Attack and die to Dig or picks Reflect and then dies to x2 Dig while it tries to Thunder me underground.
16:Water: Volt Tackle, Dig, HP Grass, Fake Out (Naive Light Ball 160Atk/176SpA/172Spe)
You'd think Water is safe but I'm using my 2nd skip here for a reason. Starmie and Floatzel outspeed (Lumineon too but it's Lumineon) and ohko me so I have to hope for good matchups here, which isn't a bad strategy because Water has a ridiculously large pool (haha get it) of Pokemon. The given EVs ohko everything other than Lanturn which can only kill with a crit and late Rank Ludicolo which hopefully I don't run into (and I never did)
There are a few favorable ranges here and there like Kingdra/Suicune and you could say that there's a bit of matchup fishing (haha get itkill me) going on but it really isn't that bad with the skip used here, I'd say the best way to put it is you'd need to be unlucky to lose here rather than be lucky to win...
17:Flying: Thunderbolt, HP Ice, Quick Attack, Counter (Mild Focus Sash 80Atk/252SPA/176Spe)
The final set, I went the lame way of Counter/Sash strats for Argenta and got punished for it since I lost to her the first time against an Ampharos but anyways, this set kinda loses to Zapdos and Pikachu is weak enough without Light Ball that I could even lose to something like Pidgeot burning me with Heat Wave since Thunderbolt is nowhere near guaranteed to kill, or even Golbat with Razor Fang and Sludge Bomb poisoning since I only gave enough Speed to outspeed Gyarados. And all of that just to give 80 Atk EVs to kill Scyther with Thunderbolt + Quick Attack. Thing about Scyther is, it's my other loss condition since it also has Quick Attack and outspeeds me. Fake Out is illegal with Counter so I have to hope for Static to trigger to beat it so I decided to give myself a better chance and enable the Thunderbolt kill for that extra chance to paralyze it. Never ran into it though, and I beat another Flying type vs Argenta2, Honchkrow to land the Gold Print. I never play past 170 since my goal is to get Gold Print with 59 Pokemon and I like to keep the rankings nice and clean on the Battle Hall computer screen thingy so that's where Pikachu's journey ends, and it's not like these are optimized in any way, shape, or form for post-170 gameplay anyways :)
24Def EVs ensure Smart AI Nidoking attacks with Dig so I can beat it with some Pokemon Stadium 1 strats, namely using Dig after it. Pikachu is female to not give it Rivalry boost, but bad AI Nidoking is one of the Pokemon that can beat me since it has a 1/4 chance of using Dig and I just have to risk it. The other Pokemon I can lose to is Crobat, it has Brightpowder and outspeeds me. It usually goes for Double Team, I have Thunderbolt here because Cross Poison + recoil from Volt Tackle will almost always kill me. Everything else is free, even the Grass/Poison types because Pikachu is a beast, especially early on with a Level advantage.
2:Psychic: Volt Tackle, Thunder, Signal Beam, Fake Out (Male Hasty Light Ball 252Atk/44SpA/212Spe)
44SpA EVs needed to kill Metagross with Fake Out + Thunder and Claydol with Fake Out + Signal Beam, 212Spe EVs outspeed everything. I can die to Brightpowder from Starmie/Jynx/Espeon, missing Thunder/Quick Claw from Metagross, Uxie living with Focus Band, Latias killing with a critical Dragon Pulse. Pikachu is male to try to bait Captivate from it, Rank9 Latias dies to Fake Out + Volt Tackle, strat for Rank10 is x2 Signal Beam which doesn't proc Salac Berry and always 2hkos if it attacks with Dragon Pulse otherwise Volt Tackle turn2 in case it uses Captivate.
3:Grass: Fly, Brick Break, HP Ice, Magnet Rise (Hasty Light Ball 252Atk/100SpD/156Spe)
156Spe EVs outspeed all enemy Pokemon, dumped everything else into SpD to potentially tank a critical hit from smart AI Cradily which Brick Break 2hkos after evading Earth Power with Magnet Rise. Obviously can die to missing Fly vs a lot of opponents considering Pikachu is so frail, Focus Sash Venusaur and Meganium and also Tangrowth which avoids the 2hko being particularly dangerous thanks to always getting a chance to attack and land a critical hit. HP Ice always kills Torterra unlike Fly and it also helps with playing around Meganium's Counter.
4:Steel: Volt Tackle, Thunderbolt, Dig, Fake Out (Naughty Light Ball 252Atk/252SpA)
No need for Speed EVs here since Pikachu outspeeds everything uninvested, can only die to Quick Claw and Focus Band since Pikachu gets to attack at full power from both sides of the spectrum.
5:Dark: Volt Tackle, Brick Break, Fake Out, Substitute (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
I use my first skip here since there are a lot of Quick Claws that can kill me in Rank9-10 like Tyranitar/Crawdaunt/Honchkrow, Substitute is to block Umbreon's Confuse Ray, technically can spam it vs Cacturne as well to try and bait Sucker Punch but the AI is really bad with actually using this move so it's not worth it. As for the Silver Print fight I didn't put much thought into it since my opponents are usually Pokemon like the mighty Caterpie and Metapod. (I did actually fight both of them vs Argenta)
You could have a move to cover Shedinja and something for Ground types I guess, my most difficult fight was vs Cubone which didn't die to Fake Out + Brick Break but failed to kill me with Double Edge which it picked over Bonemerang as a kill move, Pikachu's frailty saved it in this situation 252+ Atk Lv. 30 Cubone Double-Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Lv. 30 Pikachu: 62-74 (88.6 - 105.7%); recoil damage: 20-23 (25.3 - 29.1%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
6:Ghost: Volt Tackle, Thunder Punch, Knock Off, Charge (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
Knock Off kills Shedinja and removes Quick Claw from Dusclops Dusknoir for Volt Tackle to kill safely turn2, so I only need to dodge the critical hit turn1. Thunderpunch kills Rotom in 2 hits and doesn't proc Petaya Berry meaning I can tank a hit from it. Charge is a meme move I picked since I had a free moveslot, and if you pretend I don't have Knock Off, when fighting Rank8 Rotom specifically Charge has a use since Thunderpunch has an outside chance of activating Rotom's Petaya Berry and then it will kill me but if I use Charge I get to both raise my Special Defense and ohko with Thunderpunch turn2 which is a pretty funny albeit unnecessary way to beat it.
7:Ice: Volt Tackle, Iron Tail, Dig, Fake Out (Jolly Light Ball 220Atk/116Def/172Spe)
116Def EVs to tank a hit from Weavile, 172Spe EVs outspeed everything else. Using Iron Tail because it covers both Abomasnow/Piloswine/Mamoswine and is a move everyone associates with Pikachu which I'll probably never use on another Pokemon, so now was the perfect chance to use it! Dig is to beat smart AI Piloswine with Stadium strats again and it's even reliable vs Weavile, always kills Rank9 and better chances to kill Rank10 than hitting Iron Tail, always in conjuction with Fake Out of course
8:Fire: Thunderbolt, Surf, Dig, Headbutt (Naive Light Ball 252SpA/252Spe)
Can basically only lose to Focus Band Heatran and Lax Incense Magmortar and guess what, I lost to both of them...
Technically there's an outside chance of dying to Focus Sash Charizard if it crits Air Slash and gets a good roll, which is why I slapped Headbutt on this for the flinch chance.
9:Bug: Thunder, HP Fire, Fake Out, Protect (Naive Light Ball 144Def/228SpA/136Spe)
144Def EVs tank a hit from Scyther and force it to use Swords Dance so Fake Out + HP Fire kills, easy as long as Thunder hits vs Armaldo/Heracross. Protect technically covers both bad and smart AI Ninjask so it's unfortunately better than Magnet Rise, I say unfortunately because it means I have to stall out Dig PP vs smart AI which takes a lot of time but is safe, it would be tragic if I got crit at the end of all that but thankfully only had to do that once and it went just fine.
10:Normal: Volt Tackle, Reversal, Fake Out, Substitute (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
Loses to Rank10 Lopunny because it outspeeds, beats everything else other than hax items, or the rare case of bad AI Staraptor getting a critical hit with Quick Attack.
11:Ground: Surf, HP Ice, Grass Knot, Magnet Rise (Timid Light Ball 252SpA/72SpD/184Spe)
Rage glitch Pikachu, bred in Emerald with the same IVs as Seed BC020034 Frame 35 for legality purposes if you care about that stuff, though I think there were better ones available on Pokewalker reseeds but I didn't bother figuring those out and like the only situations where this matters is if I miss Surf vs Piloswine it can pick Body Slam on top of Dig/Ice Fang.
Anyways there is a big problem Pokemon here and it's name is Dugtrio, I can't outspeed it most of the time and it can ohko me. The thing however is, that Dugtrio will also be bad AI most of the time so the strategy is to just yolo it. I only had to face it once and I was lucky enough to get it at a Rank where I can still outspeed it so I had no problems with it, used the Rest Exploit to try to avoid it at Rank8 as well which is the only Smart AI slot it occupies. Other than that Rank10 Nidoqueen/Gastrodon are favorable ranges at Rank10, the other big problem Pokemon is Whiscash, it's light enough to tank 2 Grass Knots and that's why 72SpD EVs are needed, to tank a Blizzard after using Magnet Rise. Unfortunately Whiscash like all fully evolved Water/Ground Types not named Quagsire has Lax Incense so I did get a loss vs it once...
12:Fighting: Volt Tackle, HP Flying, Fake Out, Tickle (Jolly Light Ball 252Atk/252Spe)
I outspeed everything, HP Flying is for Breloom, Tickle is another one of those free moveslot meme moves that I picked, only useful for Rank10 Intimidate Hitmontop which can tank Fake Out + Volt Tackle and outspeed with Salac Berry turn2. Machamp is the biggest problem but I never ran into it, it's a range to die to Fake Out + Volt Tackle and it has Focus Band. Also one potential problem I had to face was bad AI Hitmonlee using Endure and outspeeding with Salac Berry turn 2, thankfully it used Bounce afterwards...
13:Rock: Brick Break, Grass Knot, Reversal, Counter (Lonely Focus Sash 236Atk/92SpA/104SpD/76Spe)
Atsync's genius set, could potentially struggle vs something like bad AI Cradily or Flame Body Magcargo but is very consistent vs smart AI against pretty much anything not named Shuckle. 104Spd EVs force Tyranitar to attack on the physical side and ensure Omastar doesn't see the kill with Ancient Power to potentially get omniboosts, 76Spe EVs outspeed everything bar Aerodactyl which dies to Counter, Brick Break + Reversal kills Cradily and anything else that lives x2 Brick Break or x2 Grass Knot like Rank10 Lunatone for example.
14:Dragon: HP Ice, Flail, Fake Out, Substitute (Naive Light Ball 152Atk/132SpA/224Spe)
Literally outspeeds and beats everything with HP Ice other than Kingdra and the Latis, which die to Fake Out + Flail
15:Electric: Volt Tackle, Dig, HP Dark, Fake Out (Jolly 29IV SpA Light Ball 180Atk/76SpD/252Spe)
29IV SpA is for HP Dark59 which 2hkos Rotom without procing Petaya Berry, same for 76Spd EVs which are used for tanking a hit from Rotom. Volt Tackle is for Zapdos, Fake Out + Dig takes care of everything else, needs to dodge static from Pokemon like Focus Sash Manectric and Ampharos, break through paralysis and hit through Double Teams vs Jolteon, potentially Thunder Raikou and Intimidate Luxray, and dodge the critical hit Brine from Lanturn. And there's always King's Rock Electrode to contend with. I particularly like the interaction vs Raikou which outspeeds me. After Fake Out turn1 it either uses Thunder and then is forced to pick Quick Attack and die to Dig or picks Reflect and then dies to x2 Dig while it tries to Thunder me underground.
16:Water: Volt Tackle, Dig, HP Grass, Fake Out (Naive Light Ball 160Atk/176SpA/172Spe)
You'd think Water is safe but I'm using my 2nd skip here for a reason. Starmie and Floatzel outspeed (Lumineon too but it's Lumineon) and ohko me so I have to hope for good matchups here, which isn't a bad strategy because Water has a ridiculously large pool (haha get it) of Pokemon. The given EVs ohko everything other than Lanturn which can only kill with a crit and late Rank Ludicolo which hopefully I don't run into (and I never did)
There are a few favorable ranges here and there like Kingdra/Suicune and you could say that there's a bit of matchup fishing (haha get it
17:Flying: Thunderbolt, HP Ice, Quick Attack, Counter (Mild Focus Sash 80Atk/252SPA/176Spe)
The final set, I went the lame way of Counter/Sash strats for Argenta and got punished for it since I lost to her the first time against an Ampharos but anyways, this set kinda loses to Zapdos and Pikachu is weak enough without Light Ball that I could even lose to something like Pidgeot burning me with Heat Wave since Thunderbolt is nowhere near guaranteed to kill, or even Golbat with Razor Fang and Sludge Bomb poisoning since I only gave enough Speed to outspeed Gyarados. And all of that just to give 80 Atk EVs to kill Scyther with Thunderbolt + Quick Attack. Thing about Scyther is, it's my other loss condition since it also has Quick Attack and outspeeds me. Fake Out is illegal with Counter so I have to hope for Static to trigger to beat it so I decided to give myself a better chance and enable the Thunderbolt kill for that extra chance to paralyze it. Never ran into it though, and I beat another Flying type vs Argenta2, Honchkrow to land the Gold Print. I never play past 170 since my goal is to get Gold Print with 59 Pokemon and I like to keep the rankings nice and clean on the Battle Hall computer screen thingy so that's where Pikachu's journey ends, and it's not like these are optimized in any way, shape, or form for post-170 gameplay anyways :)
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49 wins in Open Level Factory
factory is less hard than i remember it, maybe it's the lack of pressure after you get your first gold.
Look forward to my trek through level 50 doubles in 2026 and open doubles in 2029 if my cartridge doesn't brick by then.
factory is less hard than i remember it, maybe it's the lack of pressure after you get your first gold.
Maybe only notable thing I do in these rounds is that I still go for 28w/28s on the first 28 since it's easy to do and can make r5+ easier, all subsequent drafts have 4 mons with elevation IVs.
I didn't bother documenting Thorton battles for open, or any early round. This particular r4, I did face a Starmie4/Salamence4/Metagross4 team on battle 4, didn't document everything but it did end in bad ai Metagross eqing my Meganium4 last enough to get it into Overgrow.
I didn't bother documenting Thorton battles for open, or any early round. This particular r4, I did face a Starmie4/Salamence4/Metagross4 team on battle 4, didn't document everything but it did end in bad ai Metagross eqing my Meganium4 last enough to get it into Overgrow.
No spec, draft is:
16iv lightningrod rhyperior4/lapras4, 20iv gyarados3/articuno4/umbreon3/mr. mime4
Rhyperior4 is amazing except for being incredibly slow and all the weaknesses, which Articuno4 covers nicely. Gyarados is the generic best mon out of what's left, my team is Articuno4/Gyarados3/Rhyperior4.
Battle 29
Lookup succeeds, electrode4 lead thunderbolts, mirror coats, and signal beams the rhyph switchin as I lock myself into Earthquake. Alakazam4 comes out next. With electric eliminated and 2 potential kill moves that have a shot not to kill, i'm not scared of just taking a 15% chance rhyperior dodges focus blast, chose psychic which had a 50% roll it got. Gyara comes in, takes a psychic crit to go down to 11, last of honchkrow4 is no threat anyway, stone edge hits but ice beam would have done it too
Battle 30
no spec, no swap. Alakazam4 is generically good but I don't want it over Arti in lead and I don't want it in back at all.
Lookup fails, Toxicroak uses focus blast revealing 3, i get an ice beam crit. Magnezone comes in, iron heads rhyph to reveal it's 2, Gyarados comes in on an iron head and 2hko'd with waterfall, with the first critting, don't think boom was in play even if it didn't crit. Flash fire arcanine comes in, I misplay by letting it kill gyara with thunder fang, revealing 2, instead of sacking articuno, but it doesn't matter since it didn't endure on rhyph earthquake.
Battle 31
psychic spec, extremely no swap
Lookup succeeds, gallade4 ccs into gyara for a third, dies to the waterfall. Mr. mime4 locks into charge beam to the rhyph switchin and dies for it, ursaring4 uses one cc and gets ohko'd by eq.
Battle 32
no spec, no swap
Lookup fails, rampardos rock slides rhyph switchin, it's 1. rock slide crit rhyph once so i'm at 179. Abomasnow comes in, giga drains Articuno, could be 1 and I'm fine, or 2 and I have to witness the words "Sheer Cold" on my screen. Air cutter crits, no longer a concern. Forretress uses revenge, it's 1, i just won with 2 ice beams anyway.
Battle 33
psychic spec, taking funny forretress would be funny if it was battle 7 and not 5. no swap
lookup fails, Jynx lead. crits wring out, it's 3, then proceeds to miss a blizzard as my second ancientpower gets an omniboost. a funny way to have slightly more health, aero next. It's not 4 since i have a band, rhyph takes a fire fang, it's 2, hammer arm kills and I'm locked into hammer arm for Exeggutor. Arti comes in on leech seed, it's 2, i was concerned at having my world rocked by 3, but apparently rhyph underspeeds that, ice beam kills
Battle 34
grass spec. I hate stacking strengths on battle 6 by having jynx as well. other 2 options are pretty bad. no swap
Lookup succeeds, vileplume4 lives this and sludge bomb poisons articuno:
252+ SpA Articuno Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Vileplume: 318-374 (94.9 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Cradily takes an ice beam, kills with stone edge, rk'd by gyara, wailord4 last.
i am a little terrified of blizzard shenanigans, it does hit but doesn't freeze.
Battle 35
no spec, no swap
From now on, lookup will only give IVs.
steelix, 4 is eliminated from wailord, 1/2 arti can beat but 3 it cannot. It telegraphed on the Gyara switchin it is 2, it chose the 1/3 thunder fang to have gyarados get 2hko'd on the switchin, I forget that Rhyperior outspeeds and 2hkos so I could have averted this all. Articuno kills after the waterfall chip.
Slaking next, giga impacts rhyph, it's 4, eq on loaf, I forgot whether it would go eq or hammer arm, believe it's weighted towards eq, even at high health, due to hammer arm's downside, arti comes in on eq and finishes with Ice Beam.
Leafeon double teams once and ice beam ohkos.
16iv lightningrod rhyperior4/lapras4, 20iv gyarados3/articuno4/umbreon3/mr. mime4
Rhyperior4 is amazing except for being incredibly slow and all the weaknesses, which Articuno4 covers nicely. Gyarados is the generic best mon out of what's left, my team is Articuno4/Gyarados3/Rhyperior4.
Battle 29
Lookup succeeds, electrode4 lead thunderbolts, mirror coats, and signal beams the rhyph switchin as I lock myself into Earthquake. Alakazam4 comes out next. With electric eliminated and 2 potential kill moves that have a shot not to kill, i'm not scared of just taking a 15% chance rhyperior dodges focus blast, chose psychic which had a 50% roll it got. Gyara comes in, takes a psychic crit to go down to 11, last of honchkrow4 is no threat anyway, stone edge hits but ice beam would have done it too
Battle 30
no spec, no swap. Alakazam4 is generically good but I don't want it over Arti in lead and I don't want it in back at all.
Lookup fails, Toxicroak uses focus blast revealing 3, i get an ice beam crit. Magnezone comes in, iron heads rhyph to reveal it's 2, Gyarados comes in on an iron head and 2hko'd with waterfall, with the first critting, don't think boom was in play even if it didn't crit. Flash fire arcanine comes in, I misplay by letting it kill gyara with thunder fang, revealing 2, instead of sacking articuno, but it doesn't matter since it didn't endure on rhyph earthquake.
Battle 31
psychic spec, extremely no swap
Lookup succeeds, gallade4 ccs into gyara for a third, dies to the waterfall. Mr. mime4 locks into charge beam to the rhyph switchin and dies for it, ursaring4 uses one cc and gets ohko'd by eq.
Battle 32
no spec, no swap
Lookup fails, rampardos rock slides rhyph switchin, it's 1. rock slide crit rhyph once so i'm at 179. Abomasnow comes in, giga drains Articuno, could be 1 and I'm fine, or 2 and I have to witness the words "Sheer Cold" on my screen. Air cutter crits, no longer a concern. Forretress uses revenge, it's 1, i just won with 2 ice beams anyway.
Battle 33
psychic spec, taking funny forretress would be funny if it was battle 7 and not 5. no swap
lookup fails, Jynx lead. crits wring out, it's 3, then proceeds to miss a blizzard as my second ancientpower gets an omniboost. a funny way to have slightly more health, aero next. It's not 4 since i have a band, rhyph takes a fire fang, it's 2, hammer arm kills and I'm locked into hammer arm for Exeggutor. Arti comes in on leech seed, it's 2, i was concerned at having my world rocked by 3, but apparently rhyph underspeeds that, ice beam kills
Battle 34
grass spec. I hate stacking strengths on battle 6 by having jynx as well. other 2 options are pretty bad. no swap
Lookup succeeds, vileplume4 lives this and sludge bomb poisons articuno:
252+ SpA Articuno Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Vileplume: 318-374 (94.9 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Cradily takes an ice beam, kills with stone edge, rk'd by gyara, wailord4 last.
i am a little terrified of blizzard shenanigans, it does hit but doesn't freeze.
Battle 35
no spec, no swap
From now on, lookup will only give IVs.
steelix, 4 is eliminated from wailord, 1/2 arti can beat but 3 it cannot. It telegraphed on the Gyara switchin it is 2, it chose the 1/3 thunder fang to have gyarados get 2hko'd on the switchin, I forget that Rhyperior outspeeds and 2hkos so I could have averted this all. Articuno kills after the waterfall chip.
Slaking next, giga impacts rhyph, it's 4, eq on loaf, I forgot whether it would go eq or hammer arm, believe it's weighted towards eq, even at high health, due to hammer arm's downside, arti comes in on eq and finishes with Ice Beam.
Leafeon double teams once and ice beam ohkos.
No spec, draft is:
20iv illuminate lanturn4/golem4, 24iv regirock3/slowking3/sceptile3/slaking4
Could take pretty much anyone except the regirock, and it's not really that bad either Choosing between Illuminate lanturn4 and slowking3 is hard, I go lanturn for the ice move. slaking/lanturn/golem
Battle 36
I am on the back foot pretty much immediately, scizor134 lead 2hkos lanturn with x-scissor after taking a tbolt, rkd by slaking, claydol earth powers on a loaf turn, revealing 3 from the damage roll. Giga impact ohkos, download pz ohkos with tri attack and underspeeds, I was scared of switching Golem in on 2 and losing then and there, it's 1 or 4.
I believe I have somewhere around a 20% chance to win, I think I actually need quick claw, and it uses... conversion2? Conversion2 ineffectively? It's 1, it conversion2'd into grass after the first eq. Only now does it shadow ball. Stone edge is still required after sitrus, it does hit and kill.
Battle 37
ground spec. I'm already stacking a weakness to it, claydol3>illuminate lanturn4
Slaking ohkos marowak? with giga impact, ursaring uses hammer arm and takes life orb, it's 2, ohko'd by hammer arm, whiscash hydro pumps claydol, it's 4, the terrifying one. I should have sacked golem, i took 1 pump as claydol that was more or less wasted for a potential quick claw cheese if i miss giga impact.
Giga impact does not miss, slaking gets all 3.
Battle 38
dragon spec for battle 3
As cool as mystery box marowak is, taking 1 or 2 over claydol could be catastrophic. i kind of like whiscash but not enough to take it over a potentially important ice beam. no swap
Flareon? atomized by eq, kingdra outrages revealing 3, very nice mon, bounces off me on the loaf turn and dies to giga impact, latias dragon claws me on the loaf turn, revealing 2, giga impact beats that as well.
Battle 39
normal spec. taking kingdra3>claydol3 and not really thinking twice
staraptor lead double teams and dies to giga impact, it's 1, togekiss comes in on a loaf turn, gets outsped, uses sky attack and misses, i forgot that i was intimidated, barely lived giga impact, drain punched revealing serene grace from the pathetic damage, golem comes in on 2 roosts, stone edges it, and booms on quagsire?
Battle 40
no spec, no swap, trade options are awful
First giga impact miss of the set, a giga impact that would have killed milotic1, attracts slaking successfully, kingdra eats its lum on the switchin from hypnosis, I dd to hopefully get an ohko, hypnosis hits again, i get a 4-turn sleep as ice beam 4hkos
Giga impact 2 ohkos, slaking takes an overheat from exploud4 to bring me to 296/497, hammer arm ohkos, ttar last dragon dances on a golem switch revealing 4. eqs golem to bring it to near-death, eq crits ttar to kill.
I still would have won without it because slaking outspeeds at +1 and cleans up with its own eq but it's nice to not risk misclicking.
Battle 41
Ground spec, taking milotic1 for battle 6 is interesting, I ultimately choose Milo1>Golem4 out of fear for Garchomp4.
I got worked up over nothing, the spec was from nidoqueen?, which got ohko'd by eq, and steelix2, which eq'd milo and died to surf. I see some terrifying words on my screen for a guy who's just stacked waters for the spec, "School Kid Regina sent out RAIKOU!"
It thunders, it's 3, it rain dances as i ohko it with slaking eq, crisis averted.
Battle 42
Flying spec
Building for the spec to insane levels, I voluntarily give up Kingdra3 for Raikou3.
Yanmega lead double teams, it's 1, dies to giga impact anyway. Crobat air slash crits, doing under 50%, revealing 2, air slashes me again and dies to giga impact. Glaceon ice beam kills slaking eliminating 3, double teams on raikou's rain dance eliminating 4. Glaceon uses its final turn to double team on a perfect accuracy thunder.
20iv illuminate lanturn4/golem4, 24iv regirock3/slowking3/sceptile3/slaking4
Could take pretty much anyone except the regirock, and it's not really that bad either Choosing between Illuminate lanturn4 and slowking3 is hard, I go lanturn for the ice move. slaking/lanturn/golem
Battle 36
I am on the back foot pretty much immediately, scizor134 lead 2hkos lanturn with x-scissor after taking a tbolt, rkd by slaking, claydol earth powers on a loaf turn, revealing 3 from the damage roll. Giga impact ohkos, download pz ohkos with tri attack and underspeeds, I was scared of switching Golem in on 2 and losing then and there, it's 1 or 4.
I believe I have somewhere around a 20% chance to win, I think I actually need quick claw, and it uses... conversion2? Conversion2 ineffectively? It's 1, it conversion2'd into grass after the first eq. Only now does it shadow ball. Stone edge is still required after sitrus, it does hit and kill.
Battle 37
ground spec. I'm already stacking a weakness to it, claydol3>illuminate lanturn4
Slaking ohkos marowak? with giga impact, ursaring uses hammer arm and takes life orb, it's 2, ohko'd by hammer arm, whiscash hydro pumps claydol, it's 4, the terrifying one. I should have sacked golem, i took 1 pump as claydol that was more or less wasted for a potential quick claw cheese if i miss giga impact.
Giga impact does not miss, slaking gets all 3.
Battle 38
dragon spec for battle 3
As cool as mystery box marowak is, taking 1 or 2 over claydol could be catastrophic. i kind of like whiscash but not enough to take it over a potentially important ice beam. no swap
Flareon? atomized by eq, kingdra outrages revealing 3, very nice mon, bounces off me on the loaf turn and dies to giga impact, latias dragon claws me on the loaf turn, revealing 2, giga impact beats that as well.
Battle 39
normal spec. taking kingdra3>claydol3 and not really thinking twice
staraptor lead double teams and dies to giga impact, it's 1, togekiss comes in on a loaf turn, gets outsped, uses sky attack and misses, i forgot that i was intimidated, barely lived giga impact, drain punched revealing serene grace from the pathetic damage, golem comes in on 2 roosts, stone edges it, and booms on quagsire?
Battle 40
no spec, no swap, trade options are awful
First giga impact miss of the set, a giga impact that would have killed milotic1, attracts slaking successfully, kingdra eats its lum on the switchin from hypnosis, I dd to hopefully get an ohko, hypnosis hits again, i get a 4-turn sleep as ice beam 4hkos
Giga impact 2 ohkos, slaking takes an overheat from exploud4 to bring me to 296/497, hammer arm ohkos, ttar last dragon dances on a golem switch revealing 4. eqs golem to bring it to near-death, eq crits ttar to kill.
I still would have won without it because slaking outspeeds at +1 and cleans up with its own eq but it's nice to not risk misclicking.
Battle 41
Ground spec, taking milotic1 for battle 6 is interesting, I ultimately choose Milo1>Golem4 out of fear for Garchomp4.
I got worked up over nothing, the spec was from nidoqueen?, which got ohko'd by eq, and steelix2, which eq'd milo and died to surf. I see some terrifying words on my screen for a guy who's just stacked waters for the spec, "School Kid Regina sent out RAIKOU!"
It thunders, it's 3, it rain dances as i ohko it with slaking eq, crisis averted.
Battle 42
Flying spec
Building for the spec to insane levels, I voluntarily give up Kingdra3 for Raikou3.
Yanmega lead double teams, it's 1, dies to giga impact anyway. Crobat air slash crits, doing under 50%, revealing 2, air slashes me again and dies to giga impact. Glaceon ice beam kills slaking eliminating 3, double teams on raikou's rain dance eliminating 4. Glaceon uses its final turn to double team on a perfect accuracy thunder.
no spec, draft is:
24iv heatran1/granbull3, 31iv weezing1/jynx2/pinsir2/technician scizor4
What would really send this to the moon is if the scizor was set1, but it's hard to complain about getting heatran in the draft
The weezing set isn't exactly great but it's a ground immune, punchmaster granbull and jynx2 are terrible, real decision is between 2 of pinsir/scizor/weezing, scizor's the odd man out on account of the speed, pinsir2/heatran1/weezing1
Battle 43
Pinsir lives a lucario2 stone edge and ohkos with revenge, endure flail kills raichu4, flail doesn't kill golduck4 but it psychics into weezing's papaya berry for weezing to finish it off.
Battle 44
no spec, bad trade options, no swap
Cresselia lead uses double team, it's 2, pinsir2 x-scissor doesn't get a very long-shot roll to kill. Once it got 2 moonlights down, I chose to put in Heatran to preserve the flail option, got a lucky heat wave burn to eat lum. Weezing's my least favorite member, whose death or near-death would assure victory...
On a switch. Vaporeon comes in on my unintentional double switch.
Sludge bomb doesn't poison, it hydro pumps, it's 2, gets this roll:
252+ SpA Vaporeon Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Weezing: 247-292 (91.1 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (40.0% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
i can either attempt 2 x-scissors, which would be a 40% at heatran vs the world if the first hydro pumps kills, or get into flail range and kill it with pinsir in a tight spot:
252+ SpA Vaporeon Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir: 247-292 (91.1 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (40.0% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
I choose Endure, it did proc, enduring was the right choice, vaporeon dead. cress psychics pinsir while near-death to kill after taking the next x-scissor, i didn't see that it outsped tran, could be tragic but it double teamed and flash cannon hit.
Last is roserade, leaf storm white herb, it's 3/4, i was scared of 1's mud-slap.
Battle 45
This team is incredibly weak to water, water spec, I might have gone Roserade34>Weezing1 even if I didn't see that.
Lapras lead, revenge goes first, it avalanches revealing 1, x-scissor hits, aqua tail kills. It looks to be about 40%, I check my roserade and verify that it's 4 and poison point, I'm more scared of losing roserade than heatran, i go heatran and hit the heat wave to kill.
Slowking next, surfs the roserade switchin, it's 4, leaf storm disposes of it,
Trace p2 last trick rooms, it's 2, 2 leaf storms kill and i live a tri attack with no para/freeze.
Battle 46
Water spec
Pinsir's 100% the worst member of my team, and i could assemble a solid fwg team by putting slowking over him. Slowking4>pinsir2
Started off with surf to scout a potential mirror coat on tentacruel, surf crit which didn't matter, wring out twice to bring me to 220/387, it's 4
Tanmega comes in, tinted lens yanmega2, on a night slash crit, dealt less than 50% of heatran1's health. It did take most of my health with the subsequent aero ass, but for a last slot water i'm not concerned.
Ludicolo last, uses surf so it's 4, roserade ohkos with no drama.
Battle 47
ground spec.
Might be worth taking ludicolo and stacking grasses, the thing that tilts the scales for me is that if it's swift swim I'm going to cruise through the round. ludicolo4>slowking4
Rain Dish, a little disappointing, but Golem? gets deleted by a surf that slowking otherwise would have to dance around. Skarmory comes in, double teams on heatran switch, it's 2, heat wave ohkos, last is quagsire, sacked heatran for information, it's 3
It tried to use focus blast as a kill move and missed, i should have just spammed scary face so i could surf it as ludicolo for even more information. Mystery box ability quagsire3 is the last
Battle 48
Poison spec.
I seriously consider taking mystery box golem, and regret not scouting quag's ability. i think i'm actually taking it regardless. lots of poison threats that i can't beat with a straight-up mystery box golem, Quagsire3/Ludicolo4
Tentacruel lead uses wring out, it's 4, I confirm this quag is damp. It uses wring out twice even though hydro pump is a potential kill move, ai loves wring out, quag is down to 145 health.
Victreebel seed bombs heatran, it's 2, the stockpile spit up swallow seed bomb guy. really good trade options.
Floatzel waterfalls Heatran, it's 1/2. 2 is only threatening for confusion shenanigans, 1 is threatening because ice punch is a 50% roll to kill roserade. Here's the waterfall vs quagsire roll:
252 Atk Floatzel Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Quagsire: 132-156 (34.5 - 40.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
(132, 132, 134, 136, 138, 138, 140, 142, 144, 144, 146, 148, 150, 150, 152, 156)
I will never find out what it was, quagsire's quick claw results in earth power killing it before i can scout or lose. Probably should have gone Roserade at first to scout.
Battle 49
no spec.
I would love to exchange quagsire for something good, something fast, something with more complimentary resists, I go tentacruel4>damp quagsire3 and didn't think twice. Hilariously earthquake-weak team, but the idea of taking mystery box Floatzel for the concept of Garchomp4 with no real indication it'll be there doesn't seem like a good play.
I forget that Thorton's non-legendaries are locked to set4 just like it is in level 50, I do item eliminations instead of just knowing the sets, so it's a bit rough
Glalie4 lead, I eliminate 3, 2 would be horrible, 1 is easy, and 4 is only threatening for potential Sheer Cold shenanigans.
