If you're getting rid of Toxic on Swampert, at least let Blissey run the move instead and don't use Minimize on this case. Otherwise, you will be vulnerable to DT spammers and get locked on infinite battles if you cannot wear them down. I'll let you decide on Swampert's spread but IMO you should breed a better nature because Impish is taking away special attack points and you are running Surf and Ice Beam with Earthquake being your only physical STAB. You can use Brave or Quiet natures which are good because Swampert is not meant to tank in Gen 3 Frontier.
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Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records
- Thread starter Kommo-o
- Start date
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've come with an update. I wanted to share an update in regards to some rule changes on the Gen 3 leader-board forums.
This is pretty much the last update I have regarding rules and for those who may be curious, I have been also working on some streaks although work and life has made it hard for me to post any relevant updates from my end. Once I have more free time to spare investing on streaks, I will also have plans to host other activities similar to the community factory we play on the Discord. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week-end and have fun!
As some of you might be familiarized with this, during 2004 and 2005 Nintendo has released a series of event distributions infamously known as PCNY Eggs which has been distributed to all Fire Red and Leaf Green players at the New York Pokemon Center. This infamously lead to the use of Wish Chansey as one of the premier clerics on OU back during the era of Gen 4 OU. However, because the generation method of said Pokemon was unknown at the time (Method 2) and by how limited this event distribution was, it lead to the creation of a mainstay policy where "legal hacks" would not be allowed, including Wish Eggs. However, I would like to let everyone know that I am considering lifting this ban and allow Wish as a legal moveset exclusively for the Gen 3 leaderboards.
Before I move on, I would like to gather everyone's thoughts on this on allowing the Pike glitch to be used and mimic the Wish movesets. The following Pokemon affected by this would be the following:
If the majority agrees to allow the use of Wish via glitching, I will start allowing the use of Wish for the leaderboards. At this moment, I am not sure if I will use a form for votation or if I will just count the amount of people who agree to its use on the thread. I am far more interested on collecting everyone's thoughts, so please, if you have any additional comments or suggestions, let me know!
Before I move on, I would like to gather everyone's thoughts on this on allowing the Pike glitch to be used and mimic the Wish movesets. The following Pokemon affected by this would be the following:
- Chansey / Blissey
- Kangaskhan
- Exeggcute / Exeggutor
- Lickitung
- Drowzee / Hypno
- Farfetch'd
If the majority agrees to allow the use of Wish via glitching, I will start allowing the use of Wish for the leaderboards. At this moment, I am not sure if I will use a form for votation or if I will just count the amount of people who agree to its use on the thread. I am far more interested on collecting everyone's thoughts, so please, if you have any additional comments or suggestions, let me know!
Thanks to MeepBard who brought this to my attention, I noticed that I never disclaimed anything about Distribution ROMs before and their usage for the Gen 3 leaderboards. For those not aware, the distribution ROMs are basically copies of games that allowed the user to distribute event Pokemon to other games which were commonly used on official Nintendo events to distribute event Pokemon. As an example, it was the hardware used to distribute 10 ANNIV events back in the day.
Because I consider that the Pokemon distributed from these ROMs are legal copies of event distributions and not generated illegally by external hardware or software, I will allow their use for the leaderboard forums. This means that you will be allowed to use a 10 ANNIV Suicune, Raikou or Entei to submit a streak as long as it is disclosed and no data is modified.
Because I consider that the Pokemon distributed from these ROMs are legal copies of event distributions and not generated illegally by external hardware or software, I will allow their use for the leaderboard forums. This means that you will be allowed to use a 10 ANNIV Suicune, Raikou or Entei to submit a streak as long as it is disclosed and no data is modified.
This is pretty much the last update I have regarding rules and for those who may be curious, I have been also working on some streaks although work and life has made it hard for me to post any relevant updates from my end. Once I have more free time to spare investing on streaks, I will also have plans to host other activities similar to the community factory we play on the Discord. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week-end and have fun!
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This is actually a great idea to brainstorm about.
While allowing this would actually be admitting glitched (while legal) Pokémon on the thread, I think that it'd be a huge improvement in the Frontier metagame.
We can analyze this decision on every perspective:
- The metagame improvement would be amazing in terms of teambuilding creativity in almost every facility, BUT without adding overpowered Pokémon nor strategies that would otherwise penalize past players/streaks;
- It's something that every player can easily afford to get and so it wouldn't change nor increase the already existent gap between retail and emulator playing; no such thing like easier RNG and faster battles on Emu. (Moreover, adding event legendary dogs could actually be an improvement in availability for people who can't afford to RNG on Colo, especially on retail given the material it requires);
- Outside of niche challenges, the only real set from the ones mentioned that has the potential to be used in long streaks is of course Wish Blissey, and from my experience I don't even think it will see that much usage, in Tower and Dome at least.
The only downside I can see it's the legitimacy: we will then be about to accept streaks with clearly glitched Pokemon, but I don't really see this as a huge issue if they are legal sets not obtainable otherwise just due to the rarity of an event.
As I've said a lot in the past (and some recent fake record attempts have just proven it), the validity of an idea or a streak stands behind a team strategies, gameplans, spreads, sets, threatlists, description, not behind legitimacy...
PLEASE BRING Actaeon 'S TEAMS BACK ON LEADERBOARD
#FREEACTAEON
#FREEACTAEON
That said, Kommo-o I want then to ask you what's your opinion about the other side of event Wish: Pokemon Center 5th Anniversary.
Of course this list contain the most interesting Wish user by far, Bagon.