I sludge bomb, sheer cold misses, then t2 it chooses blizzard? That misses too but it wouldn't matter much, untouched team vs thorton's last 2.
Nidoqueen4, hydro pump outspeeds and barely doesn't ohko, even if it's rivalry it would be guaranteed to ohko my male tentacruel. If heatran1 had the elevation ivs i'd outspeed, but roserade shadow ball finishes anyway. I start to get excited, Heatran untouched with ground eliminated.
Entei last fire fangs, ohkos roserade but procs poison point, it's 1/2.
I can still lose if it's 2 and hits 2 stone edges and crits one of them, it is 2, it hits stone edge, it crits, and it flinches with king's rock
The relevant rolls are:
252 Atk Entei Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran on a critical hit: 197-232 (62.3 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (64.0% chance to 2HKO after accuracy)
(197, 199, 201, 204, 206, 208, 211, 213, 215, 218, 220, 222, 225, 227, 229, 232)
252 Atk Entei Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 98-116 (31 - 36.7%) -- 69.2% chance to 3HKO (35.4% chance to 3HKO after accuracy)
(98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116)
It did crit the first stone edge, but it was a low roll crit, 197 is a min roll, which leaves me out of stone edge kill range without a crit, i'm 119. I need to either dodge a stone edge (guaranteed this turn, 1/3 as a kill move the next turn), or get an Ancientpower crit. There's also an outside chance of an omniboost leading to it using iron head as a kill move with an uncharitable roll, odds are still against me.
Second stone edge missed, ancientpower hit. I don't even need to hit an ancientpower from here, poison point would do the work from here if I sustain a second king's rock, all I have to do is dodge the 10% chance that stone edge hits and crits
It does use stone edge, it does hit, it doesn't crit, i live on 8 health. that's both singles factory levels down
24iv heatran1/granbull3, 31iv weezing1/jynx2/pinsir2/technician scizor4
What would really send this to the moon is if the scizor was set1, but it's hard to complain about getting heatran in the draft
The weezing set isn't exactly great but it's a ground immune, punchmaster granbull and jynx2 are terrible, real decision is between 2 of pinsir/scizor/weezing, scizor's the odd man out on account of the speed, pinsir2/heatran1/weezing1
Battle 43
Pinsir lives a lucario2 stone edge and ohkos with revenge, endure flail kills raichu4, flail doesn't kill golduck4 but it psychics into weezing's papaya berry for weezing to finish it off.
Battle 44
no spec, bad trade options, no swap
Cresselia lead uses double team, it's 2, pinsir2 x-scissor doesn't get a very long-shot roll to kill. Once it got 2 moonlights down, I chose to put in Heatran to preserve the flail option, got a lucky heat wave burn to eat lum. Weezing's my least favorite member, whose death or near-death would assure victory...
On a switch. Vaporeon comes in on my unintentional double switch.
Sludge bomb doesn't poison, it hydro pumps, it's 2, gets this roll:
252+ SpA Vaporeon Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Weezing: 247-292 (91.1 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (40.0% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
i can either attempt 2 x-scissors, which would be a 40% at heatran vs the world if the first hydro pumps kills, or get into flail range and kill it with pinsir in a tight spot:
252+ SpA Vaporeon Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir: 247-292 (91.1 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (40.0% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
I choose Endure, it did proc, enduring was the right choice, vaporeon dead. cress psychics pinsir while near-death to kill after taking the next x-scissor, i didn't see that it outsped tran, could be tragic but it double teamed and flash cannon hit.
Last is roserade, leaf storm white herb, it's 3/4, i was scared of 1's mud-slap.
Battle 45
This team is incredibly weak to water, water spec, I might have gone Roserade34>Weezing1 even if I didn't see that.
Lapras lead, revenge goes first, it avalanches revealing 1, x-scissor hits, aqua tail kills. It looks to be about 40%, I check my roserade and verify that it's 4 and poison point, I'm more scared of losing roserade than heatran, i go heatran and hit the heat wave to kill.
Slowking next, surfs the roserade switchin, it's 4, leaf storm disposes of it,
Trace p2 last trick rooms, it's 2, 2 leaf storms kill and i live a tri attack with no para/freeze.
Battle 46
Water spec
Pinsir's 100% the worst member of my team, and i could assemble a solid fwg team by putting slowking over him. Slowking4>pinsir2
Started off with surf to scout a potential mirror coat on tentacruel, surf crit which didn't matter, wring out twice to bring me to 220/387, it's 4
Tanmega comes in, tinted lens yanmega2, on a night slash crit, dealt less than 50% of heatran1's health. It did take most of my health with the subsequent aero ass, but for a last slot water i'm not concerned.
Ludicolo last, uses surf so it's 4, roserade ohkos with no drama.
Battle 47
ground spec.
Might be worth taking ludicolo and stacking grasses, the thing that tilts the scales for me is that if it's swift swim I'm going to cruise through the round. ludicolo4>slowking4
Rain Dish, a little disappointing, but Golem? gets deleted by a surf that slowking otherwise would have to dance around. Skarmory comes in, double teams on heatran switch, it's 2, heat wave ohkos, last is quagsire, sacked heatran for information, it's 3
It tried to use focus blast as a kill move and missed, i should have just spammed scary face so i could surf it as ludicolo for even more information. Mystery box ability quagsire3 is the last
Battle 48
Poison spec.
I seriously consider taking mystery box golem, and regret not scouting quag's ability. i think i'm actually taking it regardless. lots of poison threats that i can't beat with a straight-up mystery box golem, Quagsire3/Ludicolo4
Tentacruel lead uses wring out, it's 4, I confirm this quag is damp. It uses wring out twice even though hydro pump is a potential kill move, ai loves wring out, quag is down to 145 health.
Victreebel seed bombs heatran, it's 2, the stockpile spit up swallow seed bomb guy. really good trade options.
Floatzel waterfalls Heatran, it's 1/2. 2 is only threatening for confusion shenanigans, 1 is threatening because ice punch is a 50% roll to kill roserade. Here's the waterfall vs quagsire roll:
252 Atk Floatzel Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Quagsire: 132-156 (34.5 - 40.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
(132, 132, 134, 136, 138, 138, 140, 142, 144, 144, 146, 148, 150, 150, 152, 156)
I will never find out what it was, quagsire's quick claw results in earth power killing it before i can scout or lose. Probably should have gone Roserade at first to scout.
Battle 49
no spec.
I would love to exchange quagsire for something good, something fast, something with more complimentary resists, I go tentacruel4>damp quagsire3 and didn't think twice. Hilariously earthquake-weak team, but the idea of taking mystery box Floatzel for the concept of Garchomp4 with no real indication it'll be there doesn't seem like a good play.
I forget that Thorton's non-legendaries are locked to set4 just like it is in level 50, I do item eliminations instead of just knowing the sets, so it's a bit rough
Glalie4 lead, I eliminate 3, 2 would be horrible, 1 is easy, and 4 is only threatening for potential Sheer Cold shenanigans.
I sludge bomb, sheer cold misses, then t2 it chooses blizzard? That misses too but it wouldn't matter much, untouched team vs thorton's last 2.
Nidoqueen4, hydro pump outspeeds and barely doesn't ohko, even if it's rivalry it would be guaranteed to ohko my male tentacruel. If heatran1 had the elevation ivs i'd outspeed, but roserade shadow ball finishes anyway. I start to get excited, Heatran untouched with ground eliminated.
Entei last fire fangs, ohkos roserade but procs poison point, it's 1/2.
I can still lose if it's 2 and hits 2 stone edges and crits one of them, it is 2, it hits stone edge, it crits, and it flinches with king's rock
The relevant rolls are:
252 Atk Entei Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran on a critical hit: 197-232 (62.3 - 73.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (64.0% chance to 2HKO after accuracy)
(197, 199, 201, 204, 206, 208, 211, 213, 215, 218, 220, 222, 225, 227, 229, 232)
252 Atk Entei Stone Edge vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heatran: 98-116 (31 - 36.7%) -- 69.2% chance to 3HKO (35.4% chance to 3HKO after accuracy)
(98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116)
It did crit the first stone edge, but it was a low roll crit, 197 is a min roll, which leaves me out of stone edge kill range without a crit, i'm 119. I need to either dodge a stone edge (guaranteed this turn, 1/3 as a kill move the next turn), or get an Ancientpower crit. There's also an outside chance of an omniboost leading to it using iron head as a kill move with an uncharitable roll, odds are still against me.
Second stone edge missed, ancientpower hit. I don't even need to hit an ancientpower from here, poison point would do the work from here if I sustain a second king's rock, all I have to do is dodge the 10% chance that stone edge hits and crits
It does use stone edge, it does hit, it doesn't crit, i live on 8 health. that's both singles factory levels down
I came in expecting to lose to some nasty hax and not care that much since I got gold in a second category.
Ground spec, draft is:
alakazam1/sceptile4/drifblim2/flash fire arcanine2/flareon3/suicune3
Suicune in back is an obvious decision, I go sceptile/suicune/arcanine. I don't like zam's coverage, flareon's speed, or drifblim2's everything.
Whiscash lead destroyed, Walrein next, going arcanine since i know that there's a ground as the last
walrein curses revealing 2. reversal and 2 life orbs put into dragon pulse range for sceptile, torterra last, hit 2 leaf storms for suicune to finish with shadow ball, if it doesn't quick claw me...
and it did. quick claw overgrow wood hammer ohkos, that's a loss at 50 to something dumb.
With hindsight bias, i could have done the same thing in a different order and still had to stake the game on a 1v1 quick claw non-proc, cune takes stone edge on the switch, wood hammer recoil isn't enough for the 2 leaf storms, i still would have lost.
actually I'm wrong, only if I switched cune on eq would that have been the case, it's slightly enough for 2 leaf storms after a non-crit stone edge.
As far as how bad I feel at not having completely focused on a post-gold factory run that lost to bs and would still be under my level 50 record if I got through the whole round, I'd say like a 1 or 2/10. Glad it didn't happen 1 battle earlier.
Ground spec, draft is:
alakazam1/sceptile4/drifblim2/flash fire arcanine2/flareon3/suicune3
Suicune in back is an obvious decision, I go sceptile/suicune/arcanine. I don't like zam's coverage, flareon's speed, or drifblim2's everything.
Whiscash lead destroyed, Walrein next, going arcanine since i know that there's a ground as the last
walrein curses revealing 2. reversal and 2 life orbs put into dragon pulse range for sceptile, torterra last, hit 2 leaf storms for suicune to finish with shadow ball, if it doesn't quick claw me...
and it did. quick claw overgrow wood hammer ohkos, that's a loss at 50 to something dumb.
With hindsight bias, i could have done the same thing in a different order and still had to stake the game on a 1v1 quick claw non-proc, cune takes stone edge on the switch, wood hammer recoil isn't enough for the 2 leaf storms, i still would have lost.
actually I'm wrong, only if I switched cune on eq would that have been the case, it's slightly enough for 2 leaf storms after a non-crit stone edge.
As far as how bad I feel at not having completely focused on a post-gold factory run that lost to bs and would still be under my level 50 record if I got through the whole round, I'd say like a 1 or 2/10. Glad it didn't happen 1 battle earlier.
Look forward to my trek through level 50 doubles in 2026 and open doubles in 2029 if my cartridge doesn't brick by then.
Reporting a PtHGSS Multi Battle (Human Partner) Streak of 56 (ongoing, cartridges)
Again nothing special but not sure when I will carry on with it so reporting it now.
The human partner is myself.
This was again way to much detail for such a small streak, but I had a lot of fun with this format, and again the team could be improved a lot (Dragonite and Heatran had exactly the same coverage lmao). I'll push it further when I get more time (or maybe I will lose round 57 who knows).
Again nothing special but not sure when I will carry on with it so reporting it now.
The human partner is myself.
Like my recent in-game partner multi streak the purpose of this team was to give my precious Weavile another ribbon.
Team 1
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Weavile (M) @ Focus sash
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
Ability: Pressure
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Ice Shard
- Night Slash
- Brick Break
Same Weavile and set as before. This time it gets to be a lead and sees far more action.
It primarily works as fake out support, while the other side does heavy damage usually KOing something.
As a lead, it's offensive moves are considerably more useful. Night slash can kill a few things that Latios doesn't like e.g. Gengar, psychics with shadow ball as well as help deal with bulky trick room setters.
Brick Break is still a bit rubbish but can help kill some of the scary ice types alongside Latios.
When it's at low health/sash it can switch out for dragonite to sponge a hit and come back later for another fake out.
Nestor (Dragonite) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
IVs: I can't remember anything except 31 Att
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
Ability: Inner Focus
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
"Find dragons first. That's all I can tell you."
Same Dragonite used in my old old old multi streak. The only reason it's here is because I wanted it to also get the ribbon. It also has a set made for singles but works reasonably well here.
It has some bulk and can often switch in to attacks trying to KO Weavile well and hit very hard back.
Outrage may not seem ideal but I typically try to wipe out one side of the opponents first so it did actually get used a fair amount. Earthquake is of course handy alongside Latios and Fire Punch is extra coverage for punishing steels.
Dragon dance was typically used when there was only one side of opponents remaining and the partner could deliver a KO, putting a nail in the coffin for whatever the AI's last Pokemon is.
Sitrus berry was chosen since Nestor was often switching in on attacks which helped its longevity.
Since Nestor was chosen for the sake of ribbons, there are plenty of other better choices for this slot.
Team 2
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Trebor (Latios) (M) @ Choice Specs
IVs: I can't remember anything except 31 Spe
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Shadow ball
Same minty dragon as before, doing pretty much the same role as before. Latios deals most of the damage, and tries to wipe out one opposing trainer quickly. This time it benefits a lot from the fake out support and most matches go by very smoothly.
One change I made was replacing Psychic with Ice Beam after I lost in a previous attempt partly because it couldn't KO a Hippowdon. Except in the early rounds where fighting and poison types are prevalent, Ice Beam turned out to be much more useful. But Dragon Pulse and Thunderbolt were still the most frequently used moves.
Trebor also benefitted from a bulkier switching partner...
Tahu Nuva (Heatran) @ Choice Scarf
IVs: 31/0/14/30/25/31
EVs: 76 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Heat Wave
A fiery protector with pink eyes, clasped in metal.
Scarf Heatran was the way to go in gen 4 right? Heatran would switch in on pretty much any attack that could KO Latios, taking laughable damage and hit back, punishing steel and some ice types hard. Latios could then just as easily switch in to save Heatran. This defensive switching also had the benefit of resetting the choice item(s).
You may think having 2 choiced mons in one team may seem a bit cheesey, and you would be right. There were times it was a little awkward to use but generally it played out quite well.
Since Heatran is new, it's the only one with any thought put into the EVs: 180 spe with scarf let it outspeed base 110s. This was intended to handle awkward speed ties with Latios such as gengar, froslass, and other Latis but didn't come into play much thanks to Weavile but was still reassuring to have. The other EVs are just to maximise its stats at level 50. They are tailored to its wonky IV spread so don't copy them.
The one time Heatran's speed was sort of useful.
Flamethrower was by far the most commonly used move, with Earth Power and Dragon Pulse sometimes used as coverage. I speculated there may be a scenario where heat wave would be the best play but that never happened. I think Flash Cannon would actually be more useful for coverage here: in particular, Shuckle can be quite annoying and Armaldo of all things can be quite scary for this team.
Having 2 choiced mons with this core switching synergy raises the question of using Draco Meteor and Overheat, as there's the additional benefit of switching the stat drops away. And it's very tempting but of course this is the battle tower so we can't leave things to chance. That said, if you were trying to speedrun to 50 battles or something, it might be a fun option.
Team 1
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Weavile (M) @ Focus sash
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
Ability: Pressure
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Ice Shard
- Night Slash
- Brick Break
Same Weavile and set as before. This time it gets to be a lead and sees far more action.
It primarily works as fake out support, while the other side does heavy damage usually KOing something.
As a lead, it's offensive moves are considerably more useful. Night slash can kill a few things that Latios doesn't like e.g. Gengar, psychics with shadow ball as well as help deal with bulky trick room setters.
Brick Break is still a bit rubbish but can help kill some of the scary ice types alongside Latios.
When it's at low health/sash it can switch out for dragonite to sponge a hit and come back later for another fake out.
Nestor (Dragonite) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
IVs: I can't remember anything except 31 Att
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spe
Ability: Inner Focus
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
"Find dragons first. That's all I can tell you."
Same Dragonite used in my old old old multi streak. The only reason it's here is because I wanted it to also get the ribbon. It also has a set made for singles but works reasonably well here.
It has some bulk and can often switch in to attacks trying to KO Weavile well and hit very hard back.
Outrage may not seem ideal but I typically try to wipe out one side of the opponents first so it did actually get used a fair amount. Earthquake is of course handy alongside Latios and Fire Punch is extra coverage for punishing steels.
Dragon dance was typically used when there was only one side of opponents remaining and the partner could deliver a KO, putting a nail in the coffin for whatever the AI's last Pokemon is.
Sitrus berry was chosen since Nestor was often switching in on attacks which helped its longevity.
Since Nestor was chosen for the sake of ribbons, there are plenty of other better choices for this slot.
- Mence/Gyarados would have been nice with intimidate to benefit from all the switching which would help with rock attacks which weren't pleasant for this team.
- A bit cheesey but another fake out user to benefit from the switching, e.g. Hitmontop with intimidate as a bonus, Hariyama with good switching bulk as well as a helpful slow mon in case of trick room, and perhaps a fun pick, Toxicroak which could hopefully tank rock or fighting hits and heal off surf which I would imagine giving to Latios if I had this arrangement.
- Dusknoir as an ultra-reliable switch-in for Weavile and a sort of tank to handle a potential trick room.
Team 2
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Trebor (Latios) (M) @ Choice Specs
IVs: I can't remember anything except 31 Spe
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Shadow ball
Same minty dragon as before, doing pretty much the same role as before. Latios deals most of the damage, and tries to wipe out one opposing trainer quickly. This time it benefits a lot from the fake out support and most matches go by very smoothly.
One change I made was replacing Psychic with Ice Beam after I lost in a previous attempt partly because it couldn't KO a Hippowdon. Except in the early rounds where fighting and poison types are prevalent, Ice Beam turned out to be much more useful. But Dragon Pulse and Thunderbolt were still the most frequently used moves.
Trebor also benefitted from a bulkier switching partner...
Tahu Nuva (Heatran) @ Choice Scarf
IVs: 31/0/14/30/25/31
EVs: 76 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 180 Spe
Ability: Flash Fire
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Heat Wave
A fiery protector with pink eyes, clasped in metal.
Scarf Heatran was the way to go in gen 4 right? Heatran would switch in on pretty much any attack that could KO Latios, taking laughable damage and hit back, punishing steel and some ice types hard. Latios could then just as easily switch in to save Heatran. This defensive switching also had the benefit of resetting the choice item(s).
You may think having 2 choiced mons in one team may seem a bit cheesey, and you would be right. There were times it was a little awkward to use but generally it played out quite well.
Since Heatran is new, it's the only one with any thought put into the EVs: 180 spe with scarf let it outspeed base 110s. This was intended to handle awkward speed ties with Latios such as gengar, froslass, and other Latis but didn't come into play much thanks to Weavile but was still reassuring to have. The other EVs are just to maximise its stats at level 50. They are tailored to its wonky IV spread so don't copy them.
The one time Heatran's speed was sort of useful.
Flamethrower was by far the most commonly used move, with Earth Power and Dragon Pulse sometimes used as coverage. I speculated there may be a scenario where heat wave would be the best play but that never happened. I think Flash Cannon would actually be more useful for coverage here: in particular, Shuckle can be quite annoying and Armaldo of all things can be quite scary for this team.
Having 2 choiced mons with this core switching synergy raises the question of using Draco Meteor and Overheat, as there's the additional benefit of switching the stat drops away. And it's very tempting but of course this is the battle tower so we can't leave things to chance. That said, if you were trying to speedrun to 50 battles or something, it might be a fun option.
Usually the way a battle would start is Weavile would fake-out one opponent, while Latios KOs the other, and hopefully the two of them can KO whatever is sent in after that, possibly taking a KO as well in the process.
Once one trainer is wiped out it's not always a case of piling on the other, some examples of more careful plays include:
- Weavile switches out, resetting its fake out while Latios/Heatran KOs the opponent.
- Dragonite sets up with Dragon dance, while Latios/Heatran KOs the opponent
- Latios/Heatran switches out of a choiced lesser used coverage move while Weavile/Dragonite KO the opponent
It may seem a little redundant to set up like this when it's already 2v1, but you never know what nonsense the AI is going to send out so you want to assume a better position if you can. Think about how you would normally feel when the AI sends out Sheer Cold lapras/Walrein or Quick Claw Machamp vs how you feel in the same scenario, knowing you have a fresh Fake Out ready to pin it down to guarantee the KO.
Sometime you would have to give up on using Fake out on turn one in favour of piling on a threat that Latios cannot KO, such as a Trick Room setting Dusknoir (Night Slash and Shadow ball is enough to KO). Not ideal but the alternative can be disastrous. Weavile being quite frail is often a magnet for attacks and will survive with focus sash anyway so you can still be in a good position to finish off one trainer.
Good switching is an important part of this team, preserving your mons so you don't end up in a 1v2 scenario is very important, but switching isn't just a defensive play you have to bite the bullet on, it's something you should actively benefit from, e.g. gaining another fake out turn or resetting choiced moves. (Dragonite is an exception as it's just a ribbon leech but imagine if it was something with intimidate or fake out that would be really cool)
I really enjoy this format where you have to consider the synergy of your switching partners as well as your trainer partners to give yourself as many options as possible.
Once one trainer is wiped out it's not always a case of piling on the other, some examples of more careful plays include:
- Weavile switches out, resetting its fake out while Latios/Heatran KOs the opponent.
- Dragonite sets up with Dragon dance, while Latios/Heatran KOs the opponent
- Latios/Heatran switches out of a choiced lesser used coverage move while Weavile/Dragonite KO the opponent
It may seem a little redundant to set up like this when it's already 2v1, but you never know what nonsense the AI is going to send out so you want to assume a better position if you can. Think about how you would normally feel when the AI sends out Sheer Cold lapras/Walrein or Quick Claw Machamp vs how you feel in the same scenario, knowing you have a fresh Fake Out ready to pin it down to guarantee the KO.
Sometime you would have to give up on using Fake out on turn one in favour of piling on a threat that Latios cannot KO, such as a Trick Room setting Dusknoir (Night Slash and Shadow ball is enough to KO). Not ideal but the alternative can be disastrous. Weavile being quite frail is often a magnet for attacks and will survive with focus sash anyway so you can still be in a good position to finish off one trainer.
Good switching is an important part of this team, preserving your mons so you don't end up in a 1v2 scenario is very important, but switching isn't just a defensive play you have to bite the bullet on, it's something you should actively benefit from, e.g. gaining another fake out turn or resetting choiced moves. (Dragonite is an exception as it's just a ribbon leech but imagine if it was something with intimidate or fake out that would be really cool)
I really enjoy this format where you have to consider the synergy of your switching partners as well as your trainer partners to give yourself as many options as possible.
I very nearly lost battle 50, but the AI seemingly gave me a pass. I accidentally earthquaked my own Heatran (yeah I deserved to lose) which led to a 1v1 scenario, my Weavile who had taken sandstorm damage vs the opponent's Lapras. Looking at the trainer spreadsheet the Lapras was:
874 | Lapras | Modest | Brightpowder | Surf | Ice Beam | Psychic | Thunderbolt | HP/SpA
I ran damage calcs and Brick Break was a guaranteed 3HKO, and Lapras' surf did 40-47.5% probably a 3HKO but 2 high rolls could be bad. I just had to hope for no misses or crits.
First turn Weavile lands Brick Break, Lapras uses Ice Beam???
Second turn Weavile lands Brick Break, Lapras uses Ice Beam again???
Third turn Weavile KOs the Lapras
What was the AI thinking here? Any other move would do more damage. Does it just go for any old chip damage if it can't 2HKO or something? Was it aiming at my already KO'd Latios? Did it remember an earlier turn where I switched to Dragonite and it calced on that? Is there just a random chance it uses a sub-optimal move for uncertainty and I just got lucky? Was it fishing for a freeze?
In any case an undeserved win for me and I got my ribbons.
Another odd battle was 51 where I faced some NFEs:
A bit of a relief after the last battle but Mr Mime was still annoying.
874 | Lapras | Modest | Brightpowder | Surf | Ice Beam | Psychic | Thunderbolt | HP/SpA
I ran damage calcs and Brick Break was a guaranteed 3HKO, and Lapras' surf did 40-47.5% probably a 3HKO but 2 high rolls could be bad. I just had to hope for no misses or crits.
First turn Weavile lands Brick Break, Lapras uses Ice Beam???
Second turn Weavile lands Brick Break, Lapras uses Ice Beam again???
Third turn Weavile KOs the Lapras
What was the AI thinking here? Any other move would do more damage. Does it just go for any old chip damage if it can't 2HKO or something? Was it aiming at my already KO'd Latios? Did it remember an earlier turn where I switched to Dragonite and it calced on that? Is there just a random chance it uses a sub-optimal move for uncertainty and I just got lucky? Was it fishing for a freeze?
In any case an undeserved win for me and I got my ribbons.
Another odd battle was 51 where I faced some NFEs:
A bit of a relief after the last battle but Mr Mime was still annoying.
This was again way to much detail for such a small streak, but I had a lot of fun with this format, and again the team could be improved a lot (Dragonite and Heatran had exactly the same coverage lmao). I'll push it further when I get more time (or maybe I will lose round 57 who knows).
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63 Wins in Battle Factory Singles (Lv. 50, Cart)
Finally was able to break the stranglehold that Level 50 Factory has had on me over the last month after 2 failed Thorton2s and proceeded get a very respectable 2 additional round clears after. Very glad to finally get a run with decent drafts, no critical RNG mishaps, and to be honest, quite a few moments where the game decided to bail me out. I hadn't really tracked that many battles so I don't have match to match specifics on what I picked, but I have a pretty good memory on what was used for my drafts, especially Round 4 and up.
One thing I've started doing differently since the last report I made was using Rounds 3 and 4 to get elevations for Rounds 5 and up if I'm in a comfortable position to fish for them. Elevations really help make Rounds 5 and 6 far more bearable and having more slots for them make it worthwhile to trade every battle up to Battle 28.
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Nobody remembers their Round 1, after doing it so many friggin times it all starts to blend together. I just clicked buttons with Murkrow then eventually Plusle down the road, really not much more to it.
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After a turbulent Thorton battle, Round 4 was rather uneventful. Ludicolo and Tentacruel were in my elevations for the draft, which form an absolutely dastardly stall core that can handle a lot of non-poison/grass types together. Having a less desirable matchup into Leech Seed/Toxic immune mons made me not pursue the strategy the whole round, so I ended up using Tenta's spot as a flex role. Trading Steelix for Weavile round 1 added decent speed control and power in the back for a solid overall core.
Really nothing super significant happened over the course of this round though. Ludicolo just kinda slowly killed everything and everything that didn't get solo'd just got cleaned up by something in the back. Funnily enough, there were two instances of Aerial Ace users coming in after setting up +6 evasion, but with Bad AI it was really nothing to worry about.
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While round 5s typically tend to become a brick wall at times, a great draft was able to make it far less worrisome than it usually is. Empoleon, Tentacruel, and Levitate Bronzong were all my Elevations. While there was quite a bit of type overlap, there weren't really a lot of shared weaknesses between all of them. Battle 1 however I cross Blaziken 1, which becomes a crazy good mon once they start using smart AI in Round 5. It didn't really steamroll every team, there are instances where Reversal doesn't KO at 1 HP like against Feraligatr 1, or having to navigate around Forretress 1, which threatens Counter against it (which Blaziken fucking crits Aerial Ace on, but gets knocked down to 2 HP luckily). Also had to worry about potentially dealing with Lotto Lapras 2, but 200 BP Reversal clears it easily.
The only real spooky battle was Battle 35, which has a dicey Drapion lead. It has super effective coverage for Tenta and Brozong, and 1 HP Reversal doesn't KO it. Also don't want to tank more Cross Poisons than I need to with Blaziken to not risk getting poisoned. Figured that my best plan of attack was to get one Signal Beam on Bronzong to put it into Reversal range and start swapping between Blaziken and Bronzong to safely put Blaziken into range to take only one Cross Poison and to heal back Bronzong with Lefties. Drapion does get a critical hit right above 50 HP on Blaziken with Fire Fang, but luckily it doesn't have Sniper so I live. I endure the Cross Poison and don't get poisoned, letting me take it down. Garde comes out next which gets KO'd by Blaze boosted Blaze Kick, and whatever the last mon is gets cleaned up.
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Was a pretty tough round, having a pretty subpar draft didn't really make matters much better. Porygon2 and Golem were the elevations I ended up taking, and Muk 3 was a pretty overall solid mon I ended up taking just to round out my team.
Battle 36 was against a poison type specialist, and they lead with Tentacruel 2 which can be really annoying. I thought my best plan of attack was to go into Muk to try to setup Curses on it to beat it out, but I proceed to get bullshitted in the biggest possible way by confusion, getting 3 turns of confusion and hitting myself everytime. I only get to throw in one unboosted Payback before Muk drops to confusion again. I figure I have to go to Golem to tank a Giga Drain and just kill it with EQ. Mamo comes out next, and I don't get a chance to Quick Claw explode, meaning I'm left with just Pory2 against 2 full HP mons. Two Tri-Attacks don't KO or status Mamo and I think it's over after it sets up one Curse, but for some reason it sets up a 2nd Curse even though it had overwhelming odds to take me out after one. Nido 2 is the last mon, and I pretty much have to clench my asshole and hope to not get OHKO'd by Horn Drill. It misses the first one and tries to Focus Punch on Turn 2, while I Ice Beam it twice for the win.
Battle 37 is against a grass-or some other rock unfriendly specialist, which honestly I can't be bothered to be burned by Golem anymore so I just take Tenta 2 in the meantime. The battle was pretty easy though, and I get interested by the prospect of Tangrowth 2 so I take it over Tenta.
The idea was to try to setup Leech Seed so Muk could curse up, but that plan never really comes into fruition, especially with Tangrowth in the back slot. I misplay a bit around Blissey in the next battle, thinking that Tangrowth can take a TBolt + Flamethrower/outspeed, which it does neither (especially considering the crit but idt it mattered), but I was able to setup a Curse into Blissey to steamroll Hypno 3 and the last mon in the back. Battle 39 involved a Milotic scrap which Muk came out on top of pretty handily , with a missed Hydro helping me out a ton. I end up taking it over Tangrowth since it wasn't really doing much for me.
Battle 40 started with a dicey Roserade lead, which I decide to sack Pory to with the knowledge that it was a grass-type trainer, and I end up facing a Venusaur 3 which can be scary, but thankfully Muk was able to hit the Gunk Shots it was supposed to in order to take it out. Last mon was Dusknoir 3, which I'm unfortunately threatened by from a potential paralysis on Milotic, crit, or Hydro Miss. None of those end up happening and I avoid an embarrassing loss deep in.
Battle 41 is quick while Battle 42 comes up. Tried to perform some shenanigans with Pory2 to heal off Hyper Beam damage from a Jolteon lead, which works semi successfully. Ends up with Espeon as the last mon, which faints to 2 Mirror Coats from Milotic. However, I'm scared of taking unnecessary crits so I try to recover as much as I can and sack Roserade when my special defense drops. Decide to Mirror Coat after and KO it to move onto Round 7.
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Was an interesting draft for Round 7. Went with 31 IV Lax 4, Arcanine 2 (with Flash Fire unfortunately), and Ludicolo 3. I just wanted to take Lax 4 to just nuke shit and take something later on. Battle 44 I come across Froslass 3, which operates as a great lead that has good Boltbeam coverage and has fast Destiny Bond.
Battle 45 is kind of scary, Victreebel 4 lead goes down quick, but Weavile 4 outspeeds Lass and OHKOs before I can DBond. I go into Arcanine to KO with Flare Blitz and get me closer to salac + reversal range. Machamp 4 is the last mon, which I endure down to try to squeeze out a bit more damage on reversal, but unfortunately it gets a Quick Claw proc before I have the chance to fire back. I'm down to Ludi as it gets another Quick Claw proc and hits the Cross Chop, but luckily doesn't crit as I crit my own Hydro Pump to not have to worry about any more Quick Claw bullshit.
I deliberated taking either Weavile or Machamp in the lead slot, but ultimately I decided against it as the value that Froslass provides with Destiny Bond is too high. Luckily it pays off, as battle 44 features a ground type specialist, involving Marowak and Garchomp 4 with a Hariyama in the back which I'm able to take out with no hassle using Froslass. I take Chomp over Arcanine, and between Chomp and Lass the rest of the round up to Thorton is cleared very quickly.
Thorton2 comes and for once, finally gives me a solid lead matchup as he sends out Vileplume into my Froslass. I take it out with no issue, as he brings in Machamp, which used up all of its Quick Claw luck earlier in the round and gets taken out by Destiny Bond. I send out Chomp for more immediate damage if needed as the last mon turns out to be Articuno. While I'm in a good position, there are situations where Ludi can lose against Articuno, but I end up going for Outrage on Chomp just to get the most damage I can. Thankfully, he misses a Blizzard, and with one more turn of outrage, I'm able to knock out the Articuno, and finally claim the gold print in the Factory.
Even if the Blizzard hit, that battle would have likely come down to whether or not Ludi could hit a Wide Lens Hydro or not, as Fly from Articuno wouldn't ever KO without a crit. Still, I'll take my blessings when I can and ride it to the bank.
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While I could have stopped my run there, I was feeling pretty hot so I decided to go straight back in to try to push this record as far as I could. Also finally got to see Legendaries in my draft in Level 50 which was cool, though Regice 1 really isn't the most flashy of them all. I decided to lead Lucario 4 for the coverage and have Regice in the back for a tank. I wanted to take Pinsir 1 to fill, but I would have had a glaring weakness to physical fire-types if I hadn't, so I took Hippowdon 2 to round out the draft.
The Hippowdon pick payed off though as Battle 50 featured Tyranitar 4 as the last mon, which Hippowdon was able to eat a +1 Crunch incredibly easily. I took Ttar over it though since it was kind of a straight up upgrade.
Battle 52 was a bit dicey though, it was a normal specialist but led with Gliscor, which was deduced to be Gliscor 1 due to Lucario outspeeding. It's able to deal a lot of damage, KOing Lucario and doing tons of damage to Regice before going down Lopunny 4 is revealed after. While it can't really touch Ttar, it does risk hitting it with freeze or Paralysis while I try to setup. I greed going for 3 Dragon Dances to outspeed it and more or less guarantee that whatever else comes in dies immediately, but the most that happens is one crit on the first Ice Punch, but no status thankfully. Ttar crunches his way to the last mon which is Scarf Adaptability Porygon-Z, which was the only mon that could have outspeed but ended up going for Trick anyways. I don't even think Tri Attack would have KO'd from the 60ish range Ttar was sitting at without a crit. I end up taking PoryZ over Regice, as its able to setup some potential nasty Trick situations to allow Ttar to steamroll. It never ended up happening unfortunately, but that fast Tri-Attack still proved to be immensely useful.
Battle 54 featured Latios 4, which could have been a huge threat to my team. It came out after Lucario was down and Pory was already locked into Tri-Attack, so the only "safe" option was to Tri Attack. It luckily missed the Draco on the set reveal and went down to Pory though, and I ended up taking the cracked Latios set over Lucario as I still thought the prospect of Trick was still valuable. But with Lati in the lead slot and not missing any dracos, the rest of the round was cleaned up very easily, even past taking super effective Ice Punches from Ambipom 4.
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Kind of a crazy draft to be honest. Included in it was Lati 1, Heatran 1, and Cresselia 3. There were a lot of good options to pick from, but realistically it made sense to only take one of Cress and Lati, which I ended up going with Cress due to having far superior bulk and some slightly better coverage. It formed a really strong synergy with Heatran as well, plus personally I feel like there are far more Lati sets I'd rather deal with than Cress sets. Led with Weavile 3 to finish the draft.
Battle 57 started out with Mence 1 which was swiftly Countered by Weavile into Medicham 4 which was taken out with a Night Slash + Shadow Ball from Cress. Ludicolo comes out last, which is revealed to unfortunately be the demon set 2 Ludi. In a moment of panic, I try to hit it with Psychic on Cress to try to stop it before it gets out of hand, but it gets 2 Double Teams and a Leech Seed on Cresselia. While it doesn't look good, the presence of a full HP Heatran means I have an out of the situation, which involves a fuckton of switching. I switch back and forth between Cress and Heatran, never letting Cress get poisoned and carefully managing who takes a Leech Seed and counting down how many it has left. It runs out of Leech Seed when Cress gets to 50ish HP while Heatran gets to 60ish, which allows me to open fire on Heatran with no risk as Ludi is only able to spam Double Team and Toxic. Managed to land 2 Heat Waves, which honestly might have been enough considering Struggle recoil, but Heatran gets another Heat Wave to finish it off.
Coming off of a scary situation, I decide to take the Ludicolo, since it's just an overall really solid mon and can provide Leech Seed support to two bulky mons that lack healing. While I think I'm out of the woods of stupid switch stalling, the next battle is revealed to have Wailord 2, which has access to Rest to really circumvent Toxic progress. While really annoying, it also has very little offensive output, with only Whirlpool at its disposal. So after Ludi seeds and Toxics it and proceeds to get Toxic'd itself, I view my best course of action is to try to chip it down with Heatran who is immune to Toxic and takes little from Whirlpool while healing a ton thru Leech Seed. Somehow though, after the first Rest, it begins to enter a cycle of Resting immediately after it wakes up every time. My plan at this point was to swap stall between Ludi and Cress, switching back to Ludi to take a potential Toxic on Cress, only for Wailord to rest again and again. After a long process and on its 9th Rest, Cress manages to crit Shadow Ball and get the special defense drop, letting me take it down after a long process. Last in the back was Umbreon 4, which tries to pull the same bullshit that Wailord did, but without Rest to get rid of its status, it eventually falls to poison + Heatran.
Battle 59 featured a Regirock lead, which turned out to be Regirock 4. This is the Regirock that I'm afraid to switch Heatran into, so I decide to start the Ludi train on it. It only gets 2 Stone Edges off though, and hardly does any damage before dropping down, not even attempting to Explode.
The rest of the battle is cleared, and I end up taking Regirock 4 as the next trainer was a flying specialist. In hindsight though, it was a questionable swap, as the flying types ended up being Skarm 4 and Crobat 1, which were both cleared by Heatran easily.
Battle 61 featured an endgame involving Dragonite 4, which was able to KO Heatran thru Shuca but was checkmated by Levitate Cress. (Also, made me realize that even past Round 8 you'll continue to see Round 7 trainers since this Dragonite speed tied Heatran). Took Dragonite 4 and was able to blitz my way through the rest of the round with these mons in tow, though Battle 62 was a bit dicey with a Tangrowth 4 that was inexplicably good at dodging fully accurate attacks. Battle 63 was a simple Magnezone, Espeon, and Staraptor 1 team that bowled over to Dnite's EQ + Cresselia for a Round 9 clear.
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Round 10 featured a pretty bad draft that honestly seemed like it belonged in Round 4. No legends, and Weavile 1 was the only real standout "good" mon in the draft. Though the first battle was against a water specialist, which it was less likely to shine as much in. Ended up filling it out with Miltank 3, expecting to take one of these next waters and Exeggutor 1 to matchup better against it.
The battle was against another Round 7 trainer, and led with Lanturn. I got a Dizzy Punch confusion, but it never did anything as it broke out of confusion 1st possible turn and never hit itself. Weavile KO'd it to bring in Ampharos, which managed to get Frozen but also procced Static. Ampharos also only stayed frozen for one turn as it Focus Blasted once for a miss but then a 2nd time for a KO. Eggy cleaned it up and I'm thinking I'm fine with the last mon being a water type... but it's Kingdra 4. Really don't have anything else to do as it proceeds to Signal Beam to KO, ending my streak at 63 wins.
Wasn't really disappointed though, made it very far and don't think I could have done much to prevent that Battle 64, that draft really was bad when I'm taking Miltank of all things (also you're seriously encouraging me to take the one grass type I have when every one of the mons on their team has fucking Signal Beam jfc)
Overall really happy with how this run turned out, especially considering the insanity that was the Thorton 1 fight. While it turns out I'm a bit off from the Level 50 record, I can't be upset to be right behind it as well :) Probably gonna take a break from Level 50 though, either gonna try to go for a Level 100 clear or just wrap up Gold Prints at the other facilities instead.
Also please Game Freak add battle facilities and a good battle factory into the modern mainline games again I'm on my fucking knees here
Finally was able to break the stranglehold that Level 50 Factory has had on me over the last month after 2 failed Thorton2s and proceeded get a very respectable 2 additional round clears after. Very glad to finally get a run with decent drafts, no critical RNG mishaps, and to be honest, quite a few moments where the game decided to bail me out. I hadn't really tracked that many battles so I don't have match to match specifics on what I picked, but I have a pretty good memory on what was used for my drafts, especially Round 4 and up.
One thing I've started doing differently since the last report I made was using Rounds 3 and 4 to get elevations for Rounds 5 and up if I'm in a comfortable position to fish for them. Elevations really help make Rounds 5 and 6 far more bearable and having more slots for them make it worthwhile to trade every battle up to Battle 28.
Nobody remembers their Round 1, after doing it so many friggin times it all starts to blend together. I just clicked buttons with Murkrow then eventually Plusle down the road, really not much more to it.
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Had Banette as my elevation, which I stuck with since Ghost-typing and Shadow Claws coming off of 170 Attack is nothing to sneaze at. With Crawdaunt 1 backing it up for solid special coverage, Round 2 went pretty smoothly.
Only "scare" was Kingler 2 on battle 14 which is honestly one of the most terrifying mons you'll face in battles 14 - 27. It managed to get a Crabhammer on Banette, but didn't crit so I was able to progress to Round 3.
Had Banette as my elevation, which I stuck with since Ghost-typing and Shadow Claws coming off of 170 Attack is nothing to sneaze at. With Crawdaunt 1 backing it up for solid special coverage, Round 2 went pretty smoothly.
Only "scare" was Kingler 2 on battle 14 which is honestly one of the most terrifying mons you'll face in battles 14 - 27. It managed to get a Crabhammer on Banette, but didn't crit so I was able to progress to Round 3.
Flex -->
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Got Ninetales and Mence as my elevations. Mence alone is an amazing elevation, while Ninetales supports it very well to take any Ice-type attacks it might be worried about. Between those two and flexing around the lead slot, Battles 15 - 20 kind of breezed by.
Thorton battle was ridiculously whacky though, and honestly should have been a loss? Had a Round 2 trainer right before, and Thorton leads with an Espeon. Coming in with a Hitmonchan is obviously a terrible idea, and unfortunately my only two options are Persian 1 which gets itself or a teammate killed trying to deal with Esp or fucking Wormadam. So I have to take Wormadam 1 since it's the only thing that actually deals with Espeon safely. Luckily Esp was a Male, which allowed me to use Captivate to nerf it. However, playing quickly and watching some TV in the background made me forget that it can Baton Pass the Special Defense boosts, which it does after 3 CMS and a Reflect into Muk. Muk can be a huge asshole of a mon between Acid Armor and Minimize, and this one has +3 Special Defense already. I hard switch into Mence who takes a Poison Jab but luckily doesn't get poisoned. Start off with DClawing it which it takes pretty well behind the Reflect, but it starts Minimizing luckily. I switch to Aerial Acing it down, while it Minimizes and Acid Armors once more then Poison Jabs again to get the poison off on Mence. Was able to take it out barely before the poison finishes Mence off, and I switch into Wormadam expecting Espeon to come back out. But nope, Thorton decides to bring out Snorlax, one of the absolute worst mons to deal with, especially for Thorton. I get a measly two Bug Bites off on Lax while it Rock Slides Wormadam twice, leaving me with just Ninetales. Really here my streak should have ended, but the one saving grace I have is that Ninetales is female and both Lax and Espeon are male, letting me pull some potential Attract shenanigans. I spend time doing that and setting up Sunny Day, which it spends a lot of time immobilized, and the one turn it gets it decides to start cursing instead. In this process though, I miss two Fire Blasts, while I hit the 3rd and crit on the 4th. Lax goes down but so does the sun and with one Fire Blast to my name, I still need a miracle to get past Espeon. I attract it again as it goes for a Calm Mind, then setup Sun. I manage to get one Fire Blast on it but it squeezes a Psychic onto me, leaving me one hit from a loss. Out of Fire Blasts, I have to Solar Beam instead, which requires 2 from the range its currently at. It breaks through the Attract before the first one, but misses the Psychic from Brightpowder. After one additional immobilization and another Solar Beam, Thorton 1 goes down and I probably get my most undeserved Silver Print.
I kind of really wish I had saved that battle, because it was and sounds ridiculously lucky. I wasn't really thinking to at the time and I had another whacky RNG moment saved that I hadn't recorded yet from a run a while ago. Plus to be honest, I don't ever really expect any far runs to go as far as they do, so I didn't really think I'd report it down the line.
Got Ninetales and Mence as my elevations. Mence alone is an amazing elevation, while Ninetales supports it very well to take any Ice-type attacks it might be worried about. Between those two and flexing around the lead slot, Battles 15 - 20 kind of breezed by.
Thorton battle was ridiculously whacky though, and honestly should have been a loss? Had a Round 2 trainer right before, and Thorton leads with an Espeon. Coming in with a Hitmonchan is obviously a terrible idea, and unfortunately my only two options are Persian 1 which gets itself or a teammate killed trying to deal with Esp or fucking Wormadam. So I have to take Wormadam 1 since it's the only thing that actually deals with Espeon safely. Luckily Esp was a Male, which allowed me to use Captivate to nerf it. However, playing quickly and watching some TV in the background made me forget that it can Baton Pass the Special Defense boosts, which it does after 3 CMS and a Reflect into Muk. Muk can be a huge asshole of a mon between Acid Armor and Minimize, and this one has +3 Special Defense already. I hard switch into Mence who takes a Poison Jab but luckily doesn't get poisoned. Start off with DClawing it which it takes pretty well behind the Reflect, but it starts Minimizing luckily. I switch to Aerial Acing it down, while it Minimizes and Acid Armors once more then Poison Jabs again to get the poison off on Mence. Was able to take it out barely before the poison finishes Mence off, and I switch into Wormadam expecting Espeon to come back out. But nope, Thorton decides to bring out Snorlax, one of the absolute worst mons to deal with, especially for Thorton. I get a measly two Bug Bites off on Lax while it Rock Slides Wormadam twice, leaving me with just Ninetales. Really here my streak should have ended, but the one saving grace I have is that Ninetales is female and both Lax and Espeon are male, letting me pull some potential Attract shenanigans. I spend time doing that and setting up Sunny Day, which it spends a lot of time immobilized, and the one turn it gets it decides to start cursing instead. In this process though, I miss two Fire Blasts, while I hit the 3rd and crit on the 4th. Lax goes down but so does the sun and with one Fire Blast to my name, I still need a miracle to get past Espeon. I attract it again as it goes for a Calm Mind, then setup Sun. I manage to get one Fire Blast on it but it squeezes a Psychic onto me, leaving me one hit from a loss. Out of Fire Blasts, I have to Solar Beam instead, which requires 2 from the range its currently at. It breaks through the Attract before the first one, but misses the Psychic from Brightpowder. After one additional immobilization and another Solar Beam, Thorton 1 goes down and I probably get my most undeserved Silver Print.
I kind of really wish I had saved that battle, because it was and sounds ridiculously lucky. I wasn't really thinking to at the time and I had another whacky RNG moment saved that I hadn't recorded yet from a run a while ago. Plus to be honest, I don't ever really expect any far runs to go as far as they do, so I didn't really think I'd report it down the line.
After a turbulent Thorton battle, Round 4 was rather uneventful. Ludicolo and Tentacruel were in my elevations for the draft, which form an absolutely dastardly stall core that can handle a lot of non-poison/grass types together. Having a less desirable matchup into Leech Seed/Toxic immune mons made me not pursue the strategy the whole round, so I ended up using Tenta's spot as a flex role. Trading Steelix for Weavile round 1 added decent speed control and power in the back for a solid overall core.
Really nothing super significant happened over the course of this round though. Ludicolo just kinda slowly killed everything and everything that didn't get solo'd just got cleaned up by something in the back. Funnily enough, there were two instances of Aerial Ace users coming in after setting up +6 evasion, but with Bad AI it was really nothing to worry about.
| While round 5s typically tend to become a brick wall at times, a great draft was able to make it far less worrisome than it usually is. Empoleon, Tentacruel, and Levitate Bronzong were all my Elevations. While there was quite a bit of type overlap, there weren't really a lot of shared weaknesses between all of them. Battle 1 however I cross Blaziken 1, which becomes a crazy good mon once they start using smart AI in Round 5. It didn't really steamroll every team, there are instances where Reversal doesn't KO at 1 HP like against Feraligatr 1, or having to navigate around Forretress 1, which threatens Counter against it (which Blaziken fucking crits Aerial Ace on, but gets knocked down to 2 HP luckily). Also had to worry about potentially dealing with Lotto Lapras 2, but 200 BP Reversal clears it easily.
The only real spooky battle was Battle 35, which has a dicey Drapion lead. It has super effective coverage for Tenta and Brozong, and 1 HP Reversal doesn't KO it. Also don't want to tank more Cross Poisons than I need to with Blaziken to not risk getting poisoned. Figured that my best plan of attack was to get one Signal Beam on Bronzong to put it into Reversal range and start swapping between Blaziken and Bronzong to safely put Blaziken into range to take only one Cross Poison and to heal back Bronzong with Lefties. Drapion does get a critical hit right above 50 HP on Blaziken with Fire Fang, but luckily it doesn't have Sniper so I live. I endure the Cross Poison and don't get poisoned, letting me take it down. Garde comes out next which gets KO'd by Blaze boosted Blaze Kick, and whatever the last mon is gets cleaned up.
--> Was a pretty tough round, having a pretty subpar draft didn't really make matters much better. Porygon2 and Golem were the elevations I ended up taking, and Muk 3 was a pretty overall solid mon I ended up taking just to round out my team.
Battle 36 was against a poison type specialist, and they lead with Tentacruel 2 which can be really annoying. I thought my best plan of attack was to go into Muk to try to setup Curses on it to beat it out, but I proceed to get bullshitted in the biggest possible way by confusion, getting 3 turns of confusion and hitting myself everytime. I only get to throw in one unboosted Payback before Muk drops to confusion again. I figure I have to go to Golem to tank a Giga Drain and just kill it with EQ. Mamo comes out next, and I don't get a chance to Quick Claw explode, meaning I'm left with just Pory2 against 2 full HP mons. Two Tri-Attacks don't KO or status Mamo and I think it's over after it sets up one Curse, but for some reason it sets up a 2nd Curse even though it had overwhelming odds to take me out after one. Nido 2 is the last mon, and I pretty much have to clench my asshole and hope to not get OHKO'd by Horn Drill. It misses the first one and tries to Focus Punch on Turn 2, while I Ice Beam it twice for the win.
Battle 37 is against a grass-or some other rock unfriendly specialist, which honestly I can't be bothered to be burned by Golem anymore so I just take Tenta 2 in the meantime. The battle was pretty easy though, and I get interested by the prospect of Tangrowth 2 so I take it over Tenta.
The idea was to try to setup Leech Seed so Muk could curse up, but that plan never really comes into fruition, especially with Tangrowth in the back slot. I misplay a bit around Blissey in the next battle, thinking that Tangrowth can take a TBolt + Flamethrower/outspeed, which it does neither (especially considering the crit but idt it mattered), but I was able to setup a Curse into Blissey to steamroll Hypno 3 and the last mon in the back. Battle 39 involved a Milotic scrap which Muk came out on top of pretty handily , with a missed Hydro helping me out a ton. I end up taking it over Tangrowth since it wasn't really doing much for me.
Battle 40 started with a dicey Roserade lead, which I decide to sack Pory to with the knowledge that it was a grass-type trainer, and I end up facing a Venusaur 3 which can be scary, but thankfully Muk was able to hit the Gunk Shots it was supposed to in order to take it out. Last mon was Dusknoir 3, which I'm unfortunately threatened by from a potential paralysis on Milotic, crit, or Hydro Miss. None of those end up happening and I avoid an embarrassing loss deep in.
Battle 41 is quick while Battle 42 comes up. Tried to perform some shenanigans with Pory2 to heal off Hyper Beam damage from a Jolteon lead, which works semi successfully. Ends up with Espeon as the last mon, which faints to 2 Mirror Coats from Milotic. However, I'm scared of taking unnecessary crits so I try to recover as much as I can and sack Roserade when my special defense drops. Decide to Mirror Coat after and KO it to move onto Round 7.
Was an interesting draft for Round 7. Went with 31 IV Lax 4, Arcanine 2 (with Flash Fire unfortunately), and Ludicolo 3. I just wanted to take Lax 4 to just nuke shit and take something later on. Battle 44 I come across Froslass 3, which operates as a great lead that has good Boltbeam coverage and has fast Destiny Bond.
Battle 45 is kind of scary, Victreebel 4 lead goes down quick, but Weavile 4 outspeeds Lass and OHKOs before I can DBond. I go into Arcanine to KO with Flare Blitz and get me closer to salac + reversal range. Machamp 4 is the last mon, which I endure down to try to squeeze out a bit more damage on reversal, but unfortunately it gets a Quick Claw proc before I have the chance to fire back. I'm down to Ludi as it gets another Quick Claw proc and hits the Cross Chop, but luckily doesn't crit as I crit my own Hydro Pump to not have to worry about any more Quick Claw bullshit.
I deliberated taking either Weavile or Machamp in the lead slot, but ultimately I decided against it as the value that Froslass provides with Destiny Bond is too high. Luckily it pays off, as battle 44 features a ground type specialist, involving Marowak and Garchomp 4 with a Hariyama in the back which I'm able to take out with no hassle using Froslass. I take Chomp over Arcanine, and between Chomp and Lass the rest of the round up to Thorton is cleared very quickly.
Thorton2 comes and for once, finally gives me a solid lead matchup as he sends out Vileplume into my Froslass. I take it out with no issue, as he brings in Machamp, which used up all of its Quick Claw luck earlier in the round and gets taken out by Destiny Bond. I send out Chomp for more immediate damage if needed as the last mon turns out to be Articuno. While I'm in a good position, there are situations where Ludi can lose against Articuno, but I end up going for Outrage on Chomp just to get the most damage I can. Thankfully, he misses a Blizzard, and with one more turn of outrage, I'm able to knock out the Articuno, and finally claim the gold print in the Factory.
Even if the Blizzard hit, that battle would have likely come down to whether or not Ludi could hit a Wide Lens Hydro or not, as Fly from Articuno wouldn't ever KO without a crit. Still, I'll take my blessings when I can and ride it to the bank.
While I could have stopped my run there, I was feeling pretty hot so I decided to go straight back in to try to push this record as far as I could. Also finally got to see Legendaries in my draft in Level 50 which was cool, though Regice 1 really isn't the most flashy of them all. I decided to lead Lucario 4 for the coverage and have Regice in the back for a tank. I wanted to take Pinsir 1 to fill, but I would have had a glaring weakness to physical fire-types if I hadn't, so I took Hippowdon 2 to round out the draft.
The Hippowdon pick payed off though as Battle 50 featured Tyranitar 4 as the last mon, which Hippowdon was able to eat a +1 Crunch incredibly easily. I took Ttar over it though since it was kind of a straight up upgrade.
Battle 52 was a bit dicey though, it was a normal specialist but led with Gliscor, which was deduced to be Gliscor 1 due to Lucario outspeeding. It's able to deal a lot of damage, KOing Lucario and doing tons of damage to Regice before going down Lopunny 4 is revealed after. While it can't really touch Ttar, it does risk hitting it with freeze or Paralysis while I try to setup. I greed going for 3 Dragon Dances to outspeed it and more or less guarantee that whatever else comes in dies immediately, but the most that happens is one crit on the first Ice Punch, but no status thankfully. Ttar crunches his way to the last mon which is Scarf Adaptability Porygon-Z, which was the only mon that could have outspeed but ended up going for Trick anyways. I don't even think Tri Attack would have KO'd from the 60ish range Ttar was sitting at without a crit. I end up taking PoryZ over Regice, as its able to setup some potential nasty Trick situations to allow Ttar to steamroll. It never ended up happening unfortunately, but that fast Tri-Attack still proved to be immensely useful.
Battle 54 featured Latios 4, which could have been a huge threat to my team. It came out after Lucario was down and Pory was already locked into Tri-Attack, so the only "safe" option was to Tri Attack. It luckily missed the Draco on the set reveal and went down to Pory though, and I ended up taking the cracked Latios set over Lucario as I still thought the prospect of Trick was still valuable. But with Lati in the lead slot and not missing any dracos, the rest of the round was cleaned up very easily, even past taking super effective Ice Punches from Ambipom 4.
--> --> Kind of a crazy draft to be honest. Included in it was Lati 1, Heatran 1, and Cresselia 3. There were a lot of good options to pick from, but realistically it made sense to only take one of Cress and Lati, which I ended up going with Cress due to having far superior bulk and some slightly better coverage. It formed a really strong synergy with Heatran as well, plus personally I feel like there are far more Lati sets I'd rather deal with than Cress sets. Led with Weavile 3 to finish the draft.
Battle 57 started out with Mence 1 which was swiftly Countered by Weavile into Medicham 4 which was taken out with a Night Slash + Shadow Ball from Cress. Ludicolo comes out last, which is revealed to unfortunately be the demon set 2 Ludi. In a moment of panic, I try to hit it with Psychic on Cress to try to stop it before it gets out of hand, but it gets 2 Double Teams and a Leech Seed on Cresselia. While it doesn't look good, the presence of a full HP Heatran means I have an out of the situation, which involves a fuckton of switching. I switch back and forth between Cress and Heatran, never letting Cress get poisoned and carefully managing who takes a Leech Seed and counting down how many it has left. It runs out of Leech Seed when Cress gets to 50ish HP while Heatran gets to 60ish, which allows me to open fire on Heatran with no risk as Ludi is only able to spam Double Team and Toxic. Managed to land 2 Heat Waves, which honestly might have been enough considering Struggle recoil, but Heatran gets another Heat Wave to finish it off.
Coming off of a scary situation, I decide to take the Ludicolo, since it's just an overall really solid mon and can provide Leech Seed support to two bulky mons that lack healing. While I think I'm out of the woods of stupid switch stalling, the next battle is revealed to have Wailord 2, which has access to Rest to really circumvent Toxic progress. While really annoying, it also has very little offensive output, with only Whirlpool at its disposal. So after Ludi seeds and Toxics it and proceeds to get Toxic'd itself, I view my best course of action is to try to chip it down with Heatran who is immune to Toxic and takes little from Whirlpool while healing a ton thru Leech Seed. Somehow though, after the first Rest, it begins to enter a cycle of Resting immediately after it wakes up every time. My plan at this point was to swap stall between Ludi and Cress, switching back to Ludi to take a potential Toxic on Cress, only for Wailord to rest again and again. After a long process and on its 9th Rest, Cress manages to crit Shadow Ball and get the special defense drop, letting me take it down after a long process. Last in the back was Umbreon 4, which tries to pull the same bullshit that Wailord did, but without Rest to get rid of its status, it eventually falls to poison + Heatran.
Battle 59 featured a Regirock lead, which turned out to be Regirock 4. This is the Regirock that I'm afraid to switch Heatran into, so I decide to start the Ludi train on it. It only gets 2 Stone Edges off though, and hardly does any damage before dropping down, not even attempting to Explode.
The rest of the battle is cleared, and I end up taking Regirock 4 as the next trainer was a flying specialist. In hindsight though, it was a questionable swap, as the flying types ended up being Skarm 4 and Crobat 1, which were both cleared by Heatran easily.
Battle 61 featured an endgame involving Dragonite 4, which was able to KO Heatran thru Shuca but was checkmated by Levitate Cress. (Also, made me realize that even past Round 8 you'll continue to see Round 7 trainers since this Dragonite speed tied Heatran). Took Dragonite 4 and was able to blitz my way through the rest of the round with these mons in tow, though Battle 62 was a bit dicey with a Tangrowth 4 that was inexplicably good at dodging fully accurate attacks. Battle 63 was a simple Magnezone, Espeon, and Staraptor 1 team that bowled over to Dnite's EQ + Cresselia for a Round 9 clear.
| Round 10 featured a pretty bad draft that honestly seemed like it belonged in Round 4. No legends, and Weavile 1 was the only real standout "good" mon in the draft. Though the first battle was against a water specialist, which it was less likely to shine as much in. Ended up filling it out with Miltank 3, expecting to take one of these next waters and Exeggutor 1 to matchup better against it.
The battle was against another Round 7 trainer, and led with Lanturn. I got a Dizzy Punch confusion, but it never did anything as it broke out of confusion 1st possible turn and never hit itself. Weavile KO'd it to bring in Ampharos, which managed to get Frozen but also procced Static. Ampharos also only stayed frozen for one turn as it Focus Blasted once for a miss but then a 2nd time for a KO. Eggy cleaned it up and I'm thinking I'm fine with the last mon being a water type... but it's Kingdra 4. Really don't have anything else to do as it proceeds to Signal Beam to KO, ending my streak at 63 wins.
Wasn't really disappointed though, made it very far and don't think I could have done much to prevent that Battle 64, that draft really was bad when I'm taking Miltank of all things (also you're seriously encouraging me to take the one grass type I have when every one of the mons on their team has fucking Signal Beam jfc)
Overall really happy with how this run turned out, especially considering the insanity that was the Thorton 1 fight. While it turns out I'm a bit off from the Level 50 record, I can't be upset to be right behind it as well :) Probably gonna take a break from Level 50 though, either gonna try to go for a Level 100 clear or just wrap up Gold Prints at the other facilities instead.
Also please Game Freak add battle facilities and a good battle factory into the modern mainline games again I'm on my fucking knees here
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
WRT Lapras/Weavile, the AI acts oddly if it doesn't have a SE move - you'd assume it'd just choose the best neutral move (as a human would) but more often I've found that it just randomly picks any move.
QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
So after doing my Moltres streak on the Hall a while ago (can we maybe get that added to the main page please?) and mentioning that it'd be nice to get to a total streak of 10,000 in order to have the bragging-rights reward of Professor Oak becoming my fan, I started thinking more seriously about how to go about doing that.
My total streak as it currently stands is about 1600... so that only leaves 8400 to go! Daunting, but when you think about it, that's only 50 Pokemon I need to make it to 170 with. ...yeah, no. That's a stretch. And also a lot of work when you consider the sheer amount of breeding involved.
What's more realistic is just throwing a bunch of random Pokemon at it and seeing how far I get with them. After all, when you think about the way this facility works, most Pokemon - realistically - are never going to get to 170 but could probably very easily make between 50-100 wins if you choose your battles wisely. So why not? Inspired by @Tsitso's Pikachu streak, @average fella's Wormadam streak and atsync's "Road to 10,000" trek, I went digging through my PC on SoulSilver which is full of different Pokemon at varying levels from all sorts of places - some veterans of playthroughs of older games, some in-game trades from NPCs, some event distributions, some just Pokemon I've caught and never actually used in battle. If I'm to make 10,000 wins, I should take a bunch of these and have a run at the Battle Hall to see how far each of them can go.
I mean I could just hit 25 battles exactly with 336 different Pokemon for a very cheap and low-effort win, but... this way's more interesting.
Before making plans to go any further, it's useful to look at how far I've already gone, and with which Pokemon. It's been a long while since I started my file on SoulSilver, and I've long since forgotten how my 1800+ total breaks down.
I can only assume that for some of these I quit midway through. It's the only way I can justify some of the (frankly, disgraceful) numbers on here.
If I get desperate for species to use down the line, I might take some of these Pokemon and try to up their records.
Anyway. Only 8346 battles to go!
I had a look through my PC and also at the National Dex listing to see if any fun species jumped out at me as fun candidates to use. Seeing as the number of Pokemon I may end up using is likely to total over 100, I wasn't massively exclusionist, but I did decide to lay down a couple of rules.
My criteria is simple:
First up were:
Turning Write-Offs Into Champions
After I'd taken a few random species out of the PC and racked up some new records, however, I decided to add an extra wrinkle to my challenge. I remembered that there's an attendant who rewards you with CP for hitting certain benchmarks in your total streak - 1800, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, and so on until 10,000. That's a lot of extra BP... ah, what to spend it on?
Well, I've got a lot of favourites who aren't exactly heavyweights when it comes to battling prowess. I've already gotten to 170 with Moltres and Garchomp, but they're A-list species. Wouldn't it be neat to add a bit more diversity to the records page and see if I can actually hit 170 with some of those real lightweights?
I'm not going to do it with every species, of course. And I'll have to choose the ones I do it with carefully. After some thought I decided that every time my total hit a round 1000, I'd allow myself a proper run at 170 with a chosen candidate. So over the next few weeks/months I'll be detailing my efforts!
The first Pokemon I chose was Castform.
Sure, Castform's weak. But it has a good amount of versatility, and with the level advantage it can outmatch a lot of way stronger stuff. It looks more versatile on paper than it is, though - sure it can change type, but in practice you just end up blasting Hyper Beams all over the place -
...oh wait, what? Castform doesn't learn Hyper Beam? Well, shit. That does make things more difficult.
After looking over the various Pokemon in the Hall and writing up some notes, I duly got breeding. Versatile as Castform is, it still lacks in a few crucial types so Hidden Power is an unfortunate necessity. But all of the builds I'd be using are the same nature, and in the end I only needed five distinct individuals - one with HP Fighting, one with HP Ground, two with HP Psychic, and one who didn't need to know or use Hidden Power (though it had Water - a thoroughly redundant type given this species' learnset).
Below is a list of the order I took the various types on in, and why. All of these were done at level 30.
21% of the way there! On we go!
My total streak as it currently stands is about 1600... so that only leaves 8400 to go! Daunting, but when you think about it, that's only 50 Pokemon I need to make it to 170 with. ...yeah, no. That's a stretch. And also a lot of work when you consider the sheer amount of breeding involved.
What's more realistic is just throwing a bunch of random Pokemon at it and seeing how far I get with them. After all, when you think about the way this facility works, most Pokemon - realistically - are never going to get to 170 but could probably very easily make between 50-100 wins if you choose your battles wisely. So why not? Inspired by @Tsitso's Pikachu streak, @average fella's Wormadam streak and atsync's "Road to 10,000" trek, I went digging through my PC on SoulSilver which is full of different Pokemon at varying levels from all sorts of places - some veterans of playthroughs of older games, some in-game trades from NPCs, some event distributions, some just Pokemon I've caught and never actually used in battle. If I'm to make 10,000 wins, I should take a bunch of these and have a run at the Battle Hall to see how far each of them can go.
I mean I could just hit 25 battles exactly with 336 different Pokemon for a very cheap and low-effort win, but... this way's more interesting.
Before making plans to go any further, it's useful to look at how far I've already gone, and with which Pokemon. It's been a long while since I started my file on SoulSilver, and I've long since forgotten how my 1800+ total breaks down.
Aerodactyl 29
Aggron 70
Alakazam 10
Cloyster 18
Dragonair 20
Dragonite 150
Electivire 8
Flygon 18
Froslass 91
Garchomp 180
Gengar 125
Heracross 29
Infernape 18
Kangaskhan 68
Kingdra 47
Lapras 64
Latios 123
Lopunny 3
Machoke 10
Magikarp 19
Marowak 17
Moltres 180
Rapidash 49
Rhyperior 9
Slaking 86
Snorlax 8
Starmie 29
Togekiss 49
Typhlosion 39
Vespiquen 29
Weavile 59
Aggron 70
Alakazam 10
Cloyster 18
Dragonair 20
Dragonite 150
Electivire 8
Flygon 18
Froslass 91
Garchomp 180
Gengar 125
Heracross 29
Infernape 18
Kangaskhan 68
Kingdra 47
Lapras 64
Latios 123
Lopunny 3
Machoke 10
Magikarp 19
Marowak 17
Moltres 180
Rapidash 49
Rhyperior 9
Slaking 86
Snorlax 8
Starmie 29
Togekiss 49
Typhlosion 39
Vespiquen 29
Weavile 59
I can only assume that for some of these I quit midway through. It's the only way I can justify some of the (frankly, disgraceful) numbers on here.
If I get desperate for species to use down the line, I might take some of these Pokemon and try to up their records.
Anyway. Only 8346 battles to go!