A set with Wish AND Dragon Dance would actually be completely overpowered, by far the best (physical) sweeper available, but being both egg moves, of course this set would just remain a dream for every Tower head.
With the Pike glitch one could easily get this beast, but of course this set would not be legal and it would be something far away from the change you are trying to bring (instead of "use a glitch to overcome the rarity of a legit event", this jumps straight into "let's go, Aeroblast Gyarados!").
We get from this event a lot of interesting moves to try on new sets, but still the best Pokemon of the pool in my opinion is "just" a defensive Wish Salamence, that can actually abuse Intimidate and be interesting to build around, but it's clearly far from broken.
Considering metagame diversity, it could be another interesting - yet balanced - list to add given its unique Wish and Charm distribution.
I've shared my thoughts without any interest, since I was there. No glitch needed, luckily my Chansey was Bold 31/0/31/31/31/31
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I think the question that changed my mind is "would you disallow someone that obtained these pokemon from the event decades ago from posting a record" Because if not then it does feel unreasonable for everyone else to be competing in a different format.
Personally I won't use these, I don't want to see the game as a program that can be manipulated. I want to see it as an experience, a challenge to participate in. As much as I enjoy the battle frontier as one of the best open ended puzzles ever created, I also enjoy it for the immersion into a simpler world where you collect pokemon and train them for a specific purpose (frontier is more rewarding in this way that what you're training them for isn't to mindlessly overlevel the opponents). Though I also fully recognize how expensive that is not just in terms of equipment cost, but to have the 10,000 hours of free time needed, and this keeps a lot of people away. In fact it's part of why pokmon emerald didn't sell well and why we won't get another battle frontier. (honestly my plan is to make videos explaining why the battle frontier is so amazing in time for the assumed inevitable re-release of emerald on virtual console, with enough hype and sales we might actually get another frontier someday)
But I don't really think glitching legitimate sets is that much more of a stretch then rng manip for full strength hidden power, falling into the category of "technically possible with how the game was designed" just realistically improbable to get. Now the timing is interesting, because emerald came out in japan in September of 2004 meaning the people designing the frontier may not have known about these sets while the challenges were being designed (not that it would matter, they are not that gamebreaking).
I will abstain from voting on this decision.
Thanks for the shout! As for if Wish mons should be allowed, it's tricky and not an easy ruling to make. WishMence and Wish Blissey are very very useful mons to have but the fact that no distribution cart or wondercard exists online means that in order to maintain a high streak in RSE Tower, the vast majority of players will have to resort to cheating in order to obtain mons with these moves. So the real question is if the RSE community would be alright with cheating being allowed for event distributions... which then opens up another can of worms since we know that the eggs use Method 2(?) generation so then it's like do you restrict the Wish eggs to only Method 2 spreads or??? It's a complex issue.
If you'd want to strike it in the middle you could make an event leaderboard and a stock leaderboard but these Pokemon won't really make a significant splash in most facilities as far as I'm aware so would it even be worth having two seperate leaderboards? I don't play RSE Tower so I'll abstain from voting but this is just some food for thought going forward. It's not an easy solution to figure out.
If other leaderboards are cool with Gen 3 events being used though, I see no issue with RSE also allowing it.
Hi everyone! So I have just finished pokemon emerald again. My main goal this time is to collect and save all the usefull items and TMs so I can make the best/most competetive team possible to beat my brothers old savefile in firered, that he has been so cocky about. Thus far I have catched these and intend to use the duplication glitch for rare candy to get them to lvl. 100, and need help to fill in for the last one. I also need recommendation for moveset for each one and hold-item. If recommended I will of course switch out anyone of these with better options for a competetive team.
- Blaziken
- Milotic
- Gardevoir
- Metagross
- Salamence
- ???
Notice: I can and will use the duplication glitch for as many TMs I want and iron, HP etc. for every single pokemon. I have not used the move tutor for substitute or explosion, and can breed a dragon dance salamence if recommended. As well as the move tutor at battle frontier for rockslide, swords dance, etc. Let me know if you have any questions, the nature and IV is not that important to me.
- Blaziken
- Milotic
- Gardevoir
- Metagross
- Salamence
- ???
Notice: I can and will use the duplication glitch for as many TMs I want and iron, HP etc. for every single pokemon. I have not used the move tutor for substitute or explosion, and can breed a dragon dance salamence if recommended. As well as the move tutor at battle frontier for rockslide, swords dance, etc. Let me know if you have any questions, the nature and IV is not that important to me.
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I think this would be more appropriate in a different thread, probably a thread based on 1v1 gameplay. Like perhaps Past Gen Teams | Smogon Forums
If you know what team your brother is going to use you might be able to get people to suggest a team to counter it. But it sounds like you're at a point where just getting in a lot of matches on pokemon showdown will help you gain understanding of battling and thus guide your team building.
Thanks for the feedback, and yes I actually forgot to include more Wish mons like Bagons lol. However, I won't be implementing this change at the moment considering that so far I have not received any favorable feedback to do it. Seems that the majority are either on the fence or withholding their vote but I don't mind bringing it back in case there's more feedback to this idea.
Another idea would be a separate leaderboard for experimental purposes but I sadly don't have the time to manage it as I barely have any time left to implement new things due to my job. Once I have some time to post my next update, I will see if I can come up with new ideas for the thread.
Yesterday I finished a run of the palace on an emulator. I did not use any form of RNG manipulation and I'm sharing it here just because I couldn't find other teams like this one in the palace leaderboards.