I had a look through my PC and also at the National Dex listing to see if any fun species jumped out at me as fun candidates to use. Seeing as the number of Pokemon I may end up using is likely to total over 100, I wasn't massively exclusionist, but I did decide to lay down a couple of rules.
My criteria is simple:
- the more NFEs, the better
- One attempt with every Pokemon I use - my first try is the only try, and if I only make it to a pathetically low number then that's just the way it is
First up were:
Teddiursa 39
Crobat 38
Regirock 87
Skuntank 15
Pinsir 36
Wailmer 26
Metang 39
Crawdaunt 49
Luxray 27
Crobat 38
Regirock 87
Skuntank 15
Pinsir 36
Wailmer 26
Metang 39
Crawdaunt 49
Luxray 27
Turning Write-Offs Into Champions
After I'd taken a few random species out of the PC and racked up some new records, however, I decided to add an extra wrinkle to my challenge. I remembered that there's an attendant who rewards you with CP for hitting certain benchmarks in your total streak - 1800, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, and so on until 10,000. That's a lot of extra BP... ah, what to spend it on?
Well, I've got a lot of favourites who aren't exactly heavyweights when it comes to battling prowess. I've already gotten to 170 with Moltres and Garchomp, but they're A-list species. Wouldn't it be neat to add a bit more diversity to the records page and see if I can actually hit 170 with some of those real lightweights?
I'm not going to do it with every species, of course. And I'll have to choose the ones I do it with carefully. After some thought I decided that every time my total hit a round 1000, I'd allow myself a proper run at 170 with a chosen candidate. So over the next few weeks/months I'll be detailing my efforts!
The first Pokemon I chose was Castform.
...oh wait, what? Castform doesn't learn Hyper Beam? Well, shit. That does make things more difficult.
After looking over the various Pokemon in the Hall and writing up some notes, I duly got breeding. Versatile as Castform is, it still lacks in a few crucial types so Hidden Power is an unfortunate necessity. But all of the builds I'd be using are the same nature, and in the end I only needed five distinct individuals - one with HP Fighting, one with HP Ground, two with HP Psychic, and one who didn't need to know or use Hidden Power (though it had Water - a thoroughly redundant type given this species' learnset).
Below is a list of the order I took the various types on in, and why. All of these were done at level 30.
1. Normal
Why Normal for first round rather than the more logical Fighting? Frankly, I was unnerved by how many opponents in Normal looked like they could beat me even with a serious level gap. This was my suspicion, and the sheer number of losses I had in the first round - more than any other type bracket - confirmed to me that I was completely right in this. Better to get it out of the way early than have an unlucky draft spoil things later down the line.
2. Fire
And then Fire second, purely for the unpleasantness that is Infernape. It doesn't make much difference whether Fire or Fighting is done second, but Fire seemed best to do earlier because a couple of foes like Arcanine and Heatran are very slightly easier the earlier they're fought. By contrast, most of the foes in Fighting are easy kills (though it still needs to be cleared early).
3. Fighting
Not too rough; with a Chople Berry equipped, the threat from most foes is greatly diminished.
4. Psychic
I feel like this is never a pleasant round for any Pokemon. There's just too much here to cover everything efficiently: you keep thinking you've got the whole list covered, then you realise you've forgotten Metagross or Gallade or something. The choice of Lum vs Sitrus was a tough one, but ultimately Lum covers more - there's a lot of potential status inflictions here.
5. Poison
Poison looks like kind of an oddball choice for round 5, but it's a difficult set of Pokemon and I wanted to knock one potential foe out of the lineup. It's annoying not to be able to run a Focus Sash, which would have been an enormous comfort blanket for Argenta, but a Lum Berry really is essential here: Gengar is a tremendous threat with Hypnosis, and some bulkier foes like Muk and Tentacruel which usually 3HKO you are able to edge towards 2HKOing if they manage to get poison damage. Running Ice Beam would also give some extra versatility, but since I'm forced to run full HP for this round Icy Wind is useful against a couple of foes I need to be certain of 2HKOing. What's irritating is that running no speed means that a bunch of dumb shit outspeeds me when Argenta used them: Spinda should have been a fairly simple 2HKO, but outsped and beat me when I faced it.
6. Rock
Any round which has both Aerodactyl and Tyranitar is likely to be "difficult". But finally a round in which we get to use Castform's signature move! Hurrah!
7. Dragon
This is usually a fairly straightforward round, so it's annoying to have to do it so early. But Castform just has no real answer to Kingdra, which is really troublesome at higher levels.
8. Electric
I hate facing Electric-types. Even when they don't have Static, part of me always expects to get paralysed just by touching them. Raikou is a real pain to face, since even though Sitrus means I can usually tank a second Thunder, it's bulkier than it looks and HP Ground has a(n albeit slim) chance to do less than 50%.
9. Ghost
Had to get real creative when it came to taking down that Spiritomb. Seriously, fuck Spiritomb.
10. Dark
Dark is a particularly annoying round because you expect everything here to be frail and easy to kill but there's some bulky stuff, some fast stuff, some mid-range stuff, and a load of type diversity which means covering everything is hard. Umbreon nearly got me when I went in without maxed PP: thankfully, I just managed to outlast it, but it's much easier when you're able to get it to Struggle first. Tyranitar is threatening but just about manageable with max Defence; Houndoom is a pain because there's always a chance it'll flinch with Dark Pulse. What am I missing? Oh yeah, fuck Spiritomb.
11. Flying
Ugh. Everything here is fast, necessitating a Focus Sash (and Icy Wind sometimes). The good thing is that, even though Flying has a very wide type variety, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt covers just about everything - you don't actually need Rock for any of the stuff that's 4x weak to it, like Scyther and Vespiquen. Crobat and Aerodactyl are menaces, but a lot of things are able to be OHKOed without too much hassle. Still, it's not a fun round.
12. Bug
This round is far more evil than it looks. I lost to Venomoth, of all things, which isn't even on this list but showed up as the rank 10 fight once. It's faster and powerful, so Icy Wind could both slow it down and get it in range for Flamethrower to kill - if, of course, it had Tinted Lens. Of course, it didn't. Armaldo is also something I dread seeing.
13. Ice
This one, by comparison, almost feels fun.
14. Grass
Ditto.
15. Water
This feels like the round I should be saving for last, but with the item choice and moveset it didn't feel quite right. All academic though.
16. Steel
...
17. Ground
And this is last. I wanted a round that would give me a good range of attacking options, and also a Focus Sash for whatever Argenta brings.
Why Normal for first round rather than the more logical Fighting? Frankly, I was unnerved by how many opponents in Normal looked like they could beat me even with a serious level gap. This was my suspicion, and the sheer number of losses I had in the first round - more than any other type bracket - confirmed to me that I was completely right in this. Better to get it out of the way early than have an unlucky draft spoil things later down the line.
2. Fire
And then Fire second, purely for the unpleasantness that is Infernape. It doesn't make much difference whether Fire or Fighting is done second, but Fire seemed best to do earlier because a couple of foes like Arcanine and Heatran are very slightly easier the earlier they're fought. By contrast, most of the foes in Fighting are easy kills (though it still needs to be cleared early).
3. Fighting
Not too rough; with a Chople Berry equipped, the threat from most foes is greatly diminished.
4. Psychic
I feel like this is never a pleasant round for any Pokemon. There's just too much here to cover everything efficiently: you keep thinking you've got the whole list covered, then you realise you've forgotten Metagross or Gallade or something. The choice of Lum vs Sitrus was a tough one, but ultimately Lum covers more - there's a lot of potential status inflictions here.
5. Poison
Poison looks like kind of an oddball choice for round 5, but it's a difficult set of Pokemon and I wanted to knock one potential foe out of the lineup. It's annoying not to be able to run a Focus Sash, which would have been an enormous comfort blanket for Argenta, but a Lum Berry really is essential here: Gengar is a tremendous threat with Hypnosis, and some bulkier foes like Muk and Tentacruel which usually 3HKO you are able to edge towards 2HKOing if they manage to get poison damage. Running Ice Beam would also give some extra versatility, but since I'm forced to run full HP for this round Icy Wind is useful against a couple of foes I need to be certain of 2HKOing. What's irritating is that running no speed means that a bunch of dumb shit outspeeds me when Argenta used them: Spinda should have been a fairly simple 2HKO, but outsped and beat me when I faced it.
6. Rock
Any round which has both Aerodactyl and Tyranitar is likely to be "difficult". But finally a round in which we get to use Castform's signature move! Hurrah!
7. Dragon
This is usually a fairly straightforward round, so it's annoying to have to do it so early. But Castform just has no real answer to Kingdra, which is really troublesome at higher levels.
8. Electric
I hate facing Electric-types. Even when they don't have Static, part of me always expects to get paralysed just by touching them. Raikou is a real pain to face, since even though Sitrus means I can usually tank a second Thunder, it's bulkier than it looks and HP Ground has a(n albeit slim) chance to do less than 50%.
9. Ghost
Had to get real creative when it came to taking down that Spiritomb. Seriously, fuck Spiritomb.
10. Dark
Dark is a particularly annoying round because you expect everything here to be frail and easy to kill but there's some bulky stuff, some fast stuff, some mid-range stuff, and a load of type diversity which means covering everything is hard. Umbreon nearly got me when I went in without maxed PP: thankfully, I just managed to outlast it, but it's much easier when you're able to get it to Struggle first. Tyranitar is threatening but just about manageable with max Defence; Houndoom is a pain because there's always a chance it'll flinch with Dark Pulse. What am I missing? Oh yeah, fuck Spiritomb.
11. Flying
Ugh. Everything here is fast, necessitating a Focus Sash (and Icy Wind sometimes). The good thing is that, even though Flying has a very wide type variety, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt covers just about everything - you don't actually need Rock for any of the stuff that's 4x weak to it, like Scyther and Vespiquen. Crobat and Aerodactyl are menaces, but a lot of things are able to be OHKOed without too much hassle. Still, it's not a fun round.
12. Bug
This round is far more evil than it looks. I lost to Venomoth, of all things, which isn't even on this list but showed up as the rank 10 fight once. It's faster and powerful, so Icy Wind could both slow it down and get it in range for Flamethrower to kill - if, of course, it had Tinted Lens. Of course, it didn't. Armaldo is also something I dread seeing.
13. Ice
This one, by comparison, almost feels fun.
14. Grass
Ditto.
15. Water
This feels like the round I should be saving for last, but with the item choice and moveset it didn't feel quite right. All academic though.
16. Steel
...
17. Ground
And this is last. I wanted a round that would give me a good range of attacking options, and also a Focus Sash for whatever Argenta brings.
Unfortunately, though, I have not yet made it to 170, so the final few type brackets in the previous section are all theoretical. Despite my best efforts, Castform just... dies to too much. I kept a record of all my defeats, and boy are they numerous.
Castform's streaks
During the runs in which I made it past 50, Argenta used Grovyle, Arbok, Clamperl, Qwilfish, Pidgeotto, and Sealeo respectively.
That's left me with Castform's best record so far being 128 wins, which is frankly pretty great for it. I'm kind of torn - part of me is determined to get to 170, while the shrewder part of me suspects that if I make it there Argenta's Gold pick will be something monstrously powerful I can't beat. Honestly I think if I get to 169 and lose I won't have the heart to continue.
We'll see, I guess. All suggestions welcomed.
Castform's streaks
- lost at 29 to Poliwrath, prompting me to change the item for the fighting round from sash to chople
- lost at 10 to Snorlax
- lost at 19 to Blaziken, confirming the need for a chople in the fire round as well instead of sitrus
- lost at 10 to Zangoose - close combat should not have OHKOed but it got a critical hit
- lost at 9 to Staraptor who, again, should not have been able to OHKO with Close Combat but also got a critical hit, prompting me to consider changing the item for the normal round from Leftovers to Focus Sash before deciding against (after I'd finished turning the air blue)
- lost to Argenta, who used Pupitar which Icy Wind just fell short of 2HKOing. Really wishing I ran Ice Beam...
- lost at 7 to Girafarig
- lost at 10 to Snorlax
- lost at 79 to Rotom, after missing with Icy Wind
- lost at 10 to Snorlax
- lost at 10 to Togekiss after it got a critical hit
- lost at 20 to Entei after it got a critical hit
- lost at 20 to Arcanine, WHY DOES EVERYTHING KEEP GETTING CRITICAL HITS
- lost to Argenta, who used Nosepass
- lost at 128 to Staraptor - my own fault, since I'd mistakenly given Castform a Sitrus Berry instead of a Focus Sash
- lost at 16 to Medicham
- lost at 20 to Heracross
- lost at 20 to Poliwrath, WHY DOES EVERYTHING KEEP GETTING CRITICAL HITS
- lost at 70 to Kingdra
- lost at 119 to Venomoth (detailed above)
- lost at 9 to Kecleon
- lost at 10 to Togekiss
- lost to Argenta, who used Aipom
- lost at 20 to Infernape
- lost at 20 to Infernape... again
- lost to Argenta, who used Spinda
- lost to Argenta, who used Mothim
- lost at 79 to Ampharos
- lost to Argenta, who used Linoone
- lost at 108 to Aerodactyl
During the runs in which I made it past 50, Argenta used Grovyle, Arbok, Clamperl, Qwilfish, Pidgeotto, and Sealeo respectively.
That's left me with Castform's best record so far being 128 wins, which is frankly pretty great for it. I'm kind of torn - part of me is determined to get to 170, while the shrewder part of me suspects that if I make it there Argenta's Gold pick will be something monstrously powerful I can't beat. Honestly I think if I get to 169 and lose I won't have the heart to continue.
We'll see, I guess. All suggestions welcomed.
21% of the way there! On we go!
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60 wins in level 50 Factory (emu)
I'm not nearly as disappointed in my eventual loss as I am in the lack of information I have about it. Rounds 5+ were streamed on the battle facilities Discord, and I never thought to do any kind of local recording for it until immediately after getting this run, my other writeups were lightly edited liveblogging, but for this, there's no text to take.
I lost way more on rounds 1-4 than I usually do on cart, battles 1-6 of r3 specifically which are usually some of the easiest, but when it takes 20 minutes, total, for a run to get past that point, instead of 1h20m when playing on cart with no speedup, I still come out ahead in time investment per r5+ run on emu. My other conclusion is that factory is improved drastically with the HGSS ui changes, using both screens for summary and being able to see the entire draft on your bottom screen is a big QOL change.
I'm not nearly as disappointed in my eventual loss as I am in the lack of information I have about it. Rounds 5+ were streamed on the battle facilities Discord, and I never thought to do any kind of local recording for it until immediately after getting this run, my other writeups were lightly edited liveblogging, but for this, there's no text to take.
I actually forgot virtually everything about the r5 in this successful run. I recall receiving a Roserade3, but I could very well be confusing it with any other r5.
I received Anger Point Tauros4 and Kingdra3 in the draft. I don't remember what I had for a third, just that Tauros beat everything.
I get Latios1/Kingdra3/Vaporeon4 in the draft and don't swap once. I thought I'd win easily with Latios, but instead it's basically just a fast, sturdy thunder wave user for Kingdra3 to actually do the damage.
Thorton uses set1s on battle 49 of level 50, but it didn't make a big difference here.
Latios consumes Miltank1's cheri berry and takes a thunder wave of its own, second thunder waves goes through as it takes a return, I don't want to kill it, just to get Kingdra to eventually kill it easier. It gets 1 milk drink off, it's roughly 85% HP and paralyzed for Kingdra.
I dd, it gets parahaxed. I'm in business, I waterfall to either kill it in 2 turns eating my lum, or make +2 outrage kill guaranteed, flinch. I dd a second time, forget what exactly it did and what my health was, but the position that I'm in at the end is that Lum is intact, and I finished it off with turn 1 of outrage at +2, was prepared to have to eat lum to get set up but instead am very well-postioned for the last 2. I don't remember the second or third since I got a 3-turn outrage and it ohko'd the last 2.
Thorton uses set1s on battle 49 of level 50, but it didn't make a big difference here.
Latios consumes Miltank1's cheri berry and takes a thunder wave of its own, second thunder waves goes through as it takes a return, I don't want to kill it, just to get Kingdra to eventually kill it easier. It gets 1 milk drink off, it's roughly 85% HP and paralyzed for Kingdra.
I dd, it gets parahaxed. I'm in business, I waterfall to either kill it in 2 turns eating my lum, or make +2 outrage kill guaranteed, flinch. I dd a second time, forget what exactly it did and what my health was, but the position that I'm in at the end is that Lum is intact, and I finished it off with turn 1 of outrage at +2, was prepared to have to eat lum to get set up but instead am very well-postioned for the last 2. I don't remember the second or third since I got a 3-turn outrage and it ohko'd the last 2.
I received Raikou1/Heatran4/Regigigas3 in the draft. I come across 2 situations where Heatran went down to sash against a last of Scizor, but on the first one it turns out both the bullet punch sets were eliminated, and on the second it didn't have bullet punch either. Besides that, nothing resembling drama, just a great draft.
Drafted Magnezone1, eventually landed into a team of Salamence4/Floatzel3/Magnezone1
I don't recall what the first or second mons were on battle 61, just that Magnezone set up light screen on it, and barely didn't beat the second mon. 4 turns of Light Screen remained for an unknown third.
I go Floatzel to preserve the Intimidate, and the third is Alakazam, and on the first turn it calm minds as I surf, revealing 1. The correct play from here is to go Salamence and force it to instacrit me, instead I stay in as Floatzel, assuming it'll kill me, absentmindedly not realizing that screen prevents that, instead I surf twice as it calm minds twice, it gets a max roll psychic that doesn't really matter since it only gave me an extra 6.25% hail Mary for a third Surf. Light Screen wears off, Floatzel dies and so does Mence. Horrendous misplay, the kind that can happen all too easily with speedup.
+2 252 SpA Alakazam Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Floatzel through Light Screen: 135-160 (84.4 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
I don't recall what the first or second mons were on battle 61, just that Magnezone set up light screen on it, and barely didn't beat the second mon. 4 turns of Light Screen remained for an unknown third.
I go Floatzel to preserve the Intimidate, and the third is Alakazam, and on the first turn it calm minds as I surf, revealing 1. The correct play from here is to go Salamence and force it to instacrit me, instead I stay in as Floatzel, assuming it'll kill me, absentmindedly not realizing that screen prevents that, instead I surf twice as it calm minds twice, it gets a max roll psychic that doesn't really matter since it only gave me an extra 6.25% hail Mary for a third Surf. Light Screen wears off, Floatzel dies and so does Mence. Horrendous misplay, the kind that can happen all too easily with speedup.
+2 252 SpA Alakazam Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Floatzel through Light Screen: 135-160 (84.4 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
I lost way more on rounds 1-4 than I usually do on cart, battles 1-6 of r3 specifically which are usually some of the easiest, but when it takes 20 minutes, total, for a run to get past that point, instead of 1h20m when playing on cart with no speedup, I still come out ahead in time investment per r5+ run on emu. My other conclusion is that factory is improved drastically with the HGSS ui changes, using both screens for summary and being able to see the entire draft on your bottom screen is a big QOL change.
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reporting my 53 factory wins in l50 in heartgold (retail)
i actually already finished it yesterday but i forgot to post it here. i had it sitting at 49 for a bit before fella brought me back into finishing the streak which i promptly lost to a misplay on my part.
r8 draft was crobat1, lucario3, lopunny1, heatran1, dusknoir3, gastrodon2 into no spec from which i chose heatran lead with lucario gastro backline.
the battle i lost i was up against a set 4 trainer, ursaring t1 qc hits me, i heatwave, i heatwave again, this time no qc, ursaring dies. out comes typhlosion which focus blast kills heatran. i send out gastro and heres the misplay that cost me the run. i clicked muddy water instead of yawning and it sunny days, meaning my muddy water does not kill it. at that point i realized i lost unless it somehow fucks up so i stay in hoping it somehow doesnt solarbeam. it does, i send out lucario. typhlosion outspeeds and focus blast hits again, killing me.
a very funny moment from the earlier sets of this streak was getting the same salamence3 in the r5, 6 and 7 drafts, keeping it through all battles.
i commented on a lot of my higher round tries in the factory discord, basically keeping a battle log / diary there. if anyone is interested enough you could go look them up but i doubt you could get much out of it as i am not a good player. if you do understand german and notice that my screenshot shows an ongoing open level streak at silver print, please ignore it. i hate open level and i especially hate skarmie, heracross and garchomp.
Submitting an ongoing streak of 1001 wins in HGSS Battle Tower Doubles. Finally reached four digits, after around 11 long months of grinding, more off than on, but 11 months at the end of the day. This post is going to be quite extensive as I'll be going through every single team I've used in the last few months. However, it's crucial to analyze these teams to understand the process that led me to build the team that ultimately broke the record.
After playing a lot of Gen III Battle Tower and Battle Dome Doubles, I decided to give Gen IV BT a try. At first, I thought it was going to be easy since players have access to so many useful items in this generation unlike in Gen III. Oh boy, I can't stress enough how wrong I was: Gen IV Battle Tower Doubles is way harder and I would take it to the extent of saying that Gen III BT Doubles facility did not feel like a challenge at all compared to the Gen IV one. Because of the way Gen III double battles were designed, if you KO a Pokemon, one in the back is forced into the field in the same turn, allowing the player to put a lot of offensive pressure on all the AI's mons, especially when combined with a strong spread move like Earthquake that does 100% damage to all the Pokemon on the field. Another advantage is that by using the right mons with the right speed investment (eg, in my case Latios + Tauros as lead), you can outspeed almost everything in the facility (and those that you can't are not a direct threat), meaning that you don't even have to spend turn 1 on speed control measures.
The factors previously mentioned regarding Gen III Battle Tower Doubles, which should be taken into account when building a team, do not apply to Gen IV due to the differences in battle mechanics, the introduction of new moves, and the sets being trained differently. That being said, in this generation prioritizing speed control in the initial stages of battles is crucial: Trick Room, Icy Wind, Tailwind (although it only lasts for 3 turns in this generation), Thunder Wave, Rain Dance or Sunny Day so it can be abused by Pokemon with the ability Swift Swim or Chlorophylle respectively, etc. Other options are building a team with great synergy so the player can switch the members around a lot, using a Pokemon with access to Fake Out as a lead to support its partner so possible speed ties or threats can be mitigated, or even a combination of some of the options I just mentioned. These are just some general examples to provide context.
While my Gen IV gaming experience was casual, it wasn't until Black and White that I started approaching PvP with a more competitive mindset. However, during the Gen IV era, I enjoyed watching VGC tournament videos uploaded to YouTube, so I have an idea of what the metagame looked like back then. I think some of the meta teams might have a chance of being somewhat decent in Battle Tower, but they are certainly not good enough to beat the record. At least in my humble opinion.
My first couple of teams were fast gimmicky teams built around Explosion and some others that resembled my Gen III team-building style. Needless to say, horrendous teams. Then I started studying successful teams from the leaderboard and the super iconic Bronzong + Togekiss + Snorlax + Dusknoir team from TRE immediately caught my attention. From this point forward I only built and tested Trick Room teams with a Lvl. 1-2 Endeavor Pokemon in them. The way it works is very simple: AI will usually try to target the low-level Pokemon since it sees the KO on it, so the regular play is just to protect that mon, and set up Trick Room for free. Before I jump right into all the teams I used, it is important to analyze what is to me the most significant aspect of an Endeavor-abusing team: The lead.
I'd like to clarify something: I am not a Pokemon researcher, so I can't provide exact odds of a Pokemon choosing one move over another. I speak solely from my experience playing in this facility for hundreds of hours.
With the introduction out of the way, we can now focus on analyzing all the teams I built.
/
/
Streak Sample.
I had a blast in the Gen IV Battle Tower over the last 11 months. Team building was both enjoyable and challenging. Despite the final team not being groundbreaking, what makes me very proud is that through the countless losses, failed teams and misplays, I was able to learn about the mechanics, understand how the AI behaves in different scenarios, and ultimately piece together a decent team that achieved a new record: 1001 wins.
On a final note, I hope that all the topics covered in this post can potentially be useful for other fellow Battle Tower enthusiasts when building their own teams. Wishing you all the best of luck in your runs, and take care.
After playing a lot of Gen III Battle Tower and Battle Dome Doubles, I decided to give Gen IV BT a try. At first, I thought it was going to be easy since players have access to so many useful items in this generation unlike in Gen III. Oh boy, I can't stress enough how wrong I was: Gen IV Battle Tower Doubles is way harder and I would take it to the extent of saying that Gen III BT Doubles facility did not feel like a challenge at all compared to the Gen IV one. Because of the way Gen III double battles were designed, if you KO a Pokemon, one in the back is forced into the field in the same turn, allowing the player to put a lot of offensive pressure on all the AI's mons, especially when combined with a strong spread move like Earthquake that does 100% damage to all the Pokemon on the field. Another advantage is that by using the right mons with the right speed investment (eg, in my case Latios + Tauros as lead), you can outspeed almost everything in the facility (and those that you can't are not a direct threat), meaning that you don't even have to spend turn 1 on speed control measures.
The factors previously mentioned regarding Gen III Battle Tower Doubles, which should be taken into account when building a team, do not apply to Gen IV due to the differences in battle mechanics, the introduction of new moves, and the sets being trained differently. That being said, in this generation prioritizing speed control in the initial stages of battles is crucial: Trick Room, Icy Wind, Tailwind (although it only lasts for 3 turns in this generation), Thunder Wave, Rain Dance or Sunny Day so it can be abused by Pokemon with the ability Swift Swim or Chlorophylle respectively, etc. Other options are building a team with great synergy so the player can switch the members around a lot, using a Pokemon with access to Fake Out as a lead to support its partner so possible speed ties or threats can be mitigated, or even a combination of some of the options I just mentioned. These are just some general examples to provide context.
While my Gen IV gaming experience was casual, it wasn't until Black and White that I started approaching PvP with a more competitive mindset. However, during the Gen IV era, I enjoyed watching VGC tournament videos uploaded to YouTube, so I have an idea of what the metagame looked like back then. I think some of the meta teams might have a chance of being somewhat decent in Battle Tower, but they are certainly not good enough to beat the record. At least in my humble opinion.
My first couple of teams were fast gimmicky teams built around Explosion and some others that resembled my Gen III team-building style. Needless to say, horrendous teams. Then I started studying successful teams from the leaderboard and the super iconic Bronzong + Togekiss + Snorlax + Dusknoir team from TRE immediately caught my attention. From this point forward I only built and tested Trick Room teams with a Lvl. 1-2 Endeavor Pokemon in them. The way it works is very simple: AI will usually try to target the low-level Pokemon since it sees the KO on it, so the regular play is just to protect that mon, and set up Trick Room for free. Before I jump right into all the teams I used, it is important to analyze what is to me the most significant aspect of an Endeavor-abusing team: The lead.
I'd like to clarify something: I am not a Pokemon researcher, so I can't provide exact odds of a Pokemon choosing one move over another. I speak solely from my experience playing in this facility for hundreds of hours.
This is by far the most iconic Gen IV Battle Tower Doubles lead. Since Togekiss is immune to ground-type attacks, AI will almost never choose Earthquake. Follow Me is a very important move on Togekiss so OHKO moves can be redirected away from Bronzong. This means that for the vast majority of scenarios, Bronzong will be able to set up Trick Room. However, there are exceptions. Some matchups and particular mons can put this lead in serious danger.
Rhyperior-4 (Choice Band) + Any flying-type or Levitate Pokemon: Rhyperior will go for Earthquake. It is a clean OHKO on Bronzong and there is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent it. Without a proper backup plan, it is most likely game over and this matters a lot when the streak goal is high. Going in hoping not to face this lead from the AI is just a bad idea and this is why at first I avoided using TRE's team. Facing this lead does not mean it's an instant loss, but Bronzong going down in Turn 1 is the absolute worst-case scenario, significantly tipping the odds in favor of a loss rather than a win.
Marowak-3 or 4 + Any flying-type or Levitate Pokemon: Similar scenario to the one described before. Marowak can go for EQ and it's a guaranteed OHKO on Bronzong. However, I remember one time Marowak-4 used Stone Edge on Togekiss instead of EQ.
Mamoswine-3: This set is very annoying to deal with. Its moveset is Earthquake | Superpower | Fissure | Hail. I am guessing that because Superpower reduces its stats, the odds of this set choosing it are very low. I've played in this facility for so many months, and I feel like I would be generous if I said that I've seen this Mamoswine use Superpower 4 or 5 times. If its partner is a flying-type or Levitate Pokemon it will usually go for EQ, completely ignoring Togekiss. Although it goes for Hail very often if its partner is not immune to ground-type attacks, it is not uncommon at all that this set will EQ hitting its partner (particularly when the attack is resisted or won't inflict significant damage). This is a big issue because even though Bronzong can tank an EQ from it, a crit will KO it, and especially against PI trainers this is a very hard scenario to come back from. In other cases, it will straight up go for Fissure on Bronzong. I vividly remember a specific instance when a Mamoswine from a PI trainer landed a Fissure on my Trick Room setter in Turn 1. It is a very unpredictable set. Not to mention it holds Lax Incense, making it even more dangerous.
Rampardos-4: Its moveset is Head Smash | Earthquake | Giga Impact | Superpower. This Rampardos set will usually go for Head Smash or EQ since Giga Impact makes it recharge one turn and Superpower lowers its stats. It often prioritizes EQ, even if it hits its partner, similar to Mamoswine-3. A crit will KO Bronzong.
Torterra-3: Its moveset is Frenzy Plant | Earth Power | Hyper Beam | Leech Seed. It has this weird moveset where two of its moves will make it recharge one turn, so the offensive move it uses the most is Earth Power. From my experience, it will usually go for Leech Seed, but in many instances, it has targeted Bronzong with Earth Power in T1. Again, a crit is a OHKO.
Gengar-2 (Life Orb): Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Dream Eater | Hypnosis | Substitute. It can't touch Togekiss, so in most cases, it will try to use Hypnosis on any of mons, but the real problem is when it targets Bronzong with Shadow Ball since a crit will OHKO it (regular set max HP max Atk). I also remember two or three instances where this Gengar set went for Substitute in T1, but it’s uncommon.
Dragonite-4 (Choice Band): Its moveset is Outrage | Giga Impact | Earthquake | Superpower. From my experience, this set will always use Outrage against this lead. This is an attack that hits a random opponent, and a crit on Bronzong (regular set max HP max Atk) has a 25% chance to OHKO.
Abomasnow-2: Its moveset is Giga Drain | Sheer Cold | Ingrain | Leech Seed. In the vast majority of scenarios, this set will use Giga Drain on Togekiss, but occasionally it will opt for the OHKO move. As I said earlier, I am not a researcher, therefore, I have no concrete proof to back up what I am saying other than playing in this facility for several months, but I'm guessing the fact that Togekiss resists grass-type attacks makes Abomasnow go for occasional Sheer Colds against a Bronzong + Togekiss lead.
Rock Slide: While Rock Slide flinches pose a threat to any Trick Room team in Turn 1, Togekiss, in particular, is a "Rock Slide magnet”. AI chooses this move more often because it's super effective against it. Three flinches in a row on Bronzong can very easily end a run.
Rhyperior-4 (Choice Band) + Any flying-type or Levitate Pokemon: Rhyperior will go for Earthquake. It is a clean OHKO on Bronzong and there is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent it. Without a proper backup plan, it is most likely game over and this matters a lot when the streak goal is high. Going in hoping not to face this lead from the AI is just a bad idea and this is why at first I avoided using TRE's team. Facing this lead does not mean it's an instant loss, but Bronzong going down in Turn 1 is the absolute worst-case scenario, significantly tipping the odds in favor of a loss rather than a win. Marowak-3 or 4 + Any flying-type or Levitate Pokemon: Similar scenario to the one described before. Marowak can go for EQ and it's a guaranteed OHKO on Bronzong. However, I remember one time Marowak-4 used Stone Edge on Togekiss instead of EQ. Mamoswine-3: This set is very annoying to deal with. Its moveset is Earthquake | Superpower | Fissure | Hail. I am guessing that because Superpower reduces its stats, the odds of this set choosing it are very low. I've played in this facility for so many months, and I feel like I would be generous if I said that I've seen this Mamoswine use Superpower 4 or 5 times. If its partner is a flying-type or Levitate Pokemon it will usually go for EQ, completely ignoring Togekiss. Although it goes for Hail very often if its partner is not immune to ground-type attacks, it is not uncommon at all that this set will EQ hitting its partner (particularly when the attack is resisted or won't inflict significant damage). This is a big issue because even though Bronzong can tank an EQ from it, a crit will KO it, and especially against PI trainers this is a very hard scenario to come back from. In other cases, it will straight up go for Fissure on Bronzong. I vividly remember a specific instance when a Mamoswine from a PI trainer landed a Fissure on my Trick Room setter in Turn 1. It is a very unpredictable set. Not to mention it holds Lax Incense, making it even more dangerous. Rampardos-4: Its moveset is Head Smash | Earthquake | Giga Impact | Superpower. This Rampardos set will usually go for Head Smash or EQ since Giga Impact makes it recharge one turn and Superpower lowers its stats. It often prioritizes EQ, even if it hits its partner, similar to Mamoswine-3. A crit will KO Bronzong. Torterra-3: Its moveset is Frenzy Plant | Earth Power | Hyper Beam | Leech Seed. It has this weird moveset where two of its moves will make it recharge one turn, so the offensive move it uses the most is Earth Power. From my experience, it will usually go for Leech Seed, but in many instances, it has targeted Bronzong with Earth Power in T1. Again, a crit is a OHKO. Gengar-2 (Life Orb): Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Dream Eater | Hypnosis | Substitute. It can't touch Togekiss, so in most cases, it will try to use Hypnosis on any of mons, but the real problem is when it targets Bronzong with Shadow Ball since a crit will OHKO it (regular set max HP max Atk). I also remember two or three instances where this Gengar set went for Substitute in T1, but it’s uncommon. Dragonite-4 (Choice Band): Its moveset is Outrage | Giga Impact | Earthquake | Superpower. From my experience, this set will always use Outrage against this lead. This is an attack that hits a random opponent, and a crit on Bronzong (regular set max HP max Atk) has a 25% chance to OHKO. Abomasnow-2: Its moveset is Giga Drain | Sheer Cold | Ingrain | Leech Seed. In the vast majority of scenarios, this set will use Giga Drain on Togekiss, but occasionally it will opt for the OHKO move. As I said earlier, I am not a researcher, therefore, I have no concrete proof to back up what I am saying other than playing in this facility for several months, but I'm guessing the fact that Togekiss resists grass-type attacks makes Abomasnow go for occasional Sheer Colds against a Bronzong + Togekiss lead. Rock Slide: While Rock Slide flinches pose a threat to any Trick Room team in Turn 1, Togekiss, in particular, is a "Rock Slide magnet”. AI chooses this move more often because it's super effective against it. Three flinches in a row on Bronzong can very easily end a run.
This is the lead I used in my very first "serious" team. It is completely unviable for long streaks. The player will most likely lose to an EQ crit eventually.
Imagine this scenario: AI leads with 2 flying-type or Levitate Pokemon that also happen to run EQ. Since Togekiss is not being used here, AI will just EQ with both mons. Assuming it's a Fake Out Smeargle set, then one of the EQs can be stopped, but Bronzong has no choice but to tank one of the EQs and a crit can KO it. If Smeargle is not running Fake Out, then Bronzong will go down. There is nothing that can be done.
Something I realized while using Smeargle with different Trick Roomers is that the infamous Abomasnow-2 set, which has historically landed so many Sheer Colds on Bronzong while Togekiss is its partner, always goes for Giga Drain on Smeargle.
Imagine this scenario: AI leads with 2 flying-type or Levitate Pokemon that also happen to run EQ. Since Togekiss is not being used here, AI will just EQ with both mons. Assuming it's a Fake Out Smeargle set, then one of the EQs can be stopped, but Bronzong has no choice but to tank one of the EQs and a crit can KO it. If Smeargle is not running Fake Out, then Bronzong will go down. There is nothing that can be done.
Something I realized while using Smeargle with different Trick Roomers is that the infamous Abomasnow-2 set, which has historically landed so many Sheer Colds on Bronzong while Togekiss is its partner, always goes for Giga Drain on Smeargle.
If the player uses Levitate Bronzong, then this Pokemon is for the most part safe from ground-type attacks, besides EQs from Mold Breaker Rampardos and Pinsir but Smeargle can Fake them out. The obvious problem with using Levitate instead of Heatproof is that fire-type Pokemon with strong fire-type attacks (Overheat, Fire Blast, Blast Burn, Flare Blitz, Magma Storm, Flamethrower from Heatran-3, etc.) will target Bronzong very often in T1. For this reason, Smeargle needs to support Bronzong more than ever with Fake Out and Follow Me, meaning that it is constantly sacrificed without getting a single Endeavor off in many instances. I thought it was an interesting choice at some point, but given the insane amount of times I had to sacrifice Smeargle, I eventually gave up with this lead.
Yes, Dusclops. This Pokemon's low-speed base makes it an interesting choice for a Trick Room team in the Battle Tower. It's slower than min speed Snorlax and has access to Gravity. Additionally, it is slower than every single Fling Iron Ball Pokemon from the facility. Dusclops faces the following threats:
Fling Iron Ball Pokemon: In T1, AI usually goes for Fling on Dusclops even though in most cases it is not a guaranteed OHKO, ignoring Smeargle. For this reason, every time this lead faces a possible Fling Iron Ball set, Smeargle has to support Dusclops with Fake Out or Follow Me since a crit cannot be risked. Those Pokemon are: Drapion-2, Dusknoir-1, Golem-3, Hariyama-2 (this mon will always go for Fake Out on Smeargle in T1, so it is not a direct threat), Hypno-1 and Rampardos-2.
Absol-4 (Choice Band): This set usually goes for Night Slash on Dusclops in Turn 1. It depends on Dusclops' EV spread and nature, but Night Slash might straight up have a chance to OHKO, or in the case of a heavy defense investment set, a crit will OHKO. Smeargle has to Fake it out or use Follow Me.
Gengar-2 (Life Orb): Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Dream Eater | Hypnosis | Substitute. It can't touch Smeargle so in the majority of cases it will target Dusclops with Shadow Ball. It depends on Dusclops' EV spread and nature, but Shadow Ball might straight up have a chance to OHKO, or in the case of a heavy special defense investment set, a crit will OHKO. Smeargle has to go for Follow Me every time the AI sends out a possible Gengar-2 as a lead.
Mismagius-2: Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Confuse Ray | Perish Song | Mean Look. It can't touch Smeargle so in the majority of cases it will target Dusclops with Shadow Ball. A critical hit will OHKO it. Smeargle has to go for Follow Me every time the AI sends out a possible Mismagius-2 as a lead.
Outrage: Since this move hits a random target, Stab Outrages (Dragonite, Garchomp, Flygon, Salamence and Kingdra) and Marowak-3's Outrage must be handled with care, as a critical hit can result in a OHKO. This means Smeargle needs to Fake them out or use Follow Me (particularly against Dragonite due to its Inner Focus ability).
Fling Iron Ball Pokemon: In T1, AI usually goes for Fling on Dusclops even though in most cases it is not a guaranteed OHKO, ignoring Smeargle. For this reason, every time this lead faces a possible Fling Iron Ball set, Smeargle has to support Dusclops with Fake Out or Follow Me since a crit cannot be risked. Those Pokemon are: Drapion-2, Dusknoir-1, Golem-3, Hariyama-2 (this mon will always go for Fake Out on Smeargle in T1, so it is not a direct threat), Hypno-1 and Rampardos-2. Absol-4 (Choice Band): This set usually goes for Night Slash on Dusclops in Turn 1. It depends on Dusclops' EV spread and nature, but Night Slash might straight up have a chance to OHKO, or in the case of a heavy defense investment set, a crit will OHKO. Smeargle has to Fake it out or use Follow Me. Gengar-2 (Life Orb): Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Dream Eater | Hypnosis | Substitute. It can't touch Smeargle so in the majority of cases it will target Dusclops with Shadow Ball. It depends on Dusclops' EV spread and nature, but Shadow Ball might straight up have a chance to OHKO, or in the case of a heavy special defense investment set, a crit will OHKO. Smeargle has to go for Follow Me every time the AI sends out a possible Gengar-2 as a lead. Mismagius-2: Its moveset is Shadow Ball | Confuse Ray | Perish Song | Mean Look. It can't touch Smeargle so in the majority of cases it will target Dusclops with Shadow Ball. A critical hit will OHKO it. Smeargle has to go for Follow Me every time the AI sends out a possible Mismagius-2 as a lead. Outrage: Since this move hits a random target, Stab Outrages (Dragonite, Garchomp, Flygon, Salamence and Kingdra) and Marowak-3's Outrage must be handled with care, as a critical hit can result in a OHKO. This means Smeargle needs to Fake them out or use Follow Me (particularly against Dragonite due to its Inner Focus ability).
Dusknoir offers decent offensive pressure while being able to set up Trick Room in most scenarios. However, its base speed presents a drawback: Dusknoir is too fast to support Snorlax's Self-Destruct with Gravity and it outpaces most AI's Fling Iron Ball sets. I only used it in a non-Explosion team. It shares the same threats with Dusclops.
If we are strictly talking about setting up Trick Room, this is the best lead of all. Cresselia has amazing defensive stats and it is immune to ground-type attacks. The big issue with Cresselia is that it is way too fast to properly abuse Smeargle's Endeavor. In many cases, Cresselia is faster than both opponents' Pokemon, so Smeargle only gets to use one Endeavor. This fact alone is enough for me not to use it as a Trick Roomer, but it is not by any means unviable.
With the introduction out of the way, we can now focus on analyzing all the teams I built.
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Dusclops (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Seismic Toss
- Foresight
- Gravity
- Will-O-Wisp
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Explosion
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Dusclops (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Seismic Toss
- Foresight
- Gravity
- Will-O-Wisp
If you've read my thoughts on Trick Room leads, you know this team is unviable for long streaks. This was my very first team and I was mostly experimenting with different Pokemon, familiarizing myself with the facility and gaining experience. Unsurprisingly, this team lost to a T1 EQ crit before reaching 200 wins.
One notable aspect Smeargle brings to the table is its Fake Out support. It was primarily utilized on the following Pokemon, even in cases where I couldn't discern the opponent's set (e.g., when facing a trainer with access to all Lapras sets, I'd opt for Fake Out as a precaution, covering the possibility of it being Lapras-2): Aerodactyl-1 (to avoid King's Rock Rock Slide flinches), Rampardos-4, Rhyperior-4 (when paired with a Flying type or Levitate Pokemon), Marowak-3-4 (when paired with a Flying type or Levitate Pokemon), Lapras-2, Walrein-3 (risking a possible miss due to Lax Incense), Dewgong-3, Mamoswine-3 (also risking a possible miss due to Lax Incense), etc.
The damage calculations for Bronzong's Explosion and Snorlax's Self-Destruct at 75% and 100% are well-documented on TRE's post.
While this team operates similarly to TRE's, it's evidently inferior. Bronzong sets up Trick Room, and in the best-case scenario, Smeargle and Bronzong secure 2 KOs with Endeavor + Iron Head, followed by Explosion/Self-Destruct when necessary. Another big mistake I made while building this team was opting for a Dusclops without Protect, a crucial move for an Explosion team.
Consider a scenario where my last two Pokemon are Dusclops and Snorlax facing a Lapras-2 (Quick Claw set) still under Trick Room. Without Protect on Dusclops I cannot safely use Self-Destruct because if Lapras lands a QC Sheer Cold on Dusclops and Self-Destruct is used, then I lose the game. That's exactly why TRE ran Protect on Dusknoir.
Among all Damp Pokemon, Poliwrath is particularly troublesome to deal with. It is fairly bulky and since Explosion or Self-Destruct cannot be used it can substantially delay the battles on a team where utilizing effectively the TR turns is instrumental. Furthermore, Poliwrath-2 carries Lax Incense and combined with Bulk Up and the ability to confuse the player's Pokemon with Dynamic Punch (if it lands), it can single-handedly end a run. It should not be underestimated.
One notable aspect Smeargle brings to the table is its Fake Out support. It was primarily utilized on the following Pokemon, even in cases where I couldn't discern the opponent's set (e.g., when facing a trainer with access to all Lapras sets, I'd opt for Fake Out as a precaution, covering the possibility of it being Lapras-2): Aerodactyl-1 (to avoid King's Rock Rock Slide flinches), Rampardos-4, Rhyperior-4 (when paired with a Flying type or Levitate Pokemon), Marowak-3-4 (when paired with a Flying type or Levitate Pokemon), Lapras-2, Walrein-3 (risking a possible miss due to Lax Incense), Dewgong-3, Mamoswine-3 (also risking a possible miss due to Lax Incense), etc.
The damage calculations for Bronzong's Explosion and Snorlax's Self-Destruct at 75% and 100% are well-documented on TRE's post.
While this team operates similarly to TRE's, it's evidently inferior. Bronzong sets up Trick Room, and in the best-case scenario, Smeargle and Bronzong secure 2 KOs with Endeavor + Iron Head, followed by Explosion/Self-Destruct when necessary. Another big mistake I made while building this team was opting for a Dusclops without Protect, a crucial move for an Explosion team.
Consider a scenario where my last two Pokemon are Dusclops and Snorlax facing a Lapras-2 (Quick Claw set) still under Trick Room. Without Protect on Dusclops I cannot safely use Self-Destruct because if Lapras lands a QC Sheer Cold on Dusclops and Self-Destruct is used, then I lose the game. That's exactly why TRE ran Protect on Dusknoir.
Among all Damp Pokemon, Poliwrath is particularly troublesome to deal with. It is fairly bulky and since Explosion or Self-Destruct cannot be used it can substantially delay the battles on a team where utilizing effectively the TR turns is instrumental. Furthermore, Poliwrath-2 carries Lax Incense and combined with Bulk Up and the ability to confuse the player's Pokemon with Dynamic Punch (if it lands), it can single-handedly end a run. It should not be underestimated.
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Torkoal (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: White Smoke
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 28 Spe
- Protect
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Torkoal (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: White Smoke
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 28 Spe
- Protect
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
Despite my previous loss, I decided to give the Heatproof Bronzong + Smeargle lead another shot, and to my surprise, I achieved over 300 wins. I wanted to use a Pokemon with a strong spread move that could also do very well against ice-type trainers, so I tried Torkoal, a personal favorite of mine and to be honest it performed fairly well. However, the team in general was way too vulnerable to ground-type Pokemon.
I added Gravity on Bronzong so itself and Torkoal could deal properly with Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, Double Team and Minimize. Torkoal has 28 speed IVs so it's faster than Bronzong by one point, facilitating a Gravity + Eruption combo, but the big downside is that Torkoal speed ties with Rampardos-2 and Hariyama-2 (Iron Ball sets), it is faster than Golem-3 (Iron Ball set), etc. Now, regarding Machamp, while No Guard is one the best abilities in the game, facing Pokemon with OHKO moves is not fun at all, especially bulky ones or Quick Claw users that Machamp can't one-shot, such as Lapras-2 (QC), Donphan-4 (QC), Hippowdon-3, Walrein-3, Wailord-4 (QC), Rhydon-4 (QC), Gastrodon-3, Articuno-4 (Because of Charti Berry, Machamp can't OHKO it with Stone Edge), Nidoking-2, Gliscor-3 etc.
This team lost to a Poliwrath-4 lead paired with a flying-type or Levitate Pokemon (I can't recall which one). Bronzong was struck by a T1 Earthquake crit from Poliwrath.
252+ Atk Expert Belt Poliwrath Earthquake (spread) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Bronzong on a critical hit: 153-182 (87.9 - 104.6%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
I added Gravity on Bronzong so itself and Torkoal could deal properly with Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, Double Team and Minimize. Torkoal has 28 speed IVs so it's faster than Bronzong by one point, facilitating a Gravity + Eruption combo, but the big downside is that Torkoal speed ties with Rampardos-2 and Hariyama-2 (Iron Ball sets), it is faster than Golem-3 (Iron Ball set), etc. Now, regarding Machamp, while No Guard is one the best abilities in the game, facing Pokemon with OHKO moves is not fun at all, especially bulky ones or Quick Claw users that Machamp can't one-shot, such as Lapras-2 (QC), Donphan-4 (QC), Hippowdon-3, Walrein-3, Wailord-4 (QC), Rhydon-4 (QC), Gastrodon-3, Articuno-4 (Because of Charti Berry, Machamp can't OHKO it with Stone Edge), Nidoking-2, Gliscor-3 etc.
This team lost to a Poliwrath-4 lead paired with a flying-type or Levitate Pokemon (I can't recall which one). Bronzong was struck by a T1 Earthquake crit from Poliwrath.
252+ Atk Expert Belt Poliwrath Earthquake (spread) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Bronzong on a critical hit: 153-182 (87.9 - 104.6%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
Dusclops (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Night Shade
- Swagger
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Lickilicky (M) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fire Punch
- Power Whip
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Night Shade
- Swagger
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Lickilicky (M) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fire Punch
- Power Whip
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Dusclops (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Night Shade
- Protect
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Metagross @ Iron Ball
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Zen Headbutt
- Grass Knot
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 158 Def / 100 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Night Shade
- Protect
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Snorlax (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Self-Destruct
Metagross @ Iron Ball
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Zen Headbutt
- Grass Knot
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Team #3 - Damage Calculations.
This is the team that I used the most. For several months actually. At first sight, it does not look like a good team—and indeed, it isn't. It's something that I knew from the very first moment I built it, but for a long time, I just didn't have better ideas. For the most part, it did ok, although it was incredibly inconsistent. The furthest I got with this team was 680 wins on an unofficial emulator test run. However, in actual runs, I often fell short, sometimes failing to even reach 100 wins, while on other occasions, I managed to exceed 500+ before losing. In retrospect, the mentality of just grinding here and there with this team expecting to eventually have "the run" was nothing but a complete waste of time, except for the valuable lessons learned and the clarity gained regarding the type of team composition that could potentially break the record.
The first version of this team was Swagger Dusclops – Smeargle – Snorlax – Lickilicky. The way this team works is very simple: set up Trick Room, get 1 or 2 Endeavor + Night Shade KOs, and then Self-Destruct / Explosion. Swagger is meant to take advantage of Lickilicky's ability and boost its attack stat. Since Lickilicky has access to Power Whip and holds the Chople Berry, it deals way better with Rhydon, Rhyperior, Machamp and Poliwrath than Snorlax.
This team is built around Dusclops. It is the linchpin of the team, so if it goes unexpectedly down in a very early stage of the battle (after setting up TR), then it is no longer possible to use Self-Destruct / Explosion and this situation can very easily turn into a loss. After some time I realized that Protect is necessary. In many instances, the safest play is to Protect Dusclops and sacrifice Smeargle to avoid extra damage on Dusclops and then bring Snorlax or Lickilicky into the battle. Also, Protect is indispensable to safely use Self-Destruct / Explosion late game against a QC Pokemon.
Let's imagine a Turn 3 scenario where I got Dusclops + Smeargle on 1HP after getting a KO in T2, and then the opponent sends out a Pokemon with a priority move or a QC holder paired with whatever mon that was already on the field that might deal great damage to Dusclops. The safest play is to Protect Dusclops and use any move with Smeargle to sacrifice it and avoid unnecessary damage or a crit on Dusclops and get a safe switch-in to Snorlax.
Because of the reasons I just described, I replaced Swagger with Protect and removed Lickilicky from the team since it no longer could take advantage of the Swagger gimmick. I wanted a Pokemon that had access to Explosion but that also could do well against Machamp, Poliwrath, Rhydon and Rhyperior and since Metagross had access to Grass Knot and Zen Headbutt, I thought it could be a decent option. Also, something very huge is that with Grass Knot, Metagross can't get walled by Curse Steelix.
It is certainly a very odd Metagross set, but I can't deny that it performed well in this team. If I could have a Pokemon with 5 move slots, it would be Metagross. Meteor Mash is truly an amazing move that wrecks ice teams, but in the end, I had to prioritize Zen Headbutt to properly deal with Poliwrath/Politoed/Golduck. Because of Metagross' base speed, it must hold Iron Ball, which is a shame because Occa or Shuca Berry would've been interesting options.
The threats of the Dusclops + Smeargle lead were already covered. Something worth mentioning is that this Dusclops does not have a way to hit normal-type Pokemon. This means that if the AI leads with two mons of that type, the player has two options: Straight up sacrifice Smeargle in T1 (just Follow Me), or in T2 after setting up Trick Room, set up Gravity with Dusclops and Endeavor one the opponent's mons with Smeargle. This gets especially weird when facing Lopunny-2, Ambipom-2 and Blissey-4. The first two will spam Thunder Wave (Lopunny also has Attract and Sweet Kiss) and Blissey Sing.
I brought this Dusclops from Gen III and it initially had Seismic Toss, but I almost instantly replaced it for Night Shade since the combination of this move + Snorlax's Crunch KO all Dusknoir sets and that's very important for this team.
Explosion and Self-Destruct are without a doubt S tier moves due to their immense power in Gen IV. Not only do they often result in double OHKOs, but they also restrict the AI's options by consistently trading two of its Pokemon for one. However, this can easily backfire especially if one of the AI's last Pokemon is a QC holder. Donphan-4 ended my best streak with this team. Last turn of Trick Room, Dusclops + Snorlax vs. Donphan-4. I selected Protect with Dusclops and Self-Destruct with Snorlax, but Donphan-4 landed a QC Fissure on Snorlax.
This is the team that I used the most. For several months actually. At first sight, it does not look like a good team—and indeed, it isn't. It's something that I knew from the very first moment I built it, but for a long time, I just didn't have better ideas. For the most part, it did ok, although it was incredibly inconsistent. The furthest I got with this team was 680 wins on an unofficial emulator test run. However, in actual runs, I often fell short, sometimes failing to even reach 100 wins, while on other occasions, I managed to exceed 500+ before losing. In retrospect, the mentality of just grinding here and there with this team expecting to eventually have "the run" was nothing but a complete waste of time, except for the valuable lessons learned and the clarity gained regarding the type of team composition that could potentially break the record.
The first version of this team was Swagger Dusclops – Smeargle – Snorlax – Lickilicky. The way this team works is very simple: set up Trick Room, get 1 or 2 Endeavor + Night Shade KOs, and then Self-Destruct / Explosion. Swagger is meant to take advantage of Lickilicky's ability and boost its attack stat. Since Lickilicky has access to Power Whip and holds the Chople Berry, it deals way better with Rhydon, Rhyperior, Machamp and Poliwrath than Snorlax.
This team is built around Dusclops. It is the linchpin of the team, so if it goes unexpectedly down in a very early stage of the battle (after setting up TR), then it is no longer possible to use Self-Destruct / Explosion and this situation can very easily turn into a loss. After some time I realized that Protect is necessary. In many instances, the safest play is to Protect Dusclops and sacrifice Smeargle to avoid extra damage on Dusclops and then bring Snorlax or Lickilicky into the battle. Also, Protect is indispensable to safely use Self-Destruct / Explosion late game against a QC Pokemon.
Let's imagine a Turn 3 scenario where I got Dusclops + Smeargle on 1HP after getting a KO in T2, and then the opponent sends out a Pokemon with a priority move or a QC holder paired with whatever mon that was already on the field that might deal great damage to Dusclops. The safest play is to Protect Dusclops and use any move with Smeargle to sacrifice it and avoid unnecessary damage or a crit on Dusclops and get a safe switch-in to Snorlax.
Because of the reasons I just described, I replaced Swagger with Protect and removed Lickilicky from the team since it no longer could take advantage of the Swagger gimmick. I wanted a Pokemon that had access to Explosion but that also could do well against Machamp, Poliwrath, Rhydon and Rhyperior and since Metagross had access to Grass Knot and Zen Headbutt, I thought it could be a decent option. Also, something very huge is that with Grass Knot, Metagross can't get walled by Curse Steelix.
It is certainly a very odd Metagross set, but I can't deny that it performed well in this team. If I could have a Pokemon with 5 move slots, it would be Metagross. Meteor Mash is truly an amazing move that wrecks ice teams, but in the end, I had to prioritize Zen Headbutt to properly deal with Poliwrath/Politoed/Golduck. Because of Metagross' base speed, it must hold Iron Ball, which is a shame because Occa or Shuca Berry would've been interesting options.
The threats of the Dusclops + Smeargle lead were already covered. Something worth mentioning is that this Dusclops does not have a way to hit normal-type Pokemon. This means that if the AI leads with two mons of that type, the player has two options: Straight up sacrifice Smeargle in T1 (just Follow Me), or in T2 after setting up Trick Room, set up Gravity with Dusclops and Endeavor one the opponent's mons with Smeargle. This gets especially weird when facing Lopunny-2, Ambipom-2 and Blissey-4. The first two will spam Thunder Wave (Lopunny also has Attract and Sweet Kiss) and Blissey Sing.
I brought this Dusclops from Gen III and it initially had Seismic Toss, but I almost instantly replaced it for Night Shade since the combination of this move + Snorlax's Crunch KO all Dusknoir sets and that's very important for this team.
Explosion and Self-Destruct are without a doubt S tier moves due to their immense power in Gen IV. Not only do they often result in double OHKOs, but they also restrict the AI's options by consistently trading two of its Pokemon for one. However, this can easily backfire especially if one of the AI's last Pokemon is a QC holder. Donphan-4 ended my best streak with this team. Last turn of Trick Room, Dusclops + Snorlax vs. Donphan-4. I selected Protect with Dusclops and Self-Destruct with Snorlax, but Donphan-4 landed a QC Fissure on Snorlax.
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 78 SpA
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Grass Knot
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Foresight
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Hariyama (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fling
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
Slowbro (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 8 Spe
- Psychic
- Brine
- Grass Knot
- Fire Blast
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Atk / 78 SpA
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Grass Knot
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Foresight
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Hariyama (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Fling
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
Slowbro (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 8 Spe
- Psychic
- Brine
- Grass Knot
- Fire Blast
Team #4 - Damage Calculations.
This was my very first time using a team without Explosion. As I mentioned earlier, Gravity is necessary to deal with Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, Double Team and Minimize, but in this team, I also found it useful to make strong attacks with bad accuracy like Stone Edge and Fire Blast more reliable.
Let's begin with Bronzong. I always wanted to try Grass Knot on Bronzong, but since Iron Head, Gravity and Trick Room are indispensable on Bronzong for this team, I had no choice but to get rid of Explosion. 180 Atk EVs are necessary to OHKO certain Pokemon, which are listed in the Pastebin document, but what is truly key are those 78 Sp. Atk EVs, so Grass Knot + Hariyama's Fling KO all Slowbro and Slowking sets. This is crucial since these Pokemon pose a threat to Hariyama, and each of them has a set capable of reversing Trick Room. I got around 400 wins with this team before losing to a psychic trainer.
Since this Bronzong is not running EQ, it can't guarantee to secure the KO on Heatran (15 HP, which is Togekiss' HP). The same applies to Iron Head against Magnezone, but Grass Knot deals enough damage.
Iron Head possible damage amounts vs. Heatran: (13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15).
Grass Knot possible damage amounts vs Magnezone: (19, 19, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 21, 21, 22, 22, 22).
Another similar case is Bronzong vs. Lanturn-3 (Sitrus Berry set). Grass Knot does not do enough damage to get the KO after Sitrus recovery.
Let's talk about Hariyama. I wanted a fighting-type Pokemon on the team, and since one of Hariyama's abilities is Thick Fat, I knew it would be a great counter to ice teams. It's a real shame that Close Combat doesn't guarantee a OHKO on Lapras-2 and Walrein-3. To achieve them, Hariyama needs an item to boost CC like Black Belt or Life Orb. However, giving up the Iron Ball is simply not viable for this team since this item makes Hariyama slower than Slowbro, Slowking, Hypno-1, Bronzong, etc. Additionally, with an Adamant nature and 31 speed IVs while holding the Iron Ball, Hariyama outspeeds the team's Bronzong by one point. This is crucial because it enables Bronzong to support Hariyama with Gravity, amplifying its effectiveness in battle. Furthermore, Iron Ball allows Hariyama to fire off a 130 BP Fling.
The final member of this team is Slowbro. This Pokemon is slow, bulky, and has decent Sp. Atk and a diverse movepool. The moveset is self-explanatory but Brine. Since Bronzong is not running EQ, I was scared of being walled by Heatran or Houndoom if Hariyama was no longer around and Brine is the only decent single-target water move Slowbro has access to in Gen IV. Regarding its speed, Slowbro's 8 speed IVs ensure that it outspeeds Bronzong. However, this also means it speed ties with Iron Ball Fling Rampardos and Hariyama.
This team struggles against psychic trainers, guitarists, reporters, clowns, etc. Essentially, those trainers with lots of psychic and/or electric Pokemon. Against these trainers, it is especially helpful to get two Endeavor + Iron Head/Grass Knot KOs. Priority targets include Bronzong, Cresselia, Metagross, Slowbro and Slowking. If the player gets two KOs with Togekiss and Bronzong, then there is usually nothing to worry about against these trainers. However, if for example in Turn 2 after setting up TR, Togekiss goes down unexpectedly to say a QC Iron Head flinch from Bronzong-4 + an attack from its partner, then that's a very scary situation to be in. On the other hand, electric-type Pokemon are not a big threat despite not having a ground-type attack in the team, yet the risk of Static paralysis and Thunder Wave should not be taken lightly.
This was my very first time using a team without Explosion. As I mentioned earlier, Gravity is necessary to deal with Bright Powder, Lax Incense, Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, Double Team and Minimize, but in this team, I also found it useful to make strong attacks with bad accuracy like Stone Edge and Fire Blast more reliable.
Let's begin with Bronzong. I always wanted to try Grass Knot on Bronzong, but since Iron Head, Gravity and Trick Room are indispensable on Bronzong for this team, I had no choice but to get rid of Explosion. 180 Atk EVs are necessary to OHKO certain Pokemon, which are listed in the Pastebin document, but what is truly key are those 78 Sp. Atk EVs, so Grass Knot + Hariyama's Fling KO all Slowbro and Slowking sets. This is crucial since these Pokemon pose a threat to Hariyama, and each of them has a set capable of reversing Trick Room. I got around 400 wins with this team before losing to a psychic trainer.
Since this Bronzong is not running EQ, it can't guarantee to secure the KO on Heatran (15 HP, which is Togekiss' HP). The same applies to Iron Head against Magnezone, but Grass Knot deals enough damage.
Iron Head possible damage amounts vs. Heatran: (13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15). Grass Knot possible damage amounts vs Magnezone: (19, 19, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 21, 21, 22, 22, 22). Another similar case is Bronzong vs. Lanturn-3 (Sitrus Berry set). Grass Knot does not do enough damage to get the KO after Sitrus recovery.Let's talk about Hariyama. I wanted a fighting-type Pokemon on the team, and since one of Hariyama's abilities is Thick Fat, I knew it would be a great counter to ice teams. It's a real shame that Close Combat doesn't guarantee a OHKO on Lapras-2 and Walrein-3. To achieve them, Hariyama needs an item to boost CC like Black Belt or Life Orb. However, giving up the Iron Ball is simply not viable for this team since this item makes Hariyama slower than Slowbro, Slowking, Hypno-1, Bronzong, etc. Additionally, with an Adamant nature and 31 speed IVs while holding the Iron Ball, Hariyama outspeeds the team's Bronzong by one point. This is crucial because it enables Bronzong to support Hariyama with Gravity, amplifying its effectiveness in battle. Furthermore, Iron Ball allows Hariyama to fire off a 130 BP Fling.
The final member of this team is Slowbro. This Pokemon is slow, bulky, and has decent Sp. Atk and a diverse movepool. The moveset is self-explanatory but Brine. Since Bronzong is not running EQ, I was scared of being walled by Heatran or Houndoom if Hariyama was no longer around and Brine is the only decent single-target water move Slowbro has access to in Gen IV. Regarding its speed, Slowbro's 8 speed IVs ensure that it outspeeds Bronzong. However, this also means it speed ties with Iron Ball Fling Rampardos and Hariyama.
This team struggles against psychic trainers, guitarists, reporters, clowns, etc. Essentially, those trainers with lots of psychic and/or electric Pokemon. Against these trainers, it is especially helpful to get two Endeavor + Iron Head/Grass Knot KOs. Priority targets include Bronzong, Cresselia, Metagross, Slowbro and Slowking. If the player gets two KOs with Togekiss and Bronzong, then there is usually nothing to worry about against these trainers. However, if for example in Turn 2 after setting up TR, Togekiss goes down unexpectedly to say a QC Iron Head flinch from Bronzong-4 + an attack from its partner, then that's a very scary situation to be in. On the other hand, electric-type Pokemon are not a big threat despite not having a ground-type attack in the team, yet the risk of Static paralysis and Thunder Wave should not be taken lightly.
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Foresight
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Ampharos (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 2 Spe
- Protect
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Octillery (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Energy Ball
- Fire Blast
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Foresight
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Ampharos (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 2 Spe
- Protect
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Octillery (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Energy Ball
- Fire Blast
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Ampharos (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 2 Spe
- Protect
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Octillery (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Energy Ball
- Fire Blast
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Gravity
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Ampharos (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 2 Spe
- Protect
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Octillery (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Protect
- Water Spout
- Energy Ball
- Fire Blast
This is another Gravity-orientated team. I was looking for a Pokemon that was able to effectively deal with Lapras-2, Walrein-3 and ice teams in general. Funny enough, Ampharos does a very good job at it, since it also has access to Focus Blast. Octillery on the other hand, has access to Water Spout and great coverage moves.
The first version of this team was Heatproof Bronzong + Togekiss + Ampharos + Octillery. At any given moment I believed this was a great team, but I felt like giving it a try. On an unofficial emulator test run, I got around 500 wins before losing against a Rhyperior-4 + flying-type Pokemon lead.
Then, I experimented with Levitate Bronzong + Smeargle + Ampharos + Octillery. This lead was already explained, but as a reminder, when using Levitate Bronzong, Smeargle is constantly sacrificed in T1 when facing fire-type Pokemon. In this case, however, it is not too bad since Octillery can enter the field in T2 and often secure two KOs on the fire-type Pokemon threatening Bronzong.
After conducting multiple emulator test runs, I proceeded with actual runs using both versions of the team. I struggled against teams with legendary Pokemon and occasionally against PIs and psychic trainers (Bronzong-4 and Metagross-4 were often involved in close calls). In my best run with this team, I achieved over 400 wins using the Heatproof Bronzong + Togekiss version, but that was about it. While I don't recall the specific details of how I lost, I remember it involved Ampharos going down to a critical hit against a Socialite trainer. There was another run where I got destroyed by a Heatproof Bronzong-4 (probably from a psychic trainer or a clown) in the 200s. I quickly discarded this team.
I don't feel like going into too many details about this team because I don't think it's good, and it definitely wasn't an essential piece in the teambuilding process for the team that actually broke the record. The only calcs worth mentioning are:
252+ SpA Life Orb Ampharos Thunder vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Lapras: 218-260 (106.3 - 126.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Lapras-2).
252+ SpA Life Orb Ampharos Thunder vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Walrein: 230-272 (124.3 - 147%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Walrein-3).
252+ SpA Expert Belt Octillery Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 170-201 (109.7 - 129.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Metagross-1-2).
252+ SpA Expert Belt Octillery Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 170-201 (90.9 - 107.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (Metagross-4).
The first version of this team was Heatproof Bronzong + Togekiss + Ampharos + Octillery. At any given moment I believed this was a great team, but I felt like giving it a try. On an unofficial emulator test run, I got around 500 wins before losing against a Rhyperior-4 + flying-type Pokemon lead.
Then, I experimented with Levitate Bronzong + Smeargle + Ampharos + Octillery. This lead was already explained, but as a reminder, when using Levitate Bronzong, Smeargle is constantly sacrificed in T1 when facing fire-type Pokemon. In this case, however, it is not too bad since Octillery can enter the field in T2 and often secure two KOs on the fire-type Pokemon threatening Bronzong.
After conducting multiple emulator test runs, I proceeded with actual runs using both versions of the team. I struggled against teams with legendary Pokemon and occasionally against PIs and psychic trainers (Bronzong-4 and Metagross-4 were often involved in close calls). In my best run with this team, I achieved over 400 wins using the Heatproof Bronzong + Togekiss version, but that was about it. While I don't recall the specific details of how I lost, I remember it involved Ampharos going down to a critical hit against a Socialite trainer. There was another run where I got destroyed by a Heatproof Bronzong-4 (probably from a psychic trainer or a clown) in the 200s. I quickly discarded this team.
I don't feel like going into too many details about this team because I don't think it's good, and it definitely wasn't an essential piece in the teambuilding process for the team that actually broke the record. The only calcs worth mentioning are:
252+ SpA Life Orb Ampharos Thunder vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Lapras: 218-260 (106.3 - 126.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Lapras-2).