Salamence @ Bright Powder
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
- Flamethrower
- Double Team
Blissey @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Minimize
Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 90 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Explosion
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw
- Flamethrower
- Double Team
Blissey @ Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Soft-Boiled
- Minimize
Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 90 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Explosion
The goal of the team is to use take advantage of the random nature of the palace to get evasion boosts and win through luck. I managed to get the gold symbol first try, mainly mashing A to power through the battles. Salamence is the lead. It usually set's up one double team per match which makes it actually really hard to hit. Flamethrower + Dragon Claw beats a lot of things. Brick Break is for the Ice + Water type mons(for when you already have a double team when they come in), although it is safer to always go into Blissey when they come in. It could probably be replaced by something better. Rock types gave it some trouble, although double team + bright powder + the 90% accuracy of most rock type attacks mean that Salamence usually wins.
For Blissey the goal is to be really annoying. Just hope it uses toxic and win. Getting a 2hko on Blissey when it is at +6 evasion is really hard. Due to its nature Blissey usually uses minimize and when its health gets low, soft-boiled. The chances of it using toxic are actually quite low(20% when hp>50%) but that's fine, as you only want to use it once. Ice beam was for Spencers Crobat and dragon types, but Seismic Toss would probably be better most of the type(including against Crobat).
Metagross set is just its normal set of the other facilities; I didn't want to breed anymore. It is not great, hasty would be better, but it pulled through by defeating Slaking with two Meteor Meshes and winning me the gold symbol. It has great synergy with Salamence.
The threats:
Well, I was mostly mashing A with fast forward on and hoping I'd get lucky, and that's what happened. A special mention is double team Umbreon, though. When it comes in I always go into Blissey to toxic it and then switch back out so natural cure takes effect. Crobat with double team is also annoying, as it can hax you to death.
Anyway, the team can be made much better, I'm just posting it here to show that haxing your opponents to death may be a very viable strategy in the palace. It is actually quite fun to see the AI suffer from the same strategies it tries to use.
For Blissey the goal is to be really annoying. Just hope it uses toxic and win. Getting a 2hko on Blissey when it is at +6 evasion is really hard. Due to its nature Blissey usually uses minimize and when its health gets low, soft-boiled. The chances of it using toxic are actually quite low(20% when hp>50%) but that's fine, as you only want to use it once. Ice beam was for Spencers Crobat and dragon types, but Seismic Toss would probably be better most of the type(including against Crobat).
Metagross set is just its normal set of the other facilities; I didn't want to breed anymore. It is not great, hasty would be better, but it pulled through by defeating Slaking with two Meteor Meshes and winning me the gold symbol. It has great synergy with Salamence.
The threats:
Well, I was mostly mashing A with fast forward on and hoping I'd get lucky, and that's what happened. A special mention is double team Umbreon, though. When it comes in I always go into Blissey to toxic it and then switch back out so natural cure takes effect. Crobat with double team is also annoying, as it can hax you to death.
Anyway, the team can be made much better, I'm just posting it here to show that haxing your opponents to death may be a very viable strategy in the palace. It is actually quite fun to see the AI suffer from the same strategies it tries to use.
You reaped the rewards of getting gold on the first try for actually building a team for the palace, so props for that because almost no one does outside of this community and they struggle with it. I definitely view double team as a good strategy for getting gold. Would loved to see leftovers on salamence, great for both intimidate switching and when you get lucky and dodge often enough.
Seems like there are lots of people who have found these forums because of the nightmares emerald battle frontier left them with and their desire to persist against the challenge and overcome it. My story is not so different. Queue cliché story:
Anyways, on to the battle palace. I would like to report my record from the palace of 55 wins on level 50 on cartridge.
The team:
Salamence @ lum berry
Hasty
IVs: 22/30/12/13/24/7 (I know horrible)
EVs: 6/252/0/0/252/0
Dragon dance
Earthquake
Aerial ace
Brickbreak
The idea is max special defense so that I can switch into different moves such as an electric attack possibly aimed at suicune or a possible fire aimed at metagross. Intimidate is for the non-special attacks. The extra defense allows more switches to get off more intimidates. One small factor I can control in the palace.
Metagross @ choice band
Adamant
IVs: 26/18/28/20/19/30
EVs: 252/252/0/0/6/0
Sludge bomb
Metal claw
Shadowball
Earthquake
Metagross is for coverage and meant to come out swinging. He definitely pulled some wins out for the team.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Quiet
IVs: 28/19/30/31/15/13
EVs:172/0/84/252/0/0
Surf
Ice beam
Calm mind
Rest
This suicune was actually caught on a fun run during covid shut downs and I kept it incase I ever did try the battle frontier, palace specifically. This is also before I saw all the posts about optimizing for the left overs number. I personally believe too many threats will out-speed suicune and too few are within range of a few EVs to make a difference. Personally I like making my suicunes able to take a hit and specifically this one able to dish some pain out. Though by no means do the EV spread hit any sort of benchmarks.
By no means is this team invincible, honestly after typing out the IVs, I see just how horrible it really is. I beat the gold on my second try and decided to just see how far I could go before I lost. Mainly because if I use the clone glitch or lose at a different facility it wipes all current streaks I have going. I think it was luck that I made it so far. When possible, I would take advantage of salamence's intimidate and switch to the favorable match up. On my first lost a special gyarados set swept my team, (thunderbolt crit and fully paralyzed suicune) and never once did he fail to use a move. The second loss at battle 56, zapdos was the second Pokémon. I don't remember what happened but I survived with suicune and metagross both below half health and paralyzed. Slowbro came out and finished them both off.