252+ SpA Life Orb Ampharos Thunder vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Walrein: 230-272 (124.3 - 147%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Walrein-3).
252+ SpA Expert Belt Octillery Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 170-201 (109.7 - 129.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Metagross-1-2).
252+ SpA Expert Belt Octillery Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 170-201 (90.9 - 107.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (Metagross-4).
Dusknoir (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Punch
- Ice Punch
- Brick Break
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Slowbro (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Brine
- Grass Knot
- Flamethrower
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Punch
- Ice Punch
- Brick Break
- Trick Room
Smeargle (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
Mild Nature
- Fake Out
- Detect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Slowbro (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Brine
- Grass Knot
- Flamethrower
Team #6 - Damage Calculations.
Gravity is undeniably one of the best support moves for BT Doubles, but for the very first time, I decided to build a team that didn't rely on it. Achieving this required bringing back No Guard Machamp.
I chose Dusknoir because it is a bulky Trick Roomer and provides decent offensive pressure. Shadow Punch is particularly valuable since it can't miss and secures some KOs or at the very least inflicts significant damage on psychic-type Pokemon, which pose a threat to Machamp. The team performed well overall, but one drawback I was aware of was the absence of a ground-type attack, similar to previous teams I've used. Consequently, I had to be cautious when facing opponents with multiple electric-type Pokemon.
I got 586 wins before losing against an ice trainer who led with Glaceon-3 and Abomasnow-4. Unfortunately, Dusknoir fell to a critical hit Blizzard from Glaceon and Rock Slide from Abomasnow in the first turn. I couldn't come back after that.
252+ SpA Glaceon Blizzard (spread) vs. 252 HP / 6 SpD Dusknoir on a critical hit: 132-156 (86.8 - 102.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Abomasnow Rock Slide (spread) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 22-26 (14.5 - 17.1%); recovers 2-3 (1 - 1.5%) -- guaranteed 5HKO after hail damage
After this loss, I knew the Bronzong + Togekiss lead had to come back, but I needed a second Trick Roomer in case Bronzong went down in T1.
Gravity is undeniably one of the best support moves for BT Doubles, but for the very first time, I decided to build a team that didn't rely on it. Achieving this required bringing back No Guard Machamp.
I chose Dusknoir because it is a bulky Trick Roomer and provides decent offensive pressure. Shadow Punch is particularly valuable since it can't miss and secures some KOs or at the very least inflicts significant damage on psychic-type Pokemon, which pose a threat to Machamp. The team performed well overall, but one drawback I was aware of was the absence of a ground-type attack, similar to previous teams I've used. Consequently, I had to be cautious when facing opponents with multiple electric-type Pokemon.
I got 586 wins before losing against an ice trainer who led with Glaceon-3 and Abomasnow-4. Unfortunately, Dusknoir fell to a critical hit Blizzard from Glaceon and Rock Slide from Abomasnow in the first turn. I couldn't come back after that.
252+ SpA Glaceon Blizzard (spread) vs. 252 HP / 6 SpD Dusknoir on a critical hit: 132-156 (86.8 - 102.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Abomasnow Rock Slide (spread) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 22-26 (14.5 - 17.1%); recovers 2-3 (1 - 1.5%) -- guaranteed 5HKO after hail damage
After this loss, I knew the Bronzong + Togekiss lead had to come back, but I needed a second Trick Roomer in case Bronzong went down in T1.
Bronzong @ Lum Berry
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Encore
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Slowbro (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Flamethrower
- Trick Room
Ability: Heatproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
- Iron Head
- Explosion
- Earthquake
- Trick Room
Togekiss (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace
Level: 2
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Encore
- Protect
- Follow Me
- Endeavor
Machamp (M) @ Iron Ball
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Protect
- Fling
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
Slowbro (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 6 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Psychic
- Grass Knot
- Flamethrower
- Trick Room
Team #7 - Damage Calculations.
During the testing period, I initially experimented with a team featuring the peculiar mixed attacker Bronzong from team #4. However, I made adjustments by swapping Gravity for Earthquake (Iron Head | Grass Knot | Earthquake | Trick Room) and replacing Machamp's Protect with Ice Punch. This was the first time I ran Earthquake on Bronzong, and I cannot emphasize enough how effective it proved to be. It consistently secured 2HKOs on many Pokemon weak to ground-type attacks and served as the ideal finishing move against mons that Togekiss had previously used Endeavor on. Additionally, it often allowed for chip damage on the opposing Pokemon, making it easier for Machamp and Slowbro to secure KOs upon entering the field. I must admit I underestimated for months how good Earthquake is on Bronzong. Nonetheless, I was struggling against psychic trainers just like with team #4 and had some close calls against cyclist or bird keeper trainers when they brought two Intimidate Pokemon (Staraptor, Salamence or Gyarados) to the field.
For this reason, I decided to give Protect back to Machamp and use TRE's Bronzong, but a 31 speed IV version (though 28 speed IVs would've been sufficient), so it is faster than Slowbro-4 and Slowking-1. This is important so Bronzong can safely use Explosion against those two sets without the risk of Trick Room being reversed. For example, let's consider a scenario where Bronzong and Machamp are up against Slowbro-4 and any Cresselia set. With the 31 speed IV Bronzong, I can confidently use Explosion to deal as much damage as possible to the opposing Pokemon while protecting Machamp. Then, when Slowbro enters the field on the next turn, I can simply use Grass Knot on the AI's Slowbro and Fling on Cresselia to secure both knockouts. Without the 31 speed IVs, there's a chance Slowbro could reverse Trick Room, putting me in a risky situation.
As mentioned earlier, if the Bronzong from team #4 gets intimidated, it often becomes dead weight. In contrast, when using TRE's Bronzong, -1 Explosion is very helpful to deal as much damage as possible and get a safe switch-in so Slowbro and Machamp can close the battle.
After extensive testing with this team, it became evident that Foresight on Togekiss was not providing significant value, unlike in Team #4 and Team #5, since Machamp is enough to deal with Double Team/Minimize spammers late game. As an alternative, I decided to try Encore and I was satisfied with it. Encore was primarily used against Dusknoir-1 and 2. The set 1 is the Iron Ball Fling version, and this Pokemon usually goes for that attack in T1, so it was useful to Encore Fling and stop Dusknoir from reversing Trick Room. Against set 2, if it picked Curse in T1, I’d just Encore Curse.
It's important to discuss how I played around OHKO moves in T1. When facing a Lapras, Walrein or Dewgong from a trainer with access to all four sets such as Fisherman Delaney, Fisherman Keaton, Ace Trainer Opal, Ace Trainer Lew, etc., I often opted for the risky approach. Knowing I had a backup Trick Roomer, I would proceed to use Trick Room with Bronzong and Protect with Togekiss. Technically, the odds are in favor of the player because for the worst-case scenario to happen (a OHKO move connecting Bronzong), several conditions must be met: It has to be the OHKO spammer set, it has to target Bronzong, and it has to land. Without a second Trick Roomer, this is a risk I'd never take. However, when facing a Lapras, Walrein or Dewgong from trainers like PIs, who only have access to the OHKO spammer sets, I would always go for Follow Me with Togekiss instead.
To achieve the 1001 win streak, it only took two attempts with this team. In the first attempt, I reached exactly 699 wins before ultimately losing to a Tangrowth-4. I can only recall the final moments of the battle: it was a 3 vs. 2 scenario with two turns of Trick Room remaining. Bronzong and a low-HP Machamp were on the field alongside Slowbro in the back, facing off against Hippowdon (I can't remember which set) and Tangrowth-4. I used Explosion + Protect to try to deal as much damage as possible to both AI's mons. Tangrowth dodged the Explosion. Last turn of Trick Room, Slowbro comes into the field. I finished Hippowdon with Dynamic Punch, but Tangrowth dodged Slowbro's Flamethrower and knocked out Machamp with Power Whip. As Trick Room expired, it became a 1 vs. 1 situation. Tangrowth landed a Power Whip on Slowbro, but it survived and retaliated with Flamethrower, KO'ing Tangrowth. However, Slowbro succumbed to Life Orb recoil, resulting in a draw, which, for the purposes of the facility, is considered a loss.
If I had successfully landed the Explosion on Tangrowth, the following turn I would've simply used Dynamic Punch on Tangrowth and Grass Knot on Hippowdon to secure both knockouts. These are the risks associated with using Explosion against a Lax Incense or Bright Powder set. In most cases where I opted for this play, I found myself in a manageable position even if the move missed one of the targets. However, Tangrowth-4's exceptional defense stat makes it particularly troublesome if it evades multiple attacks.
During the run that broke the record, I lost Bronzong twice in T1 to EQ crits from Mamoswine-3 in the 300s and then from Rampardos-4 in the 600s. However, I managed to set up Trick Room with Slowbro in both battles and make a successful comeback without encountering significant issues. Fortunately, Bronzong did not get hit by a OHKO move and I did not face any Rhyperior-4 + flying-type or Levitate Pokemon lead throughout the run.
During the testing period, I initially experimented with a team featuring the peculiar mixed attacker Bronzong from team #4. However, I made adjustments by swapping Gravity for Earthquake (Iron Head | Grass Knot | Earthquake | Trick Room) and replacing Machamp's Protect with Ice Punch. This was the first time I ran Earthquake on Bronzong, and I cannot emphasize enough how effective it proved to be. It consistently secured 2HKOs on many Pokemon weak to ground-type attacks and served as the ideal finishing move against mons that Togekiss had previously used Endeavor on. Additionally, it often allowed for chip damage on the opposing Pokemon, making it easier for Machamp and Slowbro to secure KOs upon entering the field. I must admit I underestimated for months how good Earthquake is on Bronzong. Nonetheless, I was struggling against psychic trainers just like with team #4 and had some close calls against cyclist or bird keeper trainers when they brought two Intimidate Pokemon (Staraptor, Salamence or Gyarados) to the field.
For this reason, I decided to give Protect back to Machamp and use TRE's Bronzong, but a 31 speed IV version (though 28 speed IVs would've been sufficient), so it is faster than Slowbro-4 and Slowking-1. This is important so Bronzong can safely use Explosion against those two sets without the risk of Trick Room being reversed. For example, let's consider a scenario where Bronzong and Machamp are up against Slowbro-4 and any Cresselia set. With the 31 speed IV Bronzong, I can confidently use Explosion to deal as much damage as possible to the opposing Pokemon while protecting Machamp. Then, when Slowbro enters the field on the next turn, I can simply use Grass Knot on the AI's Slowbro and Fling on Cresselia to secure both knockouts. Without the 31 speed IVs, there's a chance Slowbro could reverse Trick Room, putting me in a risky situation.
As mentioned earlier, if the Bronzong from team #4 gets intimidated, it often becomes dead weight. In contrast, when using TRE's Bronzong, -1 Explosion is very helpful to deal as much damage as possible and get a safe switch-in so Slowbro and Machamp can close the battle.
After extensive testing with this team, it became evident that Foresight on Togekiss was not providing significant value, unlike in Team #4 and Team #5, since Machamp is enough to deal with Double Team/Minimize spammers late game. As an alternative, I decided to try Encore and I was satisfied with it. Encore was primarily used against Dusknoir-1 and 2. The set 1 is the Iron Ball Fling version, and this Pokemon usually goes for that attack in T1, so it was useful to Encore Fling and stop Dusknoir from reversing Trick Room. Against set 2, if it picked Curse in T1, I’d just Encore Curse.
It's important to discuss how I played around OHKO moves in T1. When facing a Lapras, Walrein or Dewgong from a trainer with access to all four sets such as Fisherman Delaney, Fisherman Keaton, Ace Trainer Opal, Ace Trainer Lew, etc., I often opted for the risky approach. Knowing I had a backup Trick Roomer, I would proceed to use Trick Room with Bronzong and Protect with Togekiss. Technically, the odds are in favor of the player because for the worst-case scenario to happen (a OHKO move connecting Bronzong), several conditions must be met: It has to be the OHKO spammer set, it has to target Bronzong, and it has to land. Without a second Trick Roomer, this is a risk I'd never take. However, when facing a Lapras, Walrein or Dewgong from trainers like PIs, who only have access to the OHKO spammer sets, I would always go for Follow Me with Togekiss instead.
To achieve the 1001 win streak, it only took two attempts with this team. In the first attempt, I reached exactly 699 wins before ultimately losing to a Tangrowth-4. I can only recall the final moments of the battle: it was a 3 vs. 2 scenario with two turns of Trick Room remaining. Bronzong and a low-HP Machamp were on the field alongside Slowbro in the back, facing off against Hippowdon (I can't remember which set) and Tangrowth-4. I used Explosion + Protect to try to deal as much damage as possible to both AI's mons. Tangrowth dodged the Explosion. Last turn of Trick Room, Slowbro comes into the field. I finished Hippowdon with Dynamic Punch, but Tangrowth dodged Slowbro's Flamethrower and knocked out Machamp with Power Whip. As Trick Room expired, it became a 1 vs. 1 situation. Tangrowth landed a Power Whip on Slowbro, but it survived and retaliated with Flamethrower, KO'ing Tangrowth. However, Slowbro succumbed to Life Orb recoil, resulting in a draw, which, for the purposes of the facility, is considered a loss.
If I had successfully landed the Explosion on Tangrowth, the following turn I would've simply used Dynamic Punch on Tangrowth and Grass Knot on Hippowdon to secure both knockouts. These are the risks associated with using Explosion against a Lax Incense or Bright Powder set. In most cases where I opted for this play, I found myself in a manageable position even if the move missed one of the targets. However, Tangrowth-4's exceptional defense stat makes it particularly troublesome if it evades multiple attacks.
During the run that broke the record, I lost Bronzong twice in T1 to EQ crits from Mamoswine-3 in the 300s and then from Rampardos-4 in the 600s. However, I managed to set up Trick Room with Slowbro in both battles and make a successful comeback without encountering significant issues. Fortunately, Bronzong did not get hit by a OHKO move and I did not face any Rhyperior-4 + flying-type or Levitate Pokemon lead throughout the run.
Streak Sample.
I had a blast in the Gen IV Battle Tower over the last 11 months. Team building was both enjoyable and challenging. Despite the final team not being groundbreaking, what makes me very proud is that through the countless losses, failed teams and misplays, I was able to learn about the mechanics, understand how the AI behaves in different scenarios, and ultimately piece together a decent team that achieved a new record: 1001 wins.
On a final note, I hope that all the topics covered in this post can potentially be useful for other fellow Battle Tower enthusiasts when building their own teams. Wishing you all the best of luck in your runs, and take care.
65 wins in level 50 singles factory
This time, recorded:
This time, recorded:
Draft is:
Glaceon3/Scrappy Miltank2/Golduck3/Jolteon3/Rapidash3/Gengar2
Gengar2's good, miltank2's good, golduck and jolteon are awful. I took rapidash for its speed and 100% accuracy moves.
Battle 29
Breloom2 can't do anything to a sub, Aggron2 died but got a quick claw move in to bring gengar to near-death, the shadow ball and a pre-and post-swagger facade from miltank do the job.
Battle 30
Flying spec, I trade rapidash for the punchmaster aggron2.
Hypno2 can't touch sub, drifblim2 and altaria2 both die before they can kill gengar.
Battle 31
No spec, no swap.
Gardevoir2 dies to shadow ball, Miltank switches into Machamp to get a reversal to get it in shadow ball range and does just that, Armaldo2 uses swagger on gengar as it takes a shadow ball, victory assured after switching out.
Battle 32
No spec, Machamp2>Aggron2.
Venusaur1 can't touch sub with dream eater recovery, Mr. Mime1 dies to shadow ball, dream eater, exploud1 takes the second hypnosis and dies to dream eater.
Battle 33
No spec, no swap.
Miltank puts mamoswine2 in shadow ball range, gengar had 2 shots to make dream eater work and got it on the second one, blaziken2 can't beat gengar2 behind sub.
Battle 34
Psychic spec, no swap
Probopass2 hits mamo on the switch, dies to eq, eggs2 can't touch gengar behind sub so I sack mamo to it, jynx2 can't beat gengar behind sub either.
Battle 35
Armaldo3 lead, I have no good option so I go machamp, 2/3 stone edges hit, one revenge and an eq kill. Absol3 kills it and gets a crit on mamo that ultimately didn't matter, ludicolo3 kills mamo and I make a decent-sized misplay:
Glaceon3/Scrappy Miltank2/Golduck3/Jolteon3/Rapidash3/Gengar2
Gengar2's good, miltank2's good, golduck and jolteon are awful. I took rapidash for its speed and 100% accuracy moves.
Battle 29
Breloom2 can't do anything to a sub, Aggron2 died but got a quick claw move in to bring gengar to near-death, the shadow ball and a pre-and post-swagger facade from miltank do the job.
Battle 30
Flying spec, I trade rapidash for the punchmaster aggron2.
Hypno2 can't touch sub, drifblim2 and altaria2 both die before they can kill gengar.
Battle 31
No spec, no swap.
Gardevoir2 dies to shadow ball, Miltank switches into Machamp to get a reversal to get it in shadow ball range and does just that, Armaldo2 uses swagger on gengar as it takes a shadow ball, victory assured after switching out.
Battle 32
No spec, Machamp2>Aggron2.
Venusaur1 can't touch sub with dream eater recovery, Mr. Mime1 dies to shadow ball, dream eater, exploud1 takes the second hypnosis and dies to dream eater.
Battle 33
No spec, no swap.
Miltank puts mamoswine2 in shadow ball range, gengar had 2 shots to make dream eater work and got it on the second one, blaziken2 can't beat gengar2 behind sub.
Battle 34
Psychic spec, no swap
Probopass2 hits mamo on the switch, dies to eq, eggs2 can't touch gengar behind sub so I sack mamo to it, jynx2 can't beat gengar behind sub either.
Battle 35
Armaldo3 lead, I have no good option so I go machamp, 2/3 stone edges hit, one revenge and an eq kill. Absol3 kills it and gets a crit on mamo that ultimately didn't matter, ludicolo3 kills mamo and I make a decent-sized misplay:
Straight hypnosis was probably the move, dream eater would prevent life orb from killing me. 3 subs, all broken, then hypnosis lead to me winning anyway.average fella said:
No spec, draft is:
Meganium4/Golem3/Heatproof Bronzong4/Blissey4/Golduck3/Dugtrio4
Only good member is the zong. Meganium4/Bronzong4/Golem3 is my pick.
Battle 36
Gastrodon2 dies to a frenzy plant, I consider booming on Alakazam2 but it misses a focus blast and I got this roll:
252+ Atk Bronzong Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Alakazam: 118-139 (95.9 - 113%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
Last was Victreebel2, nothing to fear, quick claw boomed on but the quick claw didn't matter.
Battle 37
No spec, Gastrodon2>Golem3.
Weavile3 is scary, I eq instead of iron heading as bronzong because I'm scared of counter but it didn't counter, get a quick claw boom that ultimately didn't matter against poliwrath3 but it sure felt good! Probopass3 is no threat.
Battle 38
Normal spec, Weavile3>Meganium4, I even consider probopass but don't want to be rolled over by nearly any eq user.
Weavile can't 2-shot the pz, I iron head as zong it then commit to booming... on its resist switch, flareon3. Weavile counters kangaskhan3, and was barely not in range to kill the pz, it charge beamed and got a spa boost.
Gastrodon takes this crit with 1 hp remaining:
+1 252+ SpA Wise Glasses Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon on a critical hit: 168-198 (92.8 - 109.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
Battle 39
All lead options bad... no swap.
Dewgong2 uses its valuable turns to disable night slash and encore x-scissor, dragonite2 misses dragon rush and bronzong and gets boomed on, dugtrio2 dies to night slash
Battle 40
Flying spec, dragonite2 is intriguing but I ultimately decide against it.
Ampharos2 is gastrodon food, staraptor2 can only endeavor to deal damage against bronzong4, vespiquen2 gets boomed on.
Battle 41
Staraptor2 is bad, but bad in a complimentary way with bronzong and gastrodon. Staraptor2>Weavile3.
Aerodactyl3 takes intimidate, brings zong down to 75 health before dying to iron head. Wailord3 comes in, it can outspeed and ohko zong, endeavor would have done more damage but I aerial ace instead as it curses (misplay #1), go zong as it curses again and boom, go RAPTOR on the +2 defense wailord (misplay #2), and died to avalanche for my troubles. If there was any justice in the world, I'd lose here, and I see exactly that coming as I stare down the third, Pinsir3. Staraptor would have beaten this thing barring a crit, but now I find myself needing an instacrit or accuracy drop+miss myself:
252 SpA Gastrodon Muddy Water vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir: 85-102 (63 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Pinsir X-Scissor vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gastrodon: 105-124 (58.7 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Muddy water crits, run alive.
Battle 42
The excitement! Grass spec, pinsir3>gastrodon2 for the grass spec.
Bronzong4 beats Venusaur4, it hyper beamed instead of frenzy planting so I was sitting fairly pretty for the last 2, Snorlax4 crunches zong instead of eqing, but raptor's able to trade with it with endure+endeavor after life orb recoil. Ludicolo4 gets boomed on
Meganium4/Golem3/Heatproof Bronzong4/Blissey4/Golduck3/Dugtrio4
Only good member is the zong. Meganium4/Bronzong4/Golem3 is my pick.
Battle 36
Gastrodon2 dies to a frenzy plant, I consider booming on Alakazam2 but it misses a focus blast and I got this roll:
252+ Atk Bronzong Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Alakazam: 118-139 (95.9 - 113%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
Last was Victreebel2, nothing to fear, quick claw boomed on but the quick claw didn't matter.
Battle 37
No spec, Gastrodon2>Golem3.
Weavile3 is scary, I eq instead of iron heading as bronzong because I'm scared of counter but it didn't counter, get a quick claw boom that ultimately didn't matter against poliwrath3 but it sure felt good! Probopass3 is no threat.
Battle 38
Normal spec, Weavile3>Meganium4, I even consider probopass but don't want to be rolled over by nearly any eq user.
Weavile can't 2-shot the pz, I iron head as zong it then commit to booming... on its resist switch, flareon3. Weavile counters kangaskhan3, and was barely not in range to kill the pz, it charge beamed and got a spa boost.
Gastrodon takes this crit with 1 hp remaining:
+1 252+ SpA Wise Glasses Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 252+ SpD Gastrodon on a critical hit: 168-198 (92.8 - 109.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
Battle 39
All lead options bad... no swap.
Dewgong2 uses its valuable turns to disable night slash and encore x-scissor, dragonite2 misses dragon rush and bronzong and gets boomed on, dugtrio2 dies to night slash
Battle 40
Flying spec, dragonite2 is intriguing but I ultimately decide against it.
Ampharos2 is gastrodon food, staraptor2 can only endeavor to deal damage against bronzong4, vespiquen2 gets boomed on.
Battle 41
Staraptor2 is bad, but bad in a complimentary way with bronzong and gastrodon. Staraptor2>Weavile3.
Aerodactyl3 takes intimidate, brings zong down to 75 health before dying to iron head. Wailord3 comes in, it can outspeed and ohko zong, endeavor would have done more damage but I aerial ace instead as it curses (misplay #1), go zong as it curses again and boom, go RAPTOR on the +2 defense wailord (misplay #2), and died to avalanche for my troubles. If there was any justice in the world, I'd lose here, and I see exactly that coming as I stare down the third, Pinsir3. Staraptor would have beaten this thing barring a crit, but now I find myself needing an instacrit or accuracy drop+miss myself:
252 SpA Gastrodon Muddy Water vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir: 85-102 (63 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Pinsir X-Scissor vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gastrodon: 105-124 (58.7 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Muddy water crits, run alive.
average fella said:
Battle 42
The excitement! Grass spec, pinsir3>gastrodon2 for the grass spec.
Bronzong4 beats Venusaur4, it hyper beamed instead of frenzy planting so I was sitting fairly pretty for the last 2, Snorlax4 crunches zong instead of eqing, but raptor's able to trade with it with endure+endeavor after life orb recoil. Ludicolo4 gets boomed on
I have never seen a draft this amazing.
Heatran4/Staraptor3/Latias1/Armaldo3/Glalie1/Lickilicky4
Staraptor/Latias/Heatran without hesitation.
Battle 43
Ludi3/Venu3 deleted with brave bird, skarmory3 deleted with magma storm.
Battle 44
Ground spec, no swap.
Claydol3 is one of the few sets that this team is kind of scared of. I go for this and get it, Latias would have finished if not:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Claydol: 118-139 (90.8 - 106.9%); recoil damage: 39-43 (24.4 - 26.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
Latias sets up one cm vs the next of raichu3 and cleans quag3 too.
Battle 45
No spec, no swap
Absol4 deleted with return, heatran4 takes on altaria4, gallade kills heatran and dies to brave bird.
Battle 46
No spec, no swap
Staraptor doesn't get this roll, but power whip doesn't do much anyway:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Tangrowth: 164-194 (95.3 - 112.8%); recoil damage: 54-57 (33.8 - 35.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Game makes it up to me with a brave bird crit as if this draft needs any hax. Nidoqueen4 gets boomed on.
Battle 47
No spec, no swap
Slaking3 returns Heatran, miss magma storm and take an extra return.
Raptor comes in on Aerodactyl3 eq, steel wing gets this roll:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Steel Wing vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Aerodactyl: 136-160 (89.5 - 105.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO (33.8% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
Latias beats the last of gengar3.
Battle 48
No spec, no swap.
Roserade3 deleted by return, I'm convinced mamoswine3 will hail and not superpower so I return twice to kill, having only taken hail twice. Feraligatr3 finished off with brave bird and psychic from latias.
Battle 49
Thorton! no spec, no swap.
Floatzel1 sets up rain dance and dies to return, forretress1 next. I don't want to break heatran's sash and decide to brave bird it to put it in earth power kill range. It did counter, raptor dies and forry does to earth power as well. Vileplume1 boomed on.
Heatran4/Staraptor3/Latias1/Armaldo3/Glalie1/Lickilicky4
Staraptor/Latias/Heatran without hesitation.
Battle 43
Ludi3/Venu3 deleted with brave bird, skarmory3 deleted with magma storm.
Battle 44
Ground spec, no swap.
Claydol3 is one of the few sets that this team is kind of scared of. I go for this and get it, Latias would have finished if not:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Claydol: 118-139 (90.8 - 106.9%); recoil damage: 39-43 (24.4 - 26.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
Latias sets up one cm vs the next of raichu3 and cleans quag3 too.
Battle 45
No spec, no swap
Absol4 deleted with return, heatran4 takes on altaria4, gallade kills heatran and dies to brave bird.
Battle 46
No spec, no swap
Staraptor doesn't get this roll, but power whip doesn't do much anyway:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Tangrowth: 164-194 (95.3 - 112.8%); recoil damage: 54-57 (33.8 - 35.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
Game makes it up to me with a brave bird crit as if this draft needs any hax. Nidoqueen4 gets boomed on.
Battle 47
No spec, no swap
Slaking3 returns Heatran, miss magma storm and take an extra return.
Raptor comes in on Aerodactyl3 eq, steel wing gets this roll:
252+ Atk Muscle Band Staraptor Steel Wing vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Aerodactyl: 136-160 (89.5 - 105.3%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO (33.8% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
Latias beats the last of gengar3.
Battle 48
No spec, no swap.
Roserade3 deleted by return, I'm convinced mamoswine3 will hail and not superpower so I return twice to kill, having only taken hail twice. Feraligatr3 finished off with brave bird and psychic from latias.
Battle 49
Thorton! no spec, no swap.
Floatzel1 sets up rain dance and dies to return, forretress1 next. I don't want to break heatran's sash and decide to brave bird it to put it in earth power kill range. It did counter, raptor dies and forry does to earth power as well. Vileplume1 boomed on.
No spec.
Moltres1/Porygon2-2/Heatran2/Tyranitar4/Magmortar4/Forretress3
Moltres1/P2-2/Tyranitar4 is my team. P2 is my ""rock resist"" and potential OTR setup guy for ttar
Battle 50
I go p2 on the quagsire4 lead, stone edge crit, I decide to tri attack instead of recovering, having already forgotten that it's iron ball. Stone edges, doesn't kill, no harm done, moltres finishes after the tri attack chip. Pz4, ttar4 comes in, I'm tempted to dragon dance but crunch twice instead. Umbreon4 finished it off, but lost to moltres.
Battle 51
No spec, no swap.
Gyarados2/3/4 waterfalls p2, dragon dances on the trick room and dies to thunderbolt, I stay in vs gengar for the risk of focus blast, it missed hypnosis revealing 2, thunderbolt 2 kills, Ampharos1 dies to 2 tri attacks
Battle 52
No spec, no swap.
Claydol4 rock slides and eqs ttar as it dd's, crunch kills, does half to poliwrath4 who gets finished off by moltres, flamethrower crits the last of miltank4 and ohkos, revealing that it's scrappy.
Battle 53
Grass spec, no swap.
Abomasnow? deleted, Gallade air slashed and stone edge kills, revealing 3. P2 trick rooms on a psycho cut, roserade1/3/4 dies to tri attack+ttar crunch.
Battle 54
Psychic spec, no swap.
Ttar sets up 2 dragon dances vs cresselia3, dies to the dugtrio1/4, p2 comes in, I was honestly expecting tri attack to shred it but it didn't, 2 eqs bring me to near-death. Exeggutor4 beats p2, dies to flamethrower.
Battle 55
Water spec, eggs4>moltres1.
Slowbro? deleted with leaf storm, I hesitate a while against empoleon? before realizing none of them are all that threatening, stay in on a metal claw that reveals 1. P2 sustains a metal claw, attack boost, go eggs on the waterfall, leaf storm brings it to a sliver, eggs dies and ttar revenge kills. Meganium3 leaf storms twice and takes a crunch, tries wring out on p2 and dies.
Battle 56
No spec, slowbro?>eggs4.
+1 252+ SpA Porygon2 Tri Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Leafeon: 136-162 (97.1 - 115.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
It baton passes to some absol set, recall it being 2 and double teaming again, and tri attack barely doesn't kill that thing too. I go ttar because sand chip can kill both of them, and that's exactly what happens
Moltres1/Porygon2-2/Heatran2/Tyranitar4/Magmortar4/Forretress3
Moltres1/P2-2/Tyranitar4 is my team. P2 is my ""rock resist"" and potential OTR setup guy for ttar
Battle 50
I go p2 on the quagsire4 lead, stone edge crit, I decide to tri attack instead of recovering, having already forgotten that it's iron ball. Stone edges, doesn't kill, no harm done, moltres finishes after the tri attack chip. Pz4, ttar4 comes in, I'm tempted to dragon dance but crunch twice instead. Umbreon4 finished it off, but lost to moltres.
Battle 51
No spec, no swap.
Gyarados2/3/4 waterfalls p2, dragon dances on the trick room and dies to thunderbolt, I stay in vs gengar for the risk of focus blast, it missed hypnosis revealing 2, thunderbolt 2 kills, Ampharos1 dies to 2 tri attacks
Battle 52
No spec, no swap.
Claydol4 rock slides and eqs ttar as it dd's, crunch kills, does half to poliwrath4 who gets finished off by moltres, flamethrower crits the last of miltank4 and ohkos, revealing that it's scrappy.
Battle 53
Grass spec, no swap.
Abomasnow? deleted, Gallade air slashed and stone edge kills, revealing 3. P2 trick rooms on a psycho cut, roserade1/3/4 dies to tri attack+ttar crunch.
Battle 54
Psychic spec, no swap.
Ttar sets up 2 dragon dances vs cresselia3, dies to the dugtrio1/4, p2 comes in, I was honestly expecting tri attack to shred it but it didn't, 2 eqs bring me to near-death. Exeggutor4 beats p2, dies to flamethrower.
Battle 55
Water spec, eggs4>moltres1.
Slowbro? deleted with leaf storm, I hesitate a while against empoleon? before realizing none of them are all that threatening, stay in on a metal claw that reveals 1. P2 sustains a metal claw, attack boost, go eggs on the waterfall, leaf storm brings it to a sliver, eggs dies and ttar revenge kills. Meganium3 leaf storms twice and takes a crunch, tries wring out on p2 and dies.
Battle 56
No spec, slowbro?>eggs4.
Slowbro was 3, beat one of the eq whiscash sets, leafeon comes in, a download+otr opportunity if I've ever seen one, slowbro sacked, p2 comes in and trick rooms and sees double team, it's 1. Tri attack misses this roll:average fella said:
+1 252+ SpA Porygon2 Tri Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Leafeon: 136-162 (97.1 - 115.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
It baton passes to some absol set, recall it being 2 and double teaming again, and tri attack barely doesn't kill that thing too. I go ttar because sand chip can kill both of them, and that's exactly what happens
Ice spec,
Latios1/Salamence2/Anger Point Tauros1/Lickilicky2/Rhydon2/Politoed4
The 2 best mons in this draft are dragons, I can't pick licky or toed, rhydon is pretty bad too. Tauros1/Latios1/Salamence2
Battle 57
Funny Jynx2 dodges a thrash and uses perish song, second thrash kills. Regice takes very little from thrash, revealing 3, I decide to keep a frozen tauros in since nobody else wanted to take an ice beam.
Battle 58
Flying spec, I go Regice3>Tauros1. I don't like the speed, but I don't like Tauros either and think I'll find something better soon.
Toxicroak lead, stone edges revealing 4, Latios is slower, gunk shot finished me off. Salamence dragon dances once, then kills with dragon claw, it's 82 health. Gliscor rears its ugly head and I accept that I'll have an uphill battle ahead of me. It's not gliscor2, the one with all the fangs, but it's still scary.
Razor Fang flinch. Second one kills.
No spec, no swap.
Slaking lead, facade crits salamence to 3 hp, revealing 1. In hindsight, the move was double intimidate by going regice again, but instead i dd+dragon claw. Latios calm minds on the truant turn, kills, and cleans Entei3+Tangrowth?
Battle 60
Water spec, and now i have a capital T Team, not just three good mons. Slaking1>Regice3, I'll yawn the lead and set up with the most suitable dragon for the situation.
Yawn, latios on vaporeon1/4. 3 calm minds to beat vaporeon, abomasnow? and put lapras4 to near-death, slaking gets the honors
Battle 61
Flying spec, no swap.
Yawn on toxicroak, it's 2 and misses dynamicpunch, mence tanks one, went latios on the first sleep turn, 1 calm mind for the rest. Wisely thunder waved drifblim1 instead of dying to unburden, twave+2 psychics beat charizard1.
Battle 62
No spec, no swap.
Yawn Lickilicky, tbolts revealing 2, let slaking take the next move which actually was ice beam, sets up 2 calm minds, what follows is an embarassing sequence that's a case study for what speedup does to you, magmortar2 gets a smokescreen and a ton of dodges makes you want to do the same move again a lot, and not think about how the situation may have changed, AND MAKE YOU CLICK THUNDER WAVE INSTEAD OF DOING THIS:
+2 252 SpA Latios Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Magmortar: 160-190 (106.7 - 126.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Mence dd's and takes a confuse ray, slaking comes in and does 1 facade to it, which is enough for dragon claw to kill, no flame body here.
I proceed to full speedup brain, again, against cress2, but it worked out this time.
Battle 63
No spec, no swap.
Absol is yawned, it's 3, even a crit vs mence would be in my favor for it to live, so I go mence. 1 dragon dance, absol3, electrode?, medicham? are cleaned up.
Latios1/Salamence2/Anger Point Tauros1/Lickilicky2/Rhydon2/Politoed4
The 2 best mons in this draft are dragons, I can't pick licky or toed, rhydon is pretty bad too. Tauros1/Latios1/Salamence2
Battle 57
Funny Jynx2 dodges a thrash and uses perish song, second thrash kills. Regice takes very little from thrash, revealing 3, I decide to keep a frozen tauros in since nobody else wanted to take an ice beam.
Rests on the first calm mind, second calm mind without incident, after the first psychic it gets a funny freeze. Little did I know, I had a funny instant thaw up my sleeve, crisis averted. Last of Registeel2 gets a funny crit on latios, mence comes in and i dd, turn on speedup, and somehow don't make a horrible mistake the entire time. Battle 1 escaped.average fella said:
Battle 58
Flying spec, I go Regice3>Tauros1. I don't like the speed, but I don't like Tauros either and think I'll find something better soon.
Toxicroak lead, stone edges revealing 4, Latios is slower, gunk shot finished me off. Salamence dragon dances once, then kills with dragon claw, it's 82 health. Gliscor rears its ugly head and I accept that I'll have an uphill battle ahead of me. It's not gliscor2, the one with all the fangs, but it's still scary.
Razor Fang flinch. Second one kills.
Staraptor? comes in. Razor Fang flinch, second one killsaverage fella said:
Battle 59average fella said:
No spec, no swap.
Slaking lead, facade crits salamence to 3 hp, revealing 1. In hindsight, the move was double intimidate by going regice again, but instead i dd+dragon claw. Latios calm minds on the truant turn, kills, and cleans Entei3+Tangrowth?
Battle 60
Water spec, and now i have a capital T Team, not just three good mons. Slaking1>Regice3, I'll yawn the lead and set up with the most suitable dragon for the situation.
Yawn, latios on vaporeon1/4. 3 calm minds to beat vaporeon, abomasnow? and put lapras4 to near-death, slaking gets the honors
Battle 61
Flying spec, no swap.
Yawn on toxicroak, it's 2 and misses dynamicpunch, mence tanks one, went latios on the first sleep turn, 1 calm mind for the rest. Wisely thunder waved drifblim1 instead of dying to unburden, twave+2 psychics beat charizard1.
Battle 62
No spec, no swap.
Yawn Lickilicky, tbolts revealing 2, let slaking take the next move which actually was ice beam, sets up 2 calm minds, what follows is an embarassing sequence that's a case study for what speedup does to you, magmortar2 gets a smokescreen and a ton of dodges makes you want to do the same move again a lot, and not think about how the situation may have changed, AND MAKE YOU CLICK THUNDER WAVE INSTEAD OF DOING THIS:
+2 252 SpA Latios Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Magmortar: 160-190 (106.7 - 126.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Mence dd's and takes a confuse ray, slaking comes in and does 1 facade to it, which is enough for dragon claw to kill, no flame body here.
I proceed to full speedup brain, again, against cress2, but it worked out this time.
Battle 63
No spec, no swap.
Absol is yawned, it's 3, even a crit vs mence would be in my favor for it to live, so I go mence. 1 dragon dance, absol3, electrode?, medicham? are cleaned up.
No spec,
Breloom2/Illuminate Lanturn4/Registeel2/Tangrowth2/Drapion2/Dragonite4
This is a Dragonite and Friends draft. Dragonite4/Lanturn4/Registeel2.
Battle 64
Raichu1/2 thunderpunches and dies to eq, claydol comes in and reveals 3 by ice beaming the lanturn. Earth powers the dragonite switchin, outrages it and Infernape2.
Battle 65
No spec, no swap.
Feraligatr lead is scary, lives outrage almost all the time, any set besides 3 will use ice move, so of course it's 3 and dragon claws the lanturn switchin. Lanturn misses thunder, resist switch to donphan, I decide to go dnite, gets 2 stone edges due to quick claw but only hits 1. Registeel finishes it, as well as what I think is ambipom3.
Battle 66
Ground spec, this is a surprise tool that will help us later,
Medicham lead, I forgot that it has a set with ice punch, ice punches dragonite and I start on the back foot from overconfidence already. By the way, Registeel came in on zen headbutt(1),poison jab(2), psychic(3), or ice punch(4) safely.
I decide that, from here, I want rain for Registeel to set up on fire punches, and I want to hopefully have it paralyzed for better Registeel setup for basically 1v3ing a ground spec. I rain dance, I thunder...
It resists switches to Gastrodon.
I don't think there's any single lack of attention that I can kick myself over as the reason I mindlessly threw the streak, a few mistakes that individually shouldn't doom a run but all come together into a loss. This is not a speedup loss and it's not a pure throw, I took a 75% chance I didn't know I was taking, I forgot that thunder would cause a resist switch against what they told me, then just didn't get lucky enough. If I was playing this match at full speed, I would have done the exact same thing. Feel I deserved to lose this one, but hard to be mad about it, untied second place isn't too bad.
Breloom2/Illuminate Lanturn4/Registeel2/Tangrowth2/Drapion2/Dragonite4
This is a Dragonite and Friends draft. Dragonite4/Lanturn4/Registeel2.
Battle 64
Raichu1/2 thunderpunches and dies to eq, claydol comes in and reveals 3 by ice beaming the lanturn. Earth powers the dragonite switchin, outrages it and Infernape2.
Battle 65
No spec, no swap.
Feraligatr lead is scary, lives outrage almost all the time, any set besides 3 will use ice move, so of course it's 3 and dragon claws the lanturn switchin. Lanturn misses thunder, resist switch to donphan, I decide to go dnite, gets 2 stone edges due to quick claw but only hits 1. Registeel finishes it, as well as what I think is ambipom3.
Battle 66
Ground spec, this is a surprise tool that will help us later,
no swap.average fella said:
Medicham lead, I forgot that it has a set with ice punch, ice punches dragonite and I start on the back foot from overconfidence already. By the way, Registeel came in on zen headbutt(1),poison jab(2), psychic(3), or ice punch(4) safely.
I decide that, from here, I want rain for Registeel to set up on fire punches, and I want to hopefully have it paralyzed for better Registeel setup for basically 1v3ing a ground spec. I rain dance, I thunder...
It resists switches to Gastrodon.
I thunder uselessly. I hit a hydro pump as it earth powers, I am now truly tasked with a 1v3. I double team 4 times, 2 misses on the first 2 turns, but 2 hits seal my fate.average fella said:
I don't think there's any single lack of attention that I can kick myself over as the reason I mindlessly threw the streak, a few mistakes that individually shouldn't doom a run but all come together into a loss. This is not a speedup loss and it's not a pure throw, I took a 75% chance I didn't know I was taking, I forgot that thunder would cause a resist switch against what they told me, then just didn't get lucky enough. If I was playing this match at full speed, I would have done the exact same thing. Feel I deserved to lose this one, but hard to be mad about it, untied second place isn't too bad.
Hello, very noob question. I'm just trying to get 100 wins in HG Battle Tower for the trainer star, been doing Starmie / Tyranitar / Garchomp for a few days but keep losing to crits or bright powder or whatnot, so I'm trying the Mesprit / Drapion / Garchomp trick scarf strategy now. It works pretty well, but there are some situations I don't know how to handle - is there a post or resource somewhere where someone's listed the basic "playbook" for dealing with some of the common pitfalls when using a trick scarf setup?
Particularly, I'm not sure what to do when the opponent's lead can 2HKO the trick user - for example, Salamence using Outrage, or crits. I tried searching this thread for "Salamence" and "Outrage" but it mostly yielded people posting their sets.
Also how to deal with OHKO leads like Sheer Cold? I tried PP stalling it using Drapion's substitute, then switching to Garchomp as soon as struggle started and set up with swords dance and substitute, but I could have wiped if it landed Sheer Cold on Drapion's first turn out.
Or what about when the opponent is locked into a 10pp move? Always set up on Garchomp? It doesn't seem like enough for acupressure to reliably set up, like if you only get accuracy / speed / special attack boosts.
Thanks!
Update: lost another run to a Choice Band Starraptor using Brave Bird :/ really curious how you're supposed to play around that
Particularly, I'm not sure what to do when the opponent's lead can 2HKO the trick user - for example, Salamence using Outrage, or crits. I tried searching this thread for "Salamence" and "Outrage" but it mostly yielded people posting their sets.
Also how to deal with OHKO leads like Sheer Cold? I tried PP stalling it using Drapion's substitute, then switching to Garchomp as soon as struggle started and set up with swords dance and substitute, but I could have wiped if it landed Sheer Cold on Drapion's first turn out.
Or what about when the opponent is locked into a 10pp move? Always set up on Garchomp? It doesn't seem like enough for acupressure to reliably set up, like if you only get accuracy / speed / special attack boosts.
Thanks!
Update: lost another run to a Choice Band Starraptor using Brave Bird :/ really curious how you're supposed to play around that
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QuentinQuonce
formerly green_typhlosion
I'm aware that Mesp/Drap/Gar is literally the top-ranked team in singles atm but (since you're just going for 100) you might have more luck with a more defensive 3rd slot in place of Garchomp. Registeel is a good bet for this sort of thing but since Registeel and Drapion share an Earthquake weakness Skarmory might be a more sensible option, or perhaps even Gyarados or Salamence since they both have Intimidate and you can potentially switch back and forth a couple of times to reduce the damage from a powerful physical opponent like the Staraptor you mentioned.
Skarmory can use Curse to boost up to max and use Aerial Ace for a guaranteed hit which nothing is immune to; however, it's a sitting duck for the first special sweeper it comes up against since it's slow and can't boost on the special side like Drapion and Registeel can. It does however have the advantage of being a Sturdy mon which blocks the dreaded OHKO moves. On the whole though I'd say Gyarados or Salamence is a safer bet; better to be proactive and attempt a sweep. Take this with a pinch of salt though as defensive teams aren't really my thing.
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just speaking as someone that was building a team going for 100 as well; most important thing is knowing when you can get away with trick + status move and what'll outspeed you after you trick it scarf (meaning you can't trick + get followup). for things that 2HKO mesprit + outspeed after trick then what you do will likely depend on what the enemy can do, with attacks that can't safely be set up on (eg. brave bird, outrage, flare blitz) soliciting charm and cases where you can both trick + status / moves that drapion resists or chomp can pp stall (like shadow ball, night slash, or stone edge) soliciting trick.
for OHKO moves, generally i find success by tricking the users and attempting to PP stall with garchomp's sub (or whichever attacker is faster); garchomp outspeeds every scarf sheer cold user (so can just stall until struggle and grab swords dances whenever behind a sub), you're fine against fissure lock thanks to levitate, and the only things you can't outspeed and sub spam are kingler, gliscor, and rapidash (iirc) which there's not really much you can do besides trick or twave and go for sub stall.
i ended up using https://pokepast.es/13a4ad3dde4e5669 to get to 100; it's the same concept but faster + probably less consistent, but iirc this set of 3 got me to 100 on my first attempt. the biggest issue is the lead metagross matchup / scizor getting frozen and refusing to thaw in a reasonable amount of turns, but short of this it's pretty mindless to trick or memento (usually both) + go scizor and start spamming.
Submitting a Battle Factory Open Multis streak of 56 on retail.
Last year, I submitted Battle Factory streaks for both Doubles LV50 & Doubles Open LV with that apparently making me the only person in the world to have beaten all 4 Battle Factory formats (Singles LV50 & Singles Open LV Doubles LV50 & Doubles Open LV) which is something Anna says hi told me about. I don't know if that fact is true since it's not like Smogon is a universal standard for what any person in the world has achieved on a 15 year old game, but I liked the idea, and it got me thinking, what if I take this meme achievement one step further and play Multis? As you may or may not have read in a previous post of mine, I did end up taking on the challenge and did end up submitting a streak for Multis LV50 in no small part thanks to being inspired by QuentinQuonce who had played Multis before me and had convinced me with his post that it was different enough from regular Doubles that I'd want to commit to playing Multis. And play Multis I did, and on what was my 2nd attempt past Round5, I miraculously managed to get this run which I fully documented past Round5 on Smogon's Battle Facilities Discord Server to complete the Battle Factory Sextuple!!!!!!
Last year, I submitted Battle Factory streaks for both Doubles LV50 & Doubles Open LV with that apparently making me the only person in the world to have beaten all 4 Battle Factory formats (Singles LV50 & Singles Open LV Doubles LV50 & Doubles Open LV) which is something Anna says hi told me about. I don't know if that fact is true since it's not like Smogon is a universal standard for what any person in the world has achieved on a 15 year old game, but I liked the idea, and it got me thinking, what if I take this meme achievement one step further and play Multis? As you may or may not have read in a previous post of mine, I did end up taking on the challenge and did end up submitting a streak for Multis LV50 in no small part thanks to being inspired by QuentinQuonce who had played Multis before me and had convinced me with his post that it was different enough from regular Doubles that I'd want to commit to playing Multis. And play Multis I did, and on what was my 2nd attempt past Round5, I miraculously managed to get this run which I fully documented past Round5 on Smogon's Battle Facilities Discord Server to complete the Battle Factory Sextuple!!!!!!
HG: Suicune2/Walrein3/Sceptile3/Quagsire4(20IV Damp)/Magmortar4/Cresselia3
Platinum Draft: Medicham4(20IV)/Togekiss4(Hustle)/Nidoqueen3(Poison Point)/Articuno3/Mr.Mime4/Mamoswine3
Had a Normal spec hint from the assistant, decided to lead Sceptile/Magmortar Togekiss/Nidoqueen, considered Cresselia shortly just to take Mamoswine in the Platinum Draft to have free Earthquakes for my backline, but Cresselia3 is not good enough to justify that. Also preferred Magmortar to Quagsire because it's decently fast and hits hard with Overheat, unlike Quagsire who can't even click Earthquake safely half the time.
5-1
VS Set4 Granbull (Quick Feet) Shuckle
Doubled up on Granbull with Leaf Blade Aura Sphere for the kill without calcing because Shuckle is just a sitting duck considering not only I have Aura Sphere Aerial Ace in the lead slots but also a Ground Poison Type in Nidoqueen in my backline. Next turn I killed the Floatzel4 that came out with Leaf Blade and started wearing Shuckle down with Aura Sphere, culminating in me killing it a few turns later with Sceptile on 3 turns of Toxic damage. Then Staraptor came out and I knew this Choice Banded god would succumb to the 4v1 eventually and join my team.
5-2 (War Story Win)
No spec, swap Togekiss for Staraptor VS 16IV Glalie Mismagius
Ruled out Glalie3 with item clause, I was terrified of potential Mismagius4 outspeeding and killing my Staraptor with Thunderbolt but switching Staraptor out meant potentially letting Sceptile die to Glalie. After considering my options, I decided to preserve Staraptor and attack Mismagius with Sceptile to break a potential Focus Sash. It did end up being Mismagius4 and wasting its turn using Thunderbolt on the Nidoqueen switch in while Sceptile broke its Focus Sash. Glalie2 couldn't kill Sceptile through Intimidate with Ice Fang but it could freeze it, meaning I wasn't going to get the kill on Mismagius next turn. After not thawing out next turn Mismagius finished Sceptile off with Shadow Ball and Glalie froze Nidoqueen as well. Feeling this was going to be a Factory Moment™, I decided to kill Mismagius with Psychic while it used its last turn to Psychic Nidoqueen and then Glalie's Earthquake finished Nidoqueen off and left Magmortar wounded but alive. Staraptor came back in and got rid of that accursed Glalie with Brave Bird while Magmortar killed the Marowak that came in with Overheat. 2v1 scenario, surely it will be fine right? Well my Staraptor isn't to happy to know it's locked in Brave Bird VS Regirock. Well, so what, just hit Focus Blast right? Wellx3, not quite. There were 3 potential Regirock Sets in play, and 2 of them tanked Focus Blast. I could double Focus Blast sure, but that would require Regirock deciding to kill Staraptor first so that wasn't the way. The way was to Confuse Ray and hope for the best, since x2 Brave Bird + Focus Blast would kill even the SpD invested Sets. So I went for it and I got it, overcoming the Factory Moment™.
5-3
No spec, swap Sceptile for Mismagius VS 16IV Yanmega Bastiodon
I now have a very good lead pair with both Initimidate support and Focus Sash Destiny Bond Shenanigans while packing great firepower as well. Speaking of Focus Sash, having it meant Bastiodon4 wasn't in play so I grabbed an easy double KO then Quagsire Houndoom came out. Item clause meant only Houndoom3 was in play, which is incidentally the only Set Staraptor outspeeds so I grabbed the free kill and finished Quagsire with x2 Shadow Ball while it revealed it was Set4 by killing Staraptor with Stone Edge.
5-4
Considered Quagsire for a second before seeing Poison spec, no swap VS 16IV Weezing Magnezone
Staraptor does not take very kindly to Magnezones, especially with potential Weezing3 in play so I switched in Nidoqueen and aimed Psychic at Weezing which ended up getting the KO while Magnezone3 wasted its turn using Charge Beam on Staraptor's slot. Froslass came out and the fact it was faster than Mismagius meant it was Set1, which didn't have the power to kill Nidoqueen with an Ice Beam and died to Shadow Ball from Mismagius while Nidoqueen took care of the Magnezone with Earth Power, and the Drapion that came out revealed it was the Iron Ball Set2 by being slower and dying to Nidoqueen's Earth Power.
5-5
Water spec meant I wanted Magnezone even if it's only Charge Beam, ended up swapping Nidoqueen out for it, VS 16IV Dusknoir Dewgong
Item clause ruled out Dewgong4 and more importantly, Dusknoir1, meaning I didn't have to be scared of Trick Room. Dewgong revealed Set1 by using Fake Out on my Staraptor and Mismagius and Dusknoir exchanged blows on turn1, with Mismagius finishing the job on turn2 while Staraptor destroyed the Dewgong with Brave Bird. Politoed and Metagross came out, Politoed dropped to Brave Bird and I clicked Destiny Bond with Mismagius having nothing better to do and taking the Metagross2 that killed me with Shadow Ball down with me.
5-6
No spec, swap Magnezone for Metagross. I did consider keeping Magnezone for Thunder Wave support but figured I probably wouldn't get a chance to use it from the back and my team is already decently fast with Metagross taking care of the same problem Pokemon (e.g. Weavile) while being an underrated Set and blocking some more potential problems with item clause (e.g Starmie3 Alakazam3)
VS Set4 Leafeon Walrein
Decided to double up on Walrein for the kill hoping for no Quick Claw from Leafeon turn2, then I got Quick Claw'd from Leafeon turn2. Ended up losing Mismagius prematurely but it didn't matter because Vespiquen was practically a dead slot for the opponent. Marowak came out and I got the double KO with Brave Bird Overheat.
5-7
No spec, no swap VS 20IV Probopass Blaziken
Killed Probopass with Close Combat and used Thunderbolt on Blaziken to avoid putting it into potential Set1 Endure Reversal Salac range, Luxray came out and I ended up switching in Metagross for Staraptor hoping for a Physical Electric attack on it (the special Set was ruled out) while Mismagius killed Blaziken with Psychic and ended up dying to Luxray's Crunch after being chipped by Blaziken's Blaze Kick on turn1. Jynx came out and revealed Set4 by being faster and using Psychic on Magmortar but Magmortar tanked it and retaliated with Overheat, eating a Thunder Wave for its efforts while Metagross chipped Luxray with Flash Cannon (that was meant for the potential Jynx4 killing Magmortar) then Metagross ended up winng the battle 1v1 without needing Staraptor's help after Luxray killed Magmortar with an Ice Fang.
Platinum Draft: Medicham4(20IV)/Togekiss4(Hustle)/Nidoqueen3(Poison Point)/Articuno3/Mr.Mime4/Mamoswine3
Had a Normal spec hint from the assistant, decided to lead Sceptile/Magmortar Togekiss/Nidoqueen, considered Cresselia shortly just to take Mamoswine in the Platinum Draft to have free Earthquakes for my backline, but Cresselia3 is not good enough to justify that. Also preferred Magmortar to Quagsire because it's decently fast and hits hard with Overheat, unlike Quagsire who can't even click Earthquake safely half the time.
5-1
VS Set4 Granbull (Quick Feet) Shuckle
Doubled up on Granbull with Leaf Blade Aura Sphere for the kill without calcing because Shuckle is just a sitting duck considering not only I have Aura Sphere Aerial Ace in the lead slots but also a Ground Poison Type in Nidoqueen in my backline. Next turn I killed the Floatzel4 that came out with Leaf Blade and started wearing Shuckle down with Aura Sphere, culminating in me killing it a few turns later with Sceptile on 3 turns of Toxic damage. Then Staraptor came out and I knew this Choice Banded god would succumb to the 4v1 eventually and join my team.
5-2 (War Story Win)
No spec, swap Togekiss for Staraptor VS 16IV Glalie Mismagius
Ruled out Glalie3 with item clause, I was terrified of potential Mismagius4 outspeeding and killing my Staraptor with Thunderbolt but switching Staraptor out meant potentially letting Sceptile die to Glalie. After considering my options, I decided to preserve Staraptor and attack Mismagius with Sceptile to break a potential Focus Sash. It did end up being Mismagius4 and wasting its turn using Thunderbolt on the Nidoqueen switch in while Sceptile broke its Focus Sash. Glalie2 couldn't kill Sceptile through Intimidate with Ice Fang but it could freeze it, meaning I wasn't going to get the kill on Mismagius next turn. After not thawing out next turn Mismagius finished Sceptile off with Shadow Ball and Glalie froze Nidoqueen as well. Feeling this was going to be a Factory Moment™, I decided to kill Mismagius with Psychic while it used its last turn to Psychic Nidoqueen and then Glalie's Earthquake finished Nidoqueen off and left Magmortar wounded but alive. Staraptor came back in and got rid of that accursed Glalie with Brave Bird while Magmortar killed the Marowak that came in with Overheat. 2v1 scenario, surely it will be fine right? Well my Staraptor isn't to happy to know it's locked in Brave Bird VS Regirock. Well, so what, just hit Focus Blast right? Wellx3, not quite. There were 3 potential Regirock Sets in play, and 2 of them tanked Focus Blast. I could double Focus Blast sure, but that would require Regirock deciding to kill Staraptor first so that wasn't the way. The way was to Confuse Ray and hope for the best, since x2 Brave Bird + Focus Blast would kill even the SpD invested Sets. So I went for it and I got it, overcoming the Factory Moment™.
5-3
No spec, swap Sceptile for Mismagius VS 16IV Yanmega Bastiodon
I now have a very good lead pair with both Initimidate support and Focus Sash Destiny Bond Shenanigans while packing great firepower as well. Speaking of Focus Sash, having it meant Bastiodon4 wasn't in play so I grabbed an easy double KO then Quagsire Houndoom came out. Item clause meant only Houndoom3 was in play, which is incidentally the only Set Staraptor outspeeds so I grabbed the free kill and finished Quagsire with x2 Shadow Ball while it revealed it was Set4 by killing Staraptor with Stone Edge.
5-4
Considered Quagsire for a second before seeing Poison spec, no swap VS 16IV Weezing Magnezone
Staraptor does not take very kindly to Magnezones, especially with potential Weezing3 in play so I switched in Nidoqueen and aimed Psychic at Weezing which ended up getting the KO while Magnezone3 wasted its turn using Charge Beam on Staraptor's slot. Froslass came out and the fact it was faster than Mismagius meant it was Set1, which didn't have the power to kill Nidoqueen with an Ice Beam and died to Shadow Ball from Mismagius while Nidoqueen took care of the Magnezone with Earth Power, and the Drapion that came out revealed it was the Iron Ball Set2 by being slower and dying to Nidoqueen's Earth Power.
5-5
Water spec meant I wanted Magnezone even if it's only Charge Beam, ended up swapping Nidoqueen out for it, VS 16IV Dusknoir Dewgong
Item clause ruled out Dewgong4 and more importantly, Dusknoir1, meaning I didn't have to be scared of Trick Room. Dewgong revealed Set1 by using Fake Out on my Staraptor and Mismagius and Dusknoir exchanged blows on turn1, with Mismagius finishing the job on turn2 while Staraptor destroyed the Dewgong with Brave Bird. Politoed and Metagross came out, Politoed dropped to Brave Bird and I clicked Destiny Bond with Mismagius having nothing better to do and taking the Metagross2 that killed me with Shadow Ball down with me.
5-6
No spec, swap Magnezone for Metagross. I did consider keeping Magnezone for Thunder Wave support but figured I probably wouldn't get a chance to use it from the back and my team is already decently fast with Metagross taking care of the same problem Pokemon (e.g. Weavile) while being an underrated Set and blocking some more potential problems with item clause (e.g Starmie3 Alakazam3)
VS Set4 Leafeon Walrein
Decided to double up on Walrein for the kill hoping for no Quick Claw from Leafeon turn2, then I got Quick Claw'd from Leafeon turn2. Ended up losing Mismagius prematurely but it didn't matter because Vespiquen was practically a dead slot for the opponent. Marowak came out and I got the double KO with Brave Bird Overheat.
5-7
No spec, no swap VS 20IV Probopass Blaziken
Killed Probopass with Close Combat and used Thunderbolt on Blaziken to avoid putting it into potential Set1 Endure Reversal Salac range, Luxray came out and I ended up switching in Metagross for Staraptor hoping for a Physical Electric attack on it (the special Set was ruled out) while Mismagius killed Blaziken with Psychic and ended up dying to Luxray's Crunch after being chipped by Blaziken's Blaze Kick on turn1. Jynx came out and revealed Set4 by being faster and using Psychic on Magmortar but Magmortar tanked it and retaliated with Overheat, eating a Thunder Wave for its efforts while Metagross chipped Luxray with Flash Cannon (that was meant for the potential Jynx4 killing Magmortar) then Metagross ended up winng the battle 1v1 without needing Staraptor's help after Luxray killed Magmortar with an Ice Fang.
HG: Gliscor4(24IV)/Shuckle4/Registeel3/Golduck4/Vespiquen4/Feraligatr3
Platinum Draft: Typhlosion3(24IV)/Gallade4(24IV)/Cresselia3/Floatzel3/Bronzong3(Levitate)/Zapdos2
Very good draft really, the only thing missing was a good backline pick for Gliscor but having Zapdos2 to pair with an Earthquake Spammer and Levitating Bronzong to support it is just insane, even if it isn't Bronzong4 and Gliscor ain't exactly Garchomp, especially on the speed front (being uninvested and all) but you know, I definitely wasn't complaing, and as you'll see, I ended up assembling an insane team over the course of this round. Ended up leading Gliscor/Registeel Zapdos Bronzong (Registeel was a meme pick because of Psychic spec, good into something like Starmie2 that would destroy Gliscor and Feraligatr if I decided to pick it and also blocks Weavile4 with item clause, a Pokemon that is very scary against my lead pair)
6-1
Psychic spec, VS 20IV Drapion Hypno
I started off wrongly concluding that Trick Room wasn't a possibility (forgot about 20IVs) because Iron Ball Hypno would mean no Iron Ball Drapion (I had already ruled out Drapion3,4) but it wan't important because the play was to double up on Hypno anyways, I killed it with X-Scissor Ominous Wind while Drapion got a useless Acupressure accuracy boost. Charizard came out just to die to a Thunderbolt, Earthquake put Drapion in the red while it got a now useless defense boost. Next turn I finished it off and set up Light Screen for the last Pokemon, that being a Metagross. Being 4v1, I do a bit of cheeky scouting and realize that this is Metagross4, which means I now have my backline support for Gliscor, goodbye meme Registeel, hello god Metagross4.
6-2
No spec, swap Registeel for Metagross and have a Fire weak backline
VS 16IV Whiscash Roserade
Scared of Leaf Storm Roserade and Stone Edge Whiscash I end up double switching and make things difficult for myself because Whiscash revealed Set2, getting a critical hit with Aqua Tail on Bronzong, but at the very least Roserade revealed itself to be a practically dead slot Set2 as well. Wondering if Whiscash would pick Earthquake considering it could kill Bronzong (ability notwithstanding) I decided to switch Metagross back out and try to get a bit of cheeky chip damage with Bronzong. That didn't happen and Bronzong died to another Aqua Tail, bringing me a Pokemon down without having used a single move in 2 turns playing VS basically 1 Pokemon. Gliscor having being Leech Seeded on the previous turn died to Giga Drain Aqua Tail after Earthquake Ominous Wind wore Whiscash down so now I had basically given up 2 Pokemon on this Whiscash trying to play around worst case scenario. Thankfully another Earthquake Ominous Wind killed Whiscash and Roserade started doing nothing by using Synthesis. I focused on the Scisor3 that came out and killed it with Thunderbolt Earthquake while getting slightly chipped by X-Scissor. Next I put Roserade out of its misery with a Meteor Mash, fishing for an attack boost without success and setting up Light Screen and afterwards, the Kangaskhan4 that decided to lock into Outrage posed no threat, crisis averted.
6-3
Water spec, Roserade2 was of little interest to me with such a good team and so early into the round but I did find it amusing considering I have past history of using many Roserade sets succesfully and unsuccesfuly when given the option to build for a spec, particularly in my winning attempt in LV50 Doubles.
VS 20IV Feraligatr Walrein
Thunderbolt took care of Feraligatr and Metagross ended up switching into a Swagger, revealing Walrein1. Yanmega came out and promptly dropped to an Ancient Power, while I switched Gliscor back in and Zapdos took a Swagger as well. Briefly considered just staying in and using Stone Edge given this thing refused to attack Gliscor turn1, but I ended up double switching again and Metagross came into an Ice Fang this time. Used Meteor Mash +1 attack Charge Beam and Walrein did its thing on Bronzong this time, then I finished Walrein off while switching in Zapdos. Alakazam came in and posed no threat, looked Timid from the roll on Zapdos but I was probably not taking it and didn't bother scouting.
6-4
Fighting spec was one reason to consider Alakazam but I already had 2 Psychic Pokemon anyways and the scariest threat that came to mind, Machamp3/4 was ruled out by item clause, no swap
VS 20IV Magmortar Pinsir
Ended up clicking Earthquake Thunderbolt to kill Pinsir and heavily chip Shuca Berry Magmortar2 which did nothing with Fire Punch. Hariyama came out and revealed it was Set1/2 by using Fake out, I didn't care because it used it on Gliscor and Zapdos just finished off Magmortar with Ancient Power. Infernape then came out and revealed Set3 by killing Gliscor with Flamethrower, I misplayed here and used Thunderbolt on the non-threatening Hariyama instead of focusing on Infernape but I got bailed out by a critical hit on the next turn and finished off Hariyama1 using Facade with ease afterwards.
6-5
Psychic spec, no swap VS 20IV Medicham Latios
Ruled out Latios1/3, did what would be called an egregious misplay by not respecting the 50% chance for Latios4, switched Gliscor out for Metagross expecting Draco Meteor and used Ancient Power on Medicham to kill with Thunderbolt next turn without putting it into Set1 Endure Reversal Salac Berry range. I did that because like an idiot I checked Latias4 Draco Meteor VS Zapdos instead of Latios and saw it didn't kill, and (big surprise) it actually does kill and I should have used Light Screen but I didn't get punished because Latios aimed its attack on Metagross, and to add insult to injury, Medicham used Detect revealing Set2. Next turn I tried to get back in the game, used Light Screen while Medicham used Detect again and Draco Miss Meteor Miss worked their magic. Turn3 Ominous Wind Meteor Mash killed Latios, Zapdos took a Draco and Metagross took a Drain Punch. Afterwards Zapdos took the Yanmega that came out with Ancient Power (thankfully no detect nonsense from this) and died to a Poison Jab while Meteor Miss did its thing again. Preserved Metagross and let Gliscor Bronzong kill Medicham, it did land a critical Drain Punch on Bronzong before going down, but the last Pokemon was an Empoleon that couldn't have Quick Claw and just got destroyed by Gliscor's Earthquake.
6-6
Bug spec, swap Bronzong for Latios, goodbye x2 Fire weak backline, hello unbelievably cracked team
VS 16IV Armaldo Forretress
Doubled up on Armaldo, avoiding to use Earthquake in case of Counter from Forretress1, it turned out to be SpD invested Set2 and tanked Thunderbolt Aerial Ace using Swagger on Zapdos and Forretress4 used Rock Slide to damage Zapdos for almost half health. Not scared of Counter anymore, I use Earthquake to kill Armaldo and chip Forretress while switching in Latios, which takes a Double Edge for almost half health as well. Golduck comes out and promptly gets rekt by Draco Meteor while Earthquake lands a critical hit and finishes off Forretress, and then Scizor comes out, eats a Draco Meteor, reveals Set3 by outspeeding Gliscor and finishing Latios with X-Scissor, then dies to Earthquake.
6-7
No spec, no swap VS 24IV Togekiss Wailord
Ruled out Togekiss2,4 and Wailord4 with item clause, Wailord dropped to a Thunderbolt and Togekiss got chipped into Thunderbolt range by Aerial Ace, while it used what looked like Serene Grace Sky Attack on Gliscor revealing Set1. Donphan1 came out and I focused on it for 2 turns with Aerial Ace Ominous Wind while Togekiss used weak Extreme Speed to chip my Pokemon then Roosted and Donphan used Rock Slide to dent Zapdos on the 1 turn it was afforded on the field. After that I switched Metagross in to open up the possibility of Exploding if needed and used Thunderbolt but didn't get the range, which then allowed me to get a Quick Claw Meteor Mash attack boost that didn't matter because Metagross still needed 2 turns to kill Electivire4 through Shuca Berry, so Latios just came in and ended the round with Luster Purge after Zapdos dropped to an Ice Punch, bringing my time with this stellar team to an end and leaving me hoping for a team even remotely comparable to this for the final round.