There are so many threats to this team mainly anything with the elemental punches or fire/ice/lightning coverage. I wish I could drop one member for blissey but idk. I never saw a lati@s, starmie, or zapdos until that far.
While I may lack great IV's I pretty much plan to get a specific team for each facility. Hopefully this will help me overcome my "sub-par" IVs. My goal is like so many others before me. Gold in all or maybe just 6/7 and 100 wins for tower. Tower will be my last facility to conquer.
In early 2011 my friend and I bought FR and LG. (College age at this time) After beating it we moved on to emerald. Me being a completionist decided to tackle the battle frontier. I walked in, was promptly crumpled up and tossed back out. After my first few humbling, borderline embarrassing losses I decided to look into stats and I discovered the world of Ivs and Evs and not running 3 of the same type of move on your Pokémon. After making many changes and several more tries I was only able to secure 5 silver prints. I gave up utterly defeated and move on to generations 4, 5, and 6.
During covid I found myself with new time and when not taking care of my new daughter I played generation 4 and actually got 4/5 colored prints (screw factory). Even with these great victories something felt empty. With very little time to myself these days, I, on January 2nd this year decided to restart my colosseum and search for my first and favorite battle frontier mon: suicune. I do not RNG, I have even tried to figure it out 3 or 4 times. So the little time I get I move incredibly slow brute forcing things. But that's ok, you know what they say about brute force: "If brute force isn't working, you aren't using enough of it".
While breeding and replaying my other generation 3 games, I was moved to nights at work. I decided to take this time to do some "night school" and earn my PH D in battle frontier studies. That's right, I read all 1,414 posts prior to this one. During this time, a couple weeks ago I achieved my first gold. The dome I used Suicune, Salamence, and Steelix. Actually Steelix never even appeared. Mostly leading with salamence for intimidate drop and then set up suicune and sweep. I'm not sure though if having steelix tended to make the opponents not pick electrics and often picked water types or if I got crazy lucky. Anyways after 10 tournament wins I decided to dupe something and when I went back my streak was reset. Is that a bug?
During covid I found myself with new time and when not taking care of my new daughter I played generation 4 and actually got 4/5 colored prints (screw factory). Even with these great victories something felt empty. With very little time to myself these days, I, on January 2nd this year decided to restart my colosseum and search for my first and favorite battle frontier mon: suicune. I do not RNG, I have even tried to figure it out 3 or 4 times. So the little time I get I move incredibly slow brute forcing things. But that's ok, you know what they say about brute force: "If brute force isn't working, you aren't using enough of it".
While breeding and replaying my other generation 3 games, I was moved to nights at work. I decided to take this time to do some "night school" and earn my PH D in battle frontier studies. That's right, I read all 1,414 posts prior to this one. During this time, a couple weeks ago I achieved my first gold. The dome I used Suicune, Salamence, and Steelix. Actually Steelix never even appeared. Mostly leading with salamence for intimidate drop and then set up suicune and sweep. I'm not sure though if having steelix tended to make the opponents not pick electrics and often picked water types or if I got crazy lucky. Anyways after 10 tournament wins I decided to dupe something and when I went back my streak was reset. Is that a bug?
Anyways, on to the battle palace. I would like to report my record from the palace of 55 wins on level 50 on cartridge.
The team:
Salamence @ lum berry
Hasty
IVs: 22/30/12/13/24/7 (I know horrible)
EVs: 6/252/0/0/252/0
Dragon dance
Earthquake
Aerial ace
Brickbreak
The idea is max special defense so that I can switch into different moves such as an electric attack possibly aimed at suicune or a possible fire aimed at metagross. Intimidate is for the non-special attacks. The extra defense allows more switches to get off more intimidates. One small factor I can control in the palace.
Metagross @ choice band
Adamant
IVs: 26/18/28/20/19/30
EVs: 252/252/0/0/6/0
Sludge bomb
Metal claw
Shadowball
Earthquake
Metagross is for coverage and meant to come out swinging. He definitely pulled some wins out for the team.
Suicune @ Leftovers
Quiet
IVs: 28/19/30/31/15/13
EVs:172/0/84/252/0/0
Surf
Ice beam
Calm mind
Rest
This suicune was actually caught on a fun run during covid shut downs and I kept it incase I ever did try the battle frontier, palace specifically. This is also before I saw all the posts about optimizing for the left overs number. I personally believe too many threats will out-speed suicune and too few are within range of a few EVs to make a difference. Personally I like making my suicunes able to take a hit and specifically this one able to dish some pain out. Though by no means do the EV spread hit any sort of benchmarks.
By no means is this team invincible, honestly after typing out the IVs, I see just how horrible it really is. I beat the gold on my second try and decided to just see how far I could go before I lost. Mainly because if I use the clone glitch or lose at a different facility it wipes all current streaks I have going. I think it was luck that I made it so far. When possible, I would take advantage of salamence's intimidate and switch to the favorable match up. On my first lost a special gyarados set swept my team, (thunderbolt crit and fully paralyzed suicune) and never once did he fail to use a move. The second loss at battle 56, zapdos was the second Pokémon. I don't remember what happened but I survived with suicune and metagross both below half health and paralyzed. Slowbro came out and finished them both off.
There are so many threats to this team mainly anything with the elemental punches or fire/ice/lightning coverage. I wish I could drop one member for blissey but idk. I never saw a lati@s, starmie, or zapdos until that far.
While I may lack great IV's I pretty much plan to get a specific team for each facility. Hopefully this will help me overcome my "sub-par" IVs. My goal is like so many others before me. Gold in all or maybe just 6/7 and 100 wins for tower. Tower will be my last facility to conquer.
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Maybe a bulkier 'mence spread would be better with leftovers(or with some different team mates).
Anyway, i finished my streak at 52 wins, I believe and tried the Palace two more times. My first loss was against a Marowak that managed to hit rock slide twice against Salamence and ohko Blissey(probably a crit) and Metagross with Earthquake. The second loss was at 20 wins, against the palace Maven himself - I got outhaxed by his Crobat, which used one double team too many. The third time I lost at 47 wins, right before the Spencer rematch. This loss was my fault, I didn't switch 'mence against a Slowbro and got ohko by an Ice Beam(I wasn't really paying attention to the match), so I started the battle with 2 pokémon.
I don't think that the team is as consistent as I'd like, however, I do believe it can achieve the gold symbol consistently(just pay more attention to the battles than I do). Rock/Ground types are a menace to the team - they can beat Salamence and Metagross and deal a nice chunk of damage to Blissey. Ice Beam on Blissey is actually also worse than I though for a very simple reason: it freezes pokémon sometimes. This means you can't toxic and will waste PP. You may also try to switch out once Blissey freezes, but sometimes the opponent thaws the same or next turn that you switch in. I also found that Blissey didn't use toxic nearly enough. It has a 20% chance of using toxic. The chance of it not using toxic in the first ten turns is 10%(considering >50% hp) so its nature could be changed. Metagross also didn't do nearly enough for my liking.
After these matches, I believe that the following changes could be made to improve the team
:</p><p>Blissey: change Ice Beam for Seismic Toss and maybe change its nature. Maybe bold could be better, but it also could be worse. Seismic Toss would need to be tested first.
Metagross: Change for a water type to punish the ground/rock types and other physical attackers. Milotic(Surf, Ice Beam, Calm Mind, Recover/Double Team) and Swampert(Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Double Team) are probably good choices. The leftovers could probably be moved to them as well.
Other sets that could probably be cool(although don't fit into the team) - sub seed Sceptile, attract + double team Lapras/Milotic.
Ps: the AI uses attract sometimes. Remember to have a team with female and male pokémons.
Been playing the Battle Factory for a while, and just set a personal record with 62 consecutive wins! I lost on the third battle with Noland, which is detailed at the bottom of this post. I play on an emulator, so my proof is just a screenshot and a write up of the last couple of rounds. Hope that's sufficient to get on the leaderboard. If not, I might consider getting a physical copy of the game or recording my screen if/when I get close to my personal best again.
Here's my write up:
6/12/22:
This run started late the night prior. Quit and went to bed after winning 28, and picked it up this morning. Starters in the 28-35 run were relatively weak: Zapdos with Thunderbolt/Drill Peck, Slaking with Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower, Nidoking with Earthquake/Brick Break/Shadow Ball. Managed to barely get through doing a lot of swapping. 35-42 run started out with the Latias and Blastoise listed below, plus a Marowak with Boomerang/Rock Slide/Headbutt, which I swapped for Tyranitar in the 2nd or 3rd battle.
Beat Noland a 2nd time with:
Run from 42-49 was with:
Run from 49-56 was with:
Finally lost to Noland at 62 wins. I had
Suicune: Surf, Ice Beam, Calm Mind, Icy Wind
Alakazam: Psychic, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch, Fire Punch
Regice: Ice Beam, Hail, Double Team, Thunder Wave
Battle summary:
Noland sent out a Gengar which immediately took out my Suicune with a crit Thunderbolt. I sent out Alakazam, and Gengar hit him with a Shadow Ball, which took about 2/3 of Alakazam’s HP (low Atk stat on Gengar, I assume). I used Psychic, which took out Gengar. He sent out a Tauros, and I used Psychic, which took just over half of his health. He used Thrash, taking out my Alakazam. I sent out Regice, and tried to max out my evasiveness with Double Team, but he continued to hit Thrashes through it. At about 1/3 health left, I stopped using Double Teams (I’d used 4) and started using Ice Beam. It took 3 Ice Beams to take out Tauros, during which he hit one more Thrash, taking me down to around 50HP. His final Pokemon was a Kingdra, which hit a Double Edge to take me out.
In retrospect, I think there were a lot of Pokemon I passed over during the previous 6 battles (such as a Marowak and a Metagross) that would have been better options than Regice, but it was tough to know whether to switch without knowing their full movesets (Marowak never got a move off, and Metagross just used a Meteor Mash). Screenshot is below, would love to get on the leaderboard (and hopefully get even higher on it in the future)!
Here's my write up:
6/12/22:
This run started late the night prior. Quit and went to bed after winning 28, and picked it up this morning. Starters in the 28-35 run were relatively weak: Zapdos with Thunderbolt/Drill Peck, Slaking with Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower, Nidoking with Earthquake/Brick Break/Shadow Ball. Managed to barely get through doing a lot of swapping. 35-42 run started out with the Latias and Blastoise listed below, plus a Marowak with Boomerang/Rock Slide/Headbutt, which I swapped for Tyranitar in the 2nd or 3rd battle.
Beat Noland a 2nd time with:
- Latias: Psychic, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Aerial Ace
- Blastoise: Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Mirror Coat
- Tyranitar: Earthquake, Rock Slide, Rest, Dragon Dance
- Moltres: Swapped from Latias to Tyranitar and killed it with a Rock Slide after Moltres used Double Team
- Shiftry: Swapped back to Latias out of fear of Giga Drain, only to be hit with a Faint Attack which took about 1/3 of Latias’ HP. Used Aerial Ace, which also did about 1/3 of Shiftry’s HP (no STAB). Decided not to switch (again out of fear of Giga Drain/getting outspeeded), got lucky with a Crit on the next Aerial Ace which took Shiftry out.
- Manectric: Killed Latias with a Crunch, I sent out Tyranitar. Manectric used Rain Dance and I took it out with an Earthquake.
Run from 42-49 was with:
- Latias (same one as before): Psychic, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Aerial Ace
- Moltres: Overheat, Double Edge, Steel Wing, Safeguard
- Muk: Sludge Bomb, Brick Break, Giga Drain, Explosion
Run from 49-56 was with:
- Meganium: Leech Seed, Substitute, Double Team, Grasswhistle
- Latias (different one this time): Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Earthquake
- Tyranitar (same one as before): Rock Slide, Earthquake, Dragon Dance, Rest
Finally lost to Noland at 62 wins. I had
Suicune: Surf, Ice Beam, Calm Mind, Icy Wind
Alakazam: Psychic, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch, Fire Punch
Regice: Ice Beam, Hail, Double Team, Thunder Wave
Battle summary:
Noland sent out a Gengar which immediately took out my Suicune with a crit Thunderbolt. I sent out Alakazam, and Gengar hit him with a Shadow Ball, which took about 2/3 of Alakazam’s HP (low Atk stat on Gengar, I assume). I used Psychic, which took out Gengar. He sent out a Tauros, and I used Psychic, which took just over half of his health. He used Thrash, taking out my Alakazam. I sent out Regice, and tried to max out my evasiveness with Double Team, but he continued to hit Thrashes through it. At about 1/3 health left, I stopped using Double Teams (I’d used 4) and started using Ice Beam. It took 3 Ice Beams to take out Tauros, during which he hit one more Thrash, taking me down to around 50HP. His final Pokemon was a Kingdra, which hit a Double Edge to take me out.
In retrospect, I think there were a lot of Pokemon I passed over during the previous 6 battles (such as a Marowak and a Metagross) that would have been better options than Regice, but it was tough to know whether to switch without knowing their full movesets (Marowak never got a move off, and Metagross just used a Meteor Mash). Screenshot is below, would love to get on the leaderboard (and hopefully get even higher on it in the future)!
Here's a Battle Tower team I made that features some novel tech! It's an awesome team that's really fun to use. This team is set to level 100 so that Milotic is as defensive as possible.
I'm currently sitting at a streak of 140 (now 175).
(Streak has ended at 215! - see bottom of post for details)
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Breloom (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpD
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
This guy is the team's ace. I wanted to see how strong Spore could be and it turns out it's really good. On paper, this thing beats anything it can outspeed. In practice, Chesto and Lum Berry are going to give you trouble - that's where Milotic comes in (see below).
Seriously, that's all there is to say about Breloom. It beats pretty much everything that it can outspeed and put to sleep. It can "sweep" teams by getting a KO with a sub up and landing a Spore on the next pokemon, continuing the Spore/Substitute cycle. Quick Claw and Bright Powder can mess you up but they fortunately haven't been a problem so far.
It also solos Anabel's team quite easily as it resists Raikou's Thunderbolt, outspeeds Latios, and does major damage to Snorlax.
-----
Milotic (F) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Icy Wind
- Hypnosis
- Recover
Here's Breloom's partner in crime. This thing takes on just about everything faster than Breloom (with some exceptions - see Raikou), but more importantly, it helps Breloom set up and sweep via speed drops with Icy Wind and Chesto/Lum berry removal with Hypnosis. It is of course capable of picking up KOs on its own too.
Just to be clear, Breloom can switch in on attacks after Milotic has debuffed the opponent, it's frail but not that frail. Plus, I usually sleep the opponent first with Hypnosis, and Breloom resists the Electric type attacks often aimed at Milotic.
Hypnosis and Bright Powder are typically seen as terrible choices in the Battle Tower but they are actually integral to this team's success:
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Raikou @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
Raikou works perfectly as the final pokemon. Crucially, it can beat things that give both Breloom and Milotic trouble.
The obvious problem for Milotic is Electric type attacks. These are mainly carried by Electric type pokemon, Lapras, Starmie, and Latios/Latias. These pokemon also happen to threaten Breloom with a OHKO. Raikou eats them for breakfast (barring Earthquake Latios/Latias). It can either one shot or set up on all of them. There is even an exploit in the AI where the opponent keeps using Thunder Wave even though you have a sub up, allowing you to get to +6/+6 with Calm Mind.
Another strength of Raikou is that it can revenge kill Dewgong, Lapras, and Walrein (from 100%) should they land a Sheer Cold on Milotic.
(A viable Raikou is only possible on cartridge through RNG manipulation of Pokemon Colosseum / Gale of Darkness due to the roamer IV glitch in FRLG - I play on emulator)
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That's it! This is my first team to break 100 so I'm very happy with it.
It isn't perfect and I know some of you may be interested in what can break it. So far, I've identified just a few:
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Streak Killer
Tyranitar 4 got the best of me. It paralyzed Milotic on its first Thunderbolt and at this point Milotic was in the 2HKO range. I wasn't too bothered since Breloom and Raikou have good matchups against the Tyranitar sets that carry Thunderbolt. Here is where I make the mistake. I need to scout the set and I am trying to play it safe since the two possible Tyranitar sets have Bright Powder and Quick Claw and one of the sets can hit all my pokes for 2x damage. My plan is to switch in Breloom and then switch back into Milotic. They should both take very little damage in the process so this is mostly safe. Mostly, since the incoming Thunderbolt could paralyze Breloom. And that is exactly what happened.
I'm not sweating too hard since I can still switch in Milotic and scout the set, and possibly setup with Raikou. It reveals Ice Beam, confirming that it is Tyranitar 4. I'm in luck! Raikou can easily setup. So i switch in, take measly damage from Thunderbolt and fire off a Calm Mind. Crunch hits for >1/4 damage (I think - if it didn't, I should have subbed - which I didn't). I decide to go for the 2HKO with Thunderbolt to just try and get rid of this thing. I land a Thunderbolt and lo and behold, Tyranitar responds with a crit, and Raikou goes down. Tyranitar cleanly finishes off Milotic and Breloom - streak over.
I made some crappy plays here that cost me the match. In retrospect, I could have done heavy damage with Surf and sacked Milotic to get a free switch in, but I was confident in the matchup and didn't feel like losing Milotic "for nothing." My best play would have been to switch in Raikou and then back to Milotic to scout since Raikou resists Thunderbolt and has Lum Berry. Even more so, if I just let Breloom get a free switch in via a Milotic/Raikou KO, it could have more than likely taken on Tyranitar on its own, barring Bright Powder / Quick Claw shenanigans. Similar for Raikou, barring a crit. GG
I'm currently sitting at a streak of 140 (now 175).
(Streak has ended at 215! - see bottom of post for details)
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Breloom (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpD
- Spore
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
This guy is the team's ace. I wanted to see how strong Spore could be and it turns out it's really good. On paper, this thing beats anything it can outspeed. In practice, Chesto and Lum Berry are going to give you trouble - that's where Milotic comes in (see below).
Seriously, that's all there is to say about Breloom. It beats pretty much everything that it can outspeed and put to sleep. It can "sweep" teams by getting a KO with a sub up and landing a Spore on the next pokemon, continuing the Spore/Substitute cycle. Quick Claw and Bright Powder can mess you up but they fortunately haven't been a problem so far.
It also solos Anabel's team quite easily as it resists Raikou's Thunderbolt, outspeeds Latios, and does major damage to Snorlax.
-----
Milotic (F) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Icy Wind
- Hypnosis
- Recover
Here's Breloom's partner in crime. This thing takes on just about everything faster than Breloom (with some exceptions - see Raikou), but more importantly, it helps Breloom set up and sweep via speed drops with Icy Wind and Chesto/Lum berry removal with Hypnosis. It is of course capable of picking up KOs on its own too.
Just to be clear, Breloom can switch in on attacks after Milotic has debuffed the opponent, it's frail but not that frail. Plus, I usually sleep the opponent first with Hypnosis, and Breloom resists the Electric type attacks often aimed at Milotic.
Hypnosis and Bright Powder are typically seen as terrible choices in the Battle Tower but they are actually integral to this team's success:
- Hypnosis gets rid of opposing pokemon's Chesto and Lum berries which let's Breloom do its thing. It can also let you Recover to full health before you KO the opposing pokemon so as to be at 100% when the next pokemon switches in.
- Bright Powder allows you stay at a higher HP by fishing for misses with Recover then KOing the opponent after they miss. Misses can also sometimes let you dodge the opponent's KO, allowing you to 2HKO in return. (Imagine they are doing about 55%. You can sneak in a few Recovers, possibly evade their attack, then 2HKO in return.)
-----
Raikou @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
Raikou works perfectly as the final pokemon. Crucially, it can beat things that give both Breloom and Milotic trouble.
The obvious problem for Milotic is Electric type attacks. These are mainly carried by Electric type pokemon, Lapras, Starmie, and Latios/Latias. These pokemon also happen to threaten Breloom with a OHKO. Raikou eats them for breakfast (barring Earthquake Latios/Latias). It can either one shot or set up on all of them. There is even an exploit in the AI where the opponent keeps using Thunder Wave even though you have a sub up, allowing you to get to +6/+6 with Calm Mind.
Another strength of Raikou is that it can revenge kill Dewgong, Lapras, and Walrein (from 100%) should they land a Sheer Cold on Milotic.
(A viable Raikou is only possible on cartridge through RNG manipulation of Pokemon Colosseum / Gale of Darkness due to the roamer IV glitch in FRLG - I play on emulator)
-----
That's it! This is my first team to break 100 so I'm very happy with it.
It isn't perfect and I know some of you may be interested in what can break it. So far, I've identified just a few:
- Sceptile: This outspeeds Breloom and sometimes even Raikou (the real issue). It can carry Aerial Ace, Leaf Blade, and Earthquake which threaten all members of the team.
- Latios/Latias: Being fast and having access to Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Earthquake make them difficult to beat.
- Gardevoir: Psychic + Thunderbolt are bad and I just know that it will crit though Calm Mind one of these days.
- Metagross: Not too bad but the Double Team + Rest set has caused me trouble. In order to win against it, you have to PP stall it with Milotic then set up on it with Raikou.
- Kangaskhan: Surprising, yes. The Rest + Crush Claw set almost got me. Early Bird makes Breloom too risky since it can immediately wake after Spore and KO. Then Crush Claw's Defense drops make it difficult to PP stall with Milotic. I'm pretty sure Milotic can't 3HKO it so it's a tough matchup.
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Streak Killer
Tyranitar 4 got the best of me. It paralyzed Milotic on its first Thunderbolt and at this point Milotic was in the 2HKO range. I wasn't too bothered since Breloom and Raikou have good matchups against the Tyranitar sets that carry Thunderbolt. Here is where I make the mistake. I need to scout the set and I am trying to play it safe since the two possible Tyranitar sets have Bright Powder and Quick Claw and one of the sets can hit all my pokes for 2x damage. My plan is to switch in Breloom and then switch back into Milotic. They should both take very little damage in the process so this is mostly safe. Mostly, since the incoming Thunderbolt could paralyze Breloom. And that is exactly what happened.
I'm not sweating too hard since I can still switch in Milotic and scout the set, and possibly setup with Raikou. It reveals Ice Beam, confirming that it is Tyranitar 4. I'm in luck! Raikou can easily setup. So i switch in, take measly damage from Thunderbolt and fire off a Calm Mind. Crunch hits for >1/4 damage (I think - if it didn't, I should have subbed - which I didn't). I decide to go for the 2HKO with Thunderbolt to just try and get rid of this thing. I land a Thunderbolt and lo and behold, Tyranitar responds with a crit, and Raikou goes down. Tyranitar cleanly finishes off Milotic and Breloom - streak over.
I made some crappy plays here that cost me the match. In retrospect, I could have done heavy damage with Surf and sacked Milotic to get a free switch in, but I was confident in the matchup and didn't feel like losing Milotic "for nothing." My best play would have been to switch in Raikou and then back to Milotic to scout since Raikou resists Thunderbolt and has Lum Berry. Even more so, if I just let Breloom get a free switch in via a Milotic/Raikou KO, it could have more than likely taken on Tyranitar on its own, barring Bright Powder / Quick Claw shenanigans. Similar for Raikou, barring a crit. GG
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drcossack
I'm everywhere, you ain't never there
If you're emulating (and you have a Twitch/Youtube account), all you'd need is to stream it, which is extremely easy: you can set it up in OBS without ever using a capture card - window capture and you're all set.
Been pretty busy trying out some novelty Arena teams and accidentally discovered a really interesting Suicune set. I reached 182 wins in OPEN LEVEL with Suicune, Latios and Tyranitar!
Credits to Captain Santana for the Bold Hp grass Suicune. Thank you to Actaeon and Captain Santana and Kommo-o as always.
The spread is as follows.
Suicune (Mani) @ Chesto Berry
Level: 100
Bold Nature
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def/ 12 SpA / 184 SpD / 4 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA
- Dive
- Hidden Power Grass
- Icy Wind
- Rest
This Suicune plays differently from the Modest set that just tries to muscle past things with power. Suicune's signature move here is Dive (which is one of the best moves for Arena). In the lead spot, Suicune's bulk is such that you can guarantee damage, tie or outright "sweep" by winning judgements and resting off the damage. It's probably the 2nd best lead Arena pokemon, after Yawn Snorlax.
There's some notable differences between Suicune and Milotic, each with it's own little niche.
Suicune's advantages
- Higher natural speed- which allows you dodge t-wave from 0 speed misdreavus, 0 speed Heracross
- Higher natural stats, which allow you to tank ursaring's double edge and Heracross's megahorn, while ALSO living a critical hit thunder bolt from Latios
-Genderless, which means it doesn't have to deal with attract shenigans
Suicune Drawbacks
- Can't run leftovers like Milotic, with only rest as it's form of recovery
- Lower SpA (base 90) in comparison to Milotic's base 100 SpA
The lower special attack and no leftovers is a BIG DEAL in some situations. Dive's low base power of 60 is probably the only drawback to this move.
12 SpA Suicune Dive vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 66-78 (21.9 - 25.9%)
252 SpA Metagross Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 204 SpD Suicune: 100-118 (24.7 - 29.2%)
Unfortunately, you are very likely to tie versus Metagross, instead of win outright like Milotic here @ full health. In a situation where you are at lower hp or get paralyzed, you will most likely win because rest will give you a higher hp at the end of turn 3. There are other instances, where the lack of leftovers kicks in, due to dive not out-damaging SLOWER pokemon.
After trying out Suicune in both formats, I decided that Suicune was able to handle Open level a lot better than Milotic due to it's higher stats being more helpful against increased Tyranitar and Dragonite usage. Milotic is better in level 50 because it dominates all Metagross sets.
Latios @ Lum Berry
Level: 100
Timid Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Set Explanation
The real interesting last pokemon here is Tyranitar. I wanted to have a reason to run Tar, given that the team was going to be in open level.
It's a bit of a mixed bag, being able to revenge Regice, houndoom, Crobat and Jolteon but exasperates my HUGE WATER AND METAGROSS weakness.
Tyranitar (F) @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 228 Atk / 108 Def / 172 Spe
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 30 Def / 21 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power Rock
- Earthquake
- Brick Break / Double Edge/ Hyper Beam
This Tar "usually lives Meteor Mash from Metagross, while outspeeding base 100s after a dragon dance. It needs all the power it can get if it wants to reverse sweep, which is why it has liechi berry. The last move has always been an interesting decision to make. Brick Break helps a lot for Tyranitar, which is very common. Double Edge and Hyper beam would be nice against bulky waters where you need a little bit extra power as a finisher.
170+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 108 Def Tyranitar: 292-344 (85.6 - 100.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 228+ Atk Tyranitar Earthquake vs. 170 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 385-454 (112.2 - 132.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Tried this team 10+times and reached 100+ with decent consistency. On average, elite teams