Platinum Draft: Typhlosion3(24IV)/Gallade4(24IV)/Cresselia3/Floatzel3/Bronzong3(Levitate)/Zapdos2
Very good draft really, the only thing missing was a good backline pick for Gliscor but having Zapdos2 to pair with an Earthquake Spammer and Levitating Bronzong to support it is just insane, even if it isn't Bronzong4 and Gliscor ain't exactly Garchomp, especially on the speed front (being uninvested and all) but you know, I definitely wasn't complaing, and as you'll see, I ended up assembling an insane team over the course of this round. Ended up leading Gliscor/Registeel Zapdos Bronzong (Registeel was a meme pick because of Psychic spec, good into something like Starmie2 that would destroy Gliscor and Feraligatr if I decided to pick it and also blocks Weavile4 with item clause, a Pokemon that is very scary against my lead pair)
6-1
Psychic spec, VS 20IV Drapion Hypno
I started off wrongly concluding that Trick Room wasn't a possibility (forgot about 20IVs) because Iron Ball Hypno would mean no Iron Ball Drapion (I had already ruled out Drapion3,4) but it wan't important because the play was to double up on Hypno anyways, I killed it with X-Scissor Ominous Wind while Drapion got a useless Acupressure accuracy boost. Charizard came out just to die to a Thunderbolt, Earthquake put Drapion in the red while it got a now useless defense boost. Next turn I finished it off and set up Light Screen for the last Pokemon, that being a Metagross. Being 4v1, I do a bit of cheeky scouting and realize that this is Metagross4, which means I now have my backline support for Gliscor, goodbye meme Registeel, hello god Metagross4.
6-2
No spec, swap Registeel for Metagross and have a Fire weak backline
VS 16IV Whiscash Roserade
Scared of Leaf Storm Roserade and Stone Edge Whiscash I end up double switching and make things difficult for myself because Whiscash revealed Set2, getting a critical hit with Aqua Tail on Bronzong, but at the very least Roserade revealed itself to be a practically dead slot Set2 as well. Wondering if Whiscash would pick Earthquake considering it could kill Bronzong (ability notwithstanding) I decided to switch Metagross back out and try to get a bit of cheeky chip damage with Bronzong. That didn't happen and Bronzong died to another Aqua Tail, bringing me a Pokemon down without having used a single move in 2 turns playing VS basically 1 Pokemon. Gliscor having being Leech Seeded on the previous turn died to Giga Drain Aqua Tail after Earthquake Ominous Wind wore Whiscash down so now I had basically given up 2 Pokemon on this Whiscash trying to play around worst case scenario. Thankfully another Earthquake Ominous Wind killed Whiscash and Roserade started doing nothing by using Synthesis. I focused on the Scisor3 that came out and killed it with Thunderbolt Earthquake while getting slightly chipped by X-Scissor. Next I put Roserade out of its misery with a Meteor Mash, fishing for an attack boost without success and setting up Light Screen and afterwards, the Kangaskhan4 that decided to lock into Outrage posed no threat, crisis averted.
6-3
Water spec, Roserade2 was of little interest to me with such a good team and so early into the round but I did find it amusing considering I have past history of using many Roserade sets succesfully and unsuccesfuly when given the option to build for a spec, particularly in my winning attempt in LV50 Doubles.
VS 20IV Feraligatr Walrein
Thunderbolt took care of Feraligatr and Metagross ended up switching into a Swagger, revealing Walrein1. Yanmega came out and promptly dropped to an Ancient Power, while I switched Gliscor back in and Zapdos took a Swagger as well. Briefly considered just staying in and using Stone Edge given this thing refused to attack Gliscor turn1, but I ended up double switching again and Metagross came into an Ice Fang this time. Used Meteor Mash +1 attack Charge Beam and Walrein did its thing on Bronzong this time, then I finished Walrein off while switching in Zapdos. Alakazam came in and posed no threat, looked Timid from the roll on Zapdos but I was probably not taking it and didn't bother scouting.
6-4
Fighting spec was one reason to consider Alakazam but I already had 2 Psychic Pokemon anyways and the scariest threat that came to mind, Machamp3/4 was ruled out by item clause, no swap
VS 20IV Magmortar Pinsir
Ended up clicking Earthquake Thunderbolt to kill Pinsir and heavily chip Shuca Berry Magmortar2 which did nothing with Fire Punch. Hariyama came out and revealed it was Set1/2 by using Fake out, I didn't care because it used it on Gliscor and Zapdos just finished off Magmortar with Ancient Power. Infernape then came out and revealed Set3 by killing Gliscor with Flamethrower, I misplayed here and used Thunderbolt on the non-threatening Hariyama instead of focusing on Infernape but I got bailed out by a critical hit on the next turn and finished off Hariyama1 using Facade with ease afterwards.
6-5
Psychic spec, no swap VS 20IV Medicham Latios
Ruled out Latios1/3, did what would be called an egregious misplay by not respecting the 50% chance for Latios4, switched Gliscor out for Metagross expecting Draco Meteor and used Ancient Power on Medicham to kill with Thunderbolt next turn without putting it into Set1 Endure Reversal Salac Berry range. I did that because like an idiot I checked Latias4 Draco Meteor VS Zapdos instead of Latios and saw it didn't kill, and (big surprise) it actually does kill and I should have used Light Screen but I didn't get punished because Latios aimed its attack on Metagross, and to add insult to injury, Medicham used Detect revealing Set2. Next turn I tried to get back in the game, used Light Screen while Medicham used Detect again and Draco Miss Meteor Miss worked their magic. Turn3 Ominous Wind Meteor Mash killed Latios, Zapdos took a Draco and Metagross took a Drain Punch. Afterwards Zapdos took the Yanmega that came out with Ancient Power (thankfully no detect nonsense from this) and died to a Poison Jab while Meteor Miss did its thing again. Preserved Metagross and let Gliscor Bronzong kill Medicham, it did land a critical Drain Punch on Bronzong before going down, but the last Pokemon was an Empoleon that couldn't have Quick Claw and just got destroyed by Gliscor's Earthquake.
6-6
Bug spec, swap Bronzong for Latios, goodbye x2 Fire weak backline, hello unbelievably cracked team
VS 16IV Armaldo Forretress
Doubled up on Armaldo, avoiding to use Earthquake in case of Counter from Forretress1, it turned out to be SpD invested Set2 and tanked Thunderbolt Aerial Ace using Swagger on Zapdos and Forretress4 used Rock Slide to damage Zapdos for almost half health. Not scared of Counter anymore, I use Earthquake to kill Armaldo and chip Forretress while switching in Latios, which takes a Double Edge for almost half health as well. Golduck comes out and promptly gets rekt by Draco Meteor while Earthquake lands a critical hit and finishes off Forretress, and then Scizor comes out, eats a Draco Meteor, reveals Set3 by outspeeding Gliscor and finishing Latios with X-Scissor, then dies to Earthquake.
6-7
No spec, no swap VS 24IV Togekiss Wailord
Ruled out Togekiss2,4 and Wailord4 with item clause, Wailord dropped to a Thunderbolt and Togekiss got chipped into Thunderbolt range by Aerial Ace, while it used what looked like Serene Grace Sky Attack on Gliscor revealing Set1. Donphan1 came out and I focused on it for 2 turns with Aerial Ace Ominous Wind while Togekiss used weak Extreme Speed to chip my Pokemon then Roosted and Donphan used Rock Slide to dent Zapdos on the 1 turn it was afforded on the field. After that I switched Metagross in to open up the possibility of Exploding if needed and used Thunderbolt but didn't get the range, which then allowed me to get a Quick Claw Meteor Mash attack boost that didn't matter because Metagross still needed 2 turns to kill Electivire4 through Shuca Berry, so Latios just came in and ended the round with Luster Purge after Zapdos dropped to an Ice Punch, bringing my time with this stellar team to an end and leaving me hoping for a team even remotely comparable to this for the final round.
HG: Togekiss3(Hustle)/Staraptor4/Meganium4/Luxray4(Rivalry)/Magnezone3(31IV)/Claydol1(31IV)
Platinum: Bastiodon1(31IV)/Drapion3/Regigigas3/Nidoqueen4(Rivalry)/Dusknoir1(31IV)/Mamoswine3
I got my wish from Heart Gold, seeing a repeat of Pokemon I used in Round5 with Staraptor4/Magnezone3 but Platinum wasn't that great. I mean when you are unironically considering using Regigigas, a Special Regigigas with no stab attack to boot, that says everything really... At least I had Mamoswine to pair with god Staraptor though, so that was something. Ended up leading Staraptor/Magnezone Mamoswine/Drapion
7-1
Poison spec, VS 24IV Roserade Dewgong
Prayed for no Fake out Dewgong, got Fake Out Dewgong into Mamoswine, good enough since what I wanted was for Staraptor to kill Roserade3/4. Next turn Toxicroak came out and I grabbed the double KO with Brave Bird Superpower and with a bit of switching around managed to scout and beat Regirock4 with Magnezone and Drapion.
7-2
Fighting spec, no Quick Claw Machamp again swap Drapion for Roserade
VS 20IV Heracross Golem
Heracross got absolutely annihilated by Brave Bird, Golem took an Earthquake and revealed Set3 by using Hammer Arm on Mamoswine. Slaking came out and I switched Staraptor out because I was scared of Set3 or Set2, it ended up being Set4 and using Hammer Arm into the Staraptor slot and heavily damaging Magnezone while Mamoswine chipped Slaking with Superpower instead of killing Golem to enable the double KO with Magnezone Roserade after dropping to Gyro Ball. After that Lucario came out and scared me for a bit by dodging Brave Bird and killing Staraptor with Aura Sphere but Leaf Storm did the job eventually.
7-3
Ground spec, swap Magnezone for Lucario
VS 20IV Flygon Probopass
Flygon3 was ruled out, unfortunately ended up being Flygon2 and paralyzing Staraptor with Thunder Punch but that didn't stop me from grabbing the double KO. Next turn Marowak Miltank came out, Staraptor dropped to Facade from Miltank2 while Marowak3 locked into Outrage and Earthquake chipped them both, with Lucario coming in and picking Miltank off while Marowak killed Mamoswine with Outrage then Roserade revenge killed it.
7-4
No spec, no swap VS 20IV Crobat Snorlax
Crobat revealed Set1 most likely by using Cross Poison on Staraptor and died to Brave Bird, Snorlax4 barely tanked a Superpower and dropped to its own recoil after killing Staraptor with Double Edge. Aggron Blastoise then came in and I doubled up on Aggron for potential Focus Sash, wasn't Set4 so Superpower chipped Blastoise which then picked off Lucario with Focus Blast. Played it super safely here and switched Roserade into expected Focus Blast so that I could kill with Sludge Bomb Earthquake in a worst case scenario which didn't come to pass, Roserade tanked an Ice Beam and finished Blastoise with x2 Sludge Bomb.
7-5
Fire spec into x2 Fire weak had me sweating, so I got rid of Roserade, swap for Hydro Cannon Blastoise
VS 24IV Dugtrio Typhlosion
Just went for it, Dugtrio3 missed Fissure, Typhlosion1 won the speedtie and used Thunderpunch on Staraptor but no paralysis nonsense this time and Brave Bird Earthquake got the double KO. Houndoom Dragonite came out, I tried to preserve Staraptor and sacrificed Lucario VS Houndoom2 using Thunder Fang on Staraptor slot and Dragonite1 using Aerial Ace and finishing Lucario off with a critical hit while Mamoswine broke Houndoom's Focus Sash with an Earthquake. Staraptor then came in, Houndoom chose to use Fire Fang on Mamoswine I'd Imagine and missed and Earthquake Brave Bird got the job done.
7-6
Flying spec, Mamoswine wasn't looking too hot here and after a lot of tryharding with checking every potential Flying Set and ruling out whatever I could with item clause, I made what the kids today would describe as a pro gamer move (translation: incredibly stupid choke decision that somehow worked out thanks to blind luck) and swapped Mamoswine for Houndoom
VS 24IV Ambipom Zapdos
Figured I couldn't switch Lucario into a Zapdos Thunderbolt, so just hoped for not the Timid Set win the speedtie and aimed Giga Impact straight at it while using Thunder Fang hoping for paralysis on Ambipom. It ended up being the best case scenario Zapdos3 which used Drill Peck on Staraptor for nothing and got obliterated by Giga Impact while Ambipom1 used Brick Break to bring Houndoom down to Focus Sash with a critical hit. Staraptor has to recharge and an Articuno comes out. God Pokemon Houndoom2 uses Endure and both Ambipom and Articuno decide to target it, winning Staraptor the time it needed to unleash its mighty Giga Impact once more and send that stupid idiot Articuno to the Shadow Realm, that will teach it to ignore Staraptor4 next time, the real Legendary Bird of the Battle Factory. I switch Blastoise into expected Brick Break into Houndoom out of respect for the work it put in, a clear indicator of my Skill Level™ that had nothing to do with luck cannot be allowed to fall in battle. Then Ambipom failed to kill Staraptor with Double Hit and Blastoise missed Focus Blast. I then decided to switch Lucario in for Staraptor because who knows why at that point and got Brick Break'd... but I dodged it with Brightpowder because I'm just that good. Then Blastoise missed another Focus Miss and I switched Staraptor back in because (pretend I calculated it and it can live Brick Break after x2 Intimidate) but it got crit to death, but alas Focus Blast decided to hit for a change and then Shiftry died to Aura Sphere winning me this battle.
7-7
Water spec, swap Houndoom for mystery Shiftry VS 31IV Tentacruel Kangaskhan
Tentacruel is bad news, the good news is that I rolled Shiftry4, not very good if Tentacruel just kills it though. Decided to try and preserve Staraptor while hoping for Tentacruel2 and used Sucker Punch to try and chip the potential worst case scenario, Tentacruel4. It does end up being that and targetting Shiftry who tanked this 252 SpA Tentacruel Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Shiftry: 338-398 (89.7 - 105.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO while Kangaskhan revealed Set2 by using Ice Punch on Lucario. Shiftry then killed Tentacruel with another Sucker Punch but Lucario failed to KO Kangaskhan with Aura Sphere and Shiftry dropped to Thunder Punch. Empoleon then came out and I doubled up on it with Aura Sphere Focus Blast ignoring -1 attack Kangaskhan. After that I finished of Kangaskhan with Aura Sphere and the Umbreon that came out last died to Aura Sphere + Hydro Cannon for the style points to win me my last remaining Gold Print!
Platinum: Bastiodon1(31IV)/Drapion3/Regigigas3/Nidoqueen4(Rivalry)/Dusknoir1(31IV)/Mamoswine3
I got my wish from Heart Gold, seeing a repeat of Pokemon I used in Round5 with Staraptor4/Magnezone3 but Platinum wasn't that great. I mean when you are unironically considering using Regigigas, a Special Regigigas with no stab attack to boot, that says everything really... At least I had Mamoswine to pair with god Staraptor though, so that was something. Ended up leading Staraptor/Magnezone Mamoswine/Drapion
7-1
Poison spec, VS 24IV Roserade Dewgong
Prayed for no Fake out Dewgong, got Fake Out Dewgong into Mamoswine, good enough since what I wanted was for Staraptor to kill Roserade3/4. Next turn Toxicroak came out and I grabbed the double KO with Brave Bird Superpower and with a bit of switching around managed to scout and beat Regirock4 with Magnezone and Drapion.
7-2
Fighting spec, no Quick Claw Machamp again swap Drapion for Roserade
VS 20IV Heracross Golem
Heracross got absolutely annihilated by Brave Bird, Golem took an Earthquake and revealed Set3 by using Hammer Arm on Mamoswine. Slaking came out and I switched Staraptor out because I was scared of Set3 or Set2, it ended up being Set4 and using Hammer Arm into the Staraptor slot and heavily damaging Magnezone while Mamoswine chipped Slaking with Superpower instead of killing Golem to enable the double KO with Magnezone Roserade after dropping to Gyro Ball. After that Lucario came out and scared me for a bit by dodging Brave Bird and killing Staraptor with Aura Sphere but Leaf Storm did the job eventually.
7-3
Ground spec, swap Magnezone for Lucario
VS 20IV Flygon Probopass
Flygon3 was ruled out, unfortunately ended up being Flygon2 and paralyzing Staraptor with Thunder Punch but that didn't stop me from grabbing the double KO. Next turn Marowak Miltank came out, Staraptor dropped to Facade from Miltank2 while Marowak3 locked into Outrage and Earthquake chipped them both, with Lucario coming in and picking Miltank off while Marowak killed Mamoswine with Outrage then Roserade revenge killed it.
7-4
No spec, no swap VS 20IV Crobat Snorlax
Crobat revealed Set1 most likely by using Cross Poison on Staraptor and died to Brave Bird, Snorlax4 barely tanked a Superpower and dropped to its own recoil after killing Staraptor with Double Edge. Aggron Blastoise then came in and I doubled up on Aggron for potential Focus Sash, wasn't Set4 so Superpower chipped Blastoise which then picked off Lucario with Focus Blast. Played it super safely here and switched Roserade into expected Focus Blast so that I could kill with Sludge Bomb Earthquake in a worst case scenario which didn't come to pass, Roserade tanked an Ice Beam and finished Blastoise with x2 Sludge Bomb.
7-5
Fire spec into x2 Fire weak had me sweating, so I got rid of Roserade, swap for Hydro Cannon Blastoise
VS 24IV Dugtrio Typhlosion
Just went for it, Dugtrio3 missed Fissure, Typhlosion1 won the speedtie and used Thunderpunch on Staraptor but no paralysis nonsense this time and Brave Bird Earthquake got the double KO. Houndoom Dragonite came out, I tried to preserve Staraptor and sacrificed Lucario VS Houndoom2 using Thunder Fang on Staraptor slot and Dragonite1 using Aerial Ace and finishing Lucario off with a critical hit while Mamoswine broke Houndoom's Focus Sash with an Earthquake. Staraptor then came in, Houndoom chose to use Fire Fang on Mamoswine I'd Imagine and missed and Earthquake Brave Bird got the job done.
7-6
Flying spec, Mamoswine wasn't looking too hot here and after a lot of tryharding with checking every potential Flying Set and ruling out whatever I could with item clause, I made what the kids today would describe as a pro gamer move (translation: incredibly stupid choke decision that somehow worked out thanks to blind luck) and swapped Mamoswine for Houndoom
VS 24IV Ambipom Zapdos
Figured I couldn't switch Lucario into a Zapdos Thunderbolt, so just hoped for not the Timid Set win the speedtie and aimed Giga Impact straight at it while using Thunder Fang hoping for paralysis on Ambipom. It ended up being the best case scenario Zapdos3 which used Drill Peck on Staraptor for nothing and got obliterated by Giga Impact while Ambipom1 used Brick Break to bring Houndoom down to Focus Sash with a critical hit. Staraptor has to recharge and an Articuno comes out. God Pokemon Houndoom2 uses Endure and both Ambipom and Articuno decide to target it, winning Staraptor the time it needed to unleash its mighty Giga Impact once more and send that stupid idiot Articuno to the Shadow Realm, that will teach it to ignore Staraptor4 next time, the real Legendary Bird of the Battle Factory. I switch Blastoise into expected Brick Break into Houndoom out of respect for the work it put in, a clear indicator of my Skill Level™ that had nothing to do with luck cannot be allowed to fall in battle. Then Ambipom failed to kill Staraptor with Double Hit and Blastoise missed Focus Blast. I then decided to switch Lucario in for Staraptor because who knows why at that point and got Brick Break'd... but I dodged it with Brightpowder because I'm just that good. Then Blastoise missed another Focus Miss and I switched Staraptor back in because (pretend I calculated it and it can live Brick Break after x2 Intimidate) but it got crit to death, but alas Focus Blast decided to hit for a change and then Shiftry died to Aura Sphere winning me this battle.
7-7
Water spec, swap Houndoom for mystery Shiftry VS 31IV Tentacruel Kangaskhan
Tentacruel is bad news, the good news is that I rolled Shiftry4, not very good if Tentacruel just kills it though. Decided to try and preserve Staraptor while hoping for Tentacruel2 and used Sucker Punch to try and chip the potential worst case scenario, Tentacruel4. It does end up being that and targetting Shiftry who tanked this 252 SpA Tentacruel Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Shiftry: 338-398 (89.7 - 105.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO while Kangaskhan revealed Set2 by using Ice Punch on Lucario. Shiftry then killed Tentacruel with another Sucker Punch but Lucario failed to KO Kangaskhan with Aura Sphere and Shiftry dropped to Thunder Punch. Empoleon then came out and I doubled up on it with Aura Sphere Focus Blast ignoring -1 attack Kangaskhan. After that I finished of Kangaskhan with Aura Sphere and the Umbreon that came out last died to Aura Sphere + Hydro Cannon for the style points to win me my last remaining Gold Print!
HG: Flareon3/Floatzel4/Absol3/Kangaskhan4/Magnezone4/Blastoise4
Platinum: Weezing2/Moltres1/Umbreon3/Vespiquen1/Shuckle4/Hypno2
My immediate thought upon checking the draft was that I'm glad the draft is shit now that I've won and the pressure is off, because seriously what is that? Heart Gold I could work with (even though the best Pokemon here, Magnezone4 was up against a Fighting spec) but Platinum, everything other than Moltres was literally unusable. Decided that I had no reason to play it safe so picked Magnezone anyways and took Vespiquen from Platinum since it is kind of building for the spec, and by building for the spec I mean it has an actual attacking move (kind of) in Air Cutter, led with Floatzel/Magnezone Moltres/Vespiquen
8-1
Fighting spec, VS 31IV Hariyama Yanmega
Hariyama4 was out of play so all Moltres had to fear was Fake Out into Ancient Power from a potential Yanmega3, that didn't happen, Moltres killed Yanmega with Ancient Power and got a very useful omniboost while Floatzel chipped Hariyama3 with Aqua Tail and duly dropped to a Thunder Punch. After that Salamence came out and revealed Set3 by using Flamethrower on my Magnezone after dodging the flinch from Moltres's Air Slash, Magnezone lived the Flamethrower and finished Hariyama off with Thunderbolt. Next, Machamp came out and I decided to target it with Air Slash hoping for no Quick Claw Stone Edge from a potential Set3, it turned out to be Set2 and survived with Focus Sash but it only used Earthquake into thin air after Magnezone dropped to another Flamethrower. I then finished off Salamence then beat Machamp as well after tanking a Payback with ease.
8-2
Rock spec, swap Vespiquen for Salamence VS 31IV Rhydon Breloom
I knew I wasn't up against any Focus Sash Set or even Passho Berry Rhydon so got the easy double KO with Aqua Tail Flamethrower. Bastiodon Miltank then came out, I doubled up on Miltank1 which tanked Air Slash Brick Break and used Thunder Wave on Moltres who dodged a Stone Edge from Bastiodon1. Next turn I killed Miltank with another Brick Break and Moltres got destroyed this time, then next turn I took care of Bastiodon on the double up.
8-3
Ground spec, no swap VS 31IV Torterra Poliwrath
Hoped for no Quick Claw from potential Torterra4, doubled up on it with Ice Fang Flamethrower for the kill while Poliwrath revealed Set2 by using Bulk Up. Next turn Exeggutor came out and while I didn't like Poliwrath setting up, I had no choice but to double up, respecting the potential for Focus Sash Trick Room Set3. Exeggutor dropped and Poliwrath missed a Dynamic Punch. Afterwards, Brick Break got Lax Incense'd and Air Slash didn't flinch but Moltres tanked a Waterfall thanks to its Passho Berry and Poliwrath was defeated on the following turn, and the Nidoqueen that came out last was easy pickings.
8-4
Steel spec, no swap VS 31IV Typhlosion Heatran
Doubled up on Heatran with Air Slash Aqua Tail but Aqua Tail missed, resulting in losing my Steel answer Moltres to a Stone Edge from a Heatran of all things. I was thinking I misplayed and that I should have switched to Salamence to make sure I preserved Moltres, but looking back on it, I don't think the decision was wrong, just got unlucky with both missing and rolling Heatran2. Then again Heatran tanked the Aqua Tail and died to the follow up Hydro Pump on the 2nd turn so maybe I would have missed the range on the 1st turn anyways. By the way, I didn't mention Typhlosion2 using Reversal from full health on the 1st turn like an idiot, did I? That was the one saving grace of this situation, but it decided to use Blast Burn on Salamence on the 2nd turn for some decent chip admittedly, but that also meant it would be immobile on the next turn, which allowed me to focus all my efforts on the Zapdos that came out, and lady luck decided to smile on me this time with Floatzel freezing Zapdos which stayed frozen and died to Salamence's Draco meteor. Aqua Tail then put Typhlosion out of its misery and Lucario came out last and died to Aqua Tail Flamethrower.
8-5
Normal spec, swap Floatzel for mystery Lucario VS 31IV Togekiss Forretress
Item clause ruled out Togekiss3/4 which meant there was a 50% chance I was up against Togekiss2 which could murder Moltres with Ancient Power, but I decided that obliterating Forretress with Flamethrower was more important than preserving Moltres, because the Lucario4 that I rolled would not appreciate eating an Earthquake or Revenge from Forretress and it was my most important Pokemon for the Normal spec. So Moltres took care of Forretress1 and Togekiss2 took care of Moltres while I chipped it with Aura Sphere. Exploud then came out and I used Draco Meteor on Togekiss Aura Sphere on Exploud expecting a double KO, but Togekiss unexpectedly barely tanked it and hurt Salamence with Ancient Power while Exploud1 tanked Aura Sphere thanks to its Chople Berry and used Torment on Salamence. Turned out to not be a big deal cause I just got the double KO on the next turn, and the Magmortar that came out last died to Hydro Pump Aura Sphere.
8-6
Normal spec, VS 31IV Froslass Snorlax
Froslass2 used Sucker Punch on Moltres before dying to Flamethrower, Snorlax2 ate an Aura Sphere for half before putting Lucario in the red with a Fire Punch. Glaceon came out and revealed Set1 by dodging a Flamethrower and killing Lucario with Water Pulse after it had finished off Snorlax with Aura Sphere. Staraptor came out and revealed Set4 by killing Moltres with Brave Bird, Moltres put Glaceon in the red before dying and Magnezone missed a Flash Cannon after Glaceon used Double Team. Salamence barely tanked a Brave Bird before taking care of Staraptor with a Draco Meteor, then Magnezone took care of Glaceon after Salamence dropped to an Ice Beam.
8-7
No spec, swap Lucario for Staraptor VS 31IV Kingdra Mamoswine
Staraptor4 blesses this run again even if it's only for the last battle of this round, double KO with Flamethrower Brave Bird. Togekiss Toxicroak came out, doubled up on Togekiss for the kill, Toxicroak1 picked Staraptor off with Poison Jab and dropped to Flamethrower Thunderbolt after chipping Magnezone with Brick Break.
Platinum: Weezing2/Moltres1/Umbreon3/Vespiquen1/Shuckle4/Hypno2
My immediate thought upon checking the draft was that I'm glad the draft is shit now that I've won and the pressure is off, because seriously what is that? Heart Gold I could work with (even though the best Pokemon here, Magnezone4 was up against a Fighting spec) but Platinum, everything other than Moltres was literally unusable. Decided that I had no reason to play it safe so picked Magnezone anyways and took Vespiquen from Platinum since it is kind of building for the spec, and by building for the spec I mean it has an actual attacking move (kind of) in Air Cutter, led with Floatzel/Magnezone Moltres/Vespiquen
8-1
Fighting spec, VS 31IV Hariyama Yanmega
Hariyama4 was out of play so all Moltres had to fear was Fake Out into Ancient Power from a potential Yanmega3, that didn't happen, Moltres killed Yanmega with Ancient Power and got a very useful omniboost while Floatzel chipped Hariyama3 with Aqua Tail and duly dropped to a Thunder Punch. After that Salamence came out and revealed Set3 by using Flamethrower on my Magnezone after dodging the flinch from Moltres's Air Slash, Magnezone lived the Flamethrower and finished Hariyama off with Thunderbolt. Next, Machamp came out and I decided to target it with Air Slash hoping for no Quick Claw Stone Edge from a potential Set3, it turned out to be Set2 and survived with Focus Sash but it only used Earthquake into thin air after Magnezone dropped to another Flamethrower. I then finished off Salamence then beat Machamp as well after tanking a Payback with ease.
8-2
Rock spec, swap Vespiquen for Salamence VS 31IV Rhydon Breloom
I knew I wasn't up against any Focus Sash Set or even Passho Berry Rhydon so got the easy double KO with Aqua Tail Flamethrower. Bastiodon Miltank then came out, I doubled up on Miltank1 which tanked Air Slash Brick Break and used Thunder Wave on Moltres who dodged a Stone Edge from Bastiodon1. Next turn I killed Miltank with another Brick Break and Moltres got destroyed this time, then next turn I took care of Bastiodon on the double up.
8-3
Ground spec, no swap VS 31IV Torterra Poliwrath
Hoped for no Quick Claw from potential Torterra4, doubled up on it with Ice Fang Flamethrower for the kill while Poliwrath revealed Set2 by using Bulk Up. Next turn Exeggutor came out and while I didn't like Poliwrath setting up, I had no choice but to double up, respecting the potential for Focus Sash Trick Room Set3. Exeggutor dropped and Poliwrath missed a Dynamic Punch. Afterwards, Brick Break got Lax Incense'd and Air Slash didn't flinch but Moltres tanked a Waterfall thanks to its Passho Berry and Poliwrath was defeated on the following turn, and the Nidoqueen that came out last was easy pickings.
8-4
Steel spec, no swap VS 31IV Typhlosion Heatran
Doubled up on Heatran with Air Slash Aqua Tail but Aqua Tail missed, resulting in losing my Steel answer Moltres to a Stone Edge from a Heatran of all things. I was thinking I misplayed and that I should have switched to Salamence to make sure I preserved Moltres, but looking back on it, I don't think the decision was wrong, just got unlucky with both missing and rolling Heatran2. Then again Heatran tanked the Aqua Tail and died to the follow up Hydro Pump on the 2nd turn so maybe I would have missed the range on the 1st turn anyways. By the way, I didn't mention Typhlosion2 using Reversal from full health on the 1st turn like an idiot, did I? That was the one saving grace of this situation, but it decided to use Blast Burn on Salamence on the 2nd turn for some decent chip admittedly, but that also meant it would be immobile on the next turn, which allowed me to focus all my efforts on the Zapdos that came out, and lady luck decided to smile on me this time with Floatzel freezing Zapdos which stayed frozen and died to Salamence's Draco meteor. Aqua Tail then put Typhlosion out of its misery and Lucario came out last and died to Aqua Tail Flamethrower.
8-5
Normal spec, swap Floatzel for mystery Lucario VS 31IV Togekiss Forretress
Item clause ruled out Togekiss3/4 which meant there was a 50% chance I was up against Togekiss2 which could murder Moltres with Ancient Power, but I decided that obliterating Forretress with Flamethrower was more important than preserving Moltres, because the Lucario4 that I rolled would not appreciate eating an Earthquake or Revenge from Forretress and it was my most important Pokemon for the Normal spec. So Moltres took care of Forretress1 and Togekiss2 took care of Moltres while I chipped it with Aura Sphere. Exploud then came out and I used Draco Meteor on Togekiss Aura Sphere on Exploud expecting a double KO, but Togekiss unexpectedly barely tanked it and hurt Salamence with Ancient Power while Exploud1 tanked Aura Sphere thanks to its Chople Berry and used Torment on Salamence. Turned out to not be a big deal cause I just got the double KO on the next turn, and the Magmortar that came out last died to Hydro Pump Aura Sphere.
8-6
Normal spec, VS 31IV Froslass Snorlax
Froslass2 used Sucker Punch on Moltres before dying to Flamethrower, Snorlax2 ate an Aura Sphere for half before putting Lucario in the red with a Fire Punch. Glaceon came out and revealed Set1 by dodging a Flamethrower and killing Lucario with Water Pulse after it had finished off Snorlax with Aura Sphere. Staraptor came out and revealed Set4 by killing Moltres with Brave Bird, Moltres put Glaceon in the red before dying and Magnezone missed a Flash Cannon after Glaceon used Double Team. Salamence barely tanked a Brave Bird before taking care of Staraptor with a Draco Meteor, then Magnezone took care of Glaceon after Salamence dropped to an Ice Beam.
8-7
No spec, swap Lucario for Staraptor VS 31IV Kingdra Mamoswine
Staraptor4 blesses this run again even if it's only for the last battle of this round, double KO with Flamethrower Brave Bird. Togekiss Toxicroak came out, doubled up on Togekiss for the kill, Toxicroak1 picked Staraptor off with Poison Jab and dropped to Flamethrower Thunderbolt after chipping Magnezone with Brick Break.
HG: Crobat3/Vileplume4/Blissey1/Rapidash3/Umbreon2/Gengar1
Platinum: Heracross2/Lanturn2/Manectric1/Politoed2/Moltres3/Pinsir1
Not very good draft, decided to go Crobat/Gengar Pinsir/Heracross to have free Earthquakes for Pinsir (LOL) but thankfully realized Pinsir was Mold Breaker before doing something stupid like killing my own Gengar with Earthquake, I would never do such a thing...
9-1
Not much to say, observe the gameplay of the man that got Gold Print on all 6 Formats of the Battle Factory in Generation IV, but hey, as Psychic Denver said to me at the end of this battle "Things like this happen. Don't let this get you down."
Platinum: Heracross2/Lanturn2/Manectric1/Politoed2/Moltres3/Pinsir1
Not very good draft, decided to go Crobat/Gengar Pinsir/Heracross to have free Earthquakes for Pinsir (LOL) but thankfully realized Pinsir was Mold Breaker before doing something stupid like killing my own Gengar with Earthquake, I would never do such a thing...
9-1
Not much to say, observe the gameplay of the man that got Gold Print on all 6 Formats of the Battle Factory in Generation IV, but hey, as Psychic Denver said to me at the end of this battle "Things like this happen. Don't let this get you down."
You know, the usual closing thoughts, Battle Factory cool, going back to Battle Hall now to continue the trek to 10.000 wins. I'm sure I'll keep playing Battle Factory but I can't see myself keeping notes about my runs anymore, I'll be playing just for the fun of it. Gen III Factory on the other hand... maybe, though it will be awkward to live commentate all of that with how high the streaks go and given all the top players are on emulator and live streaming and recording their runs, but I can see myself giving it a shot, if only just to learn the ins and outs of it
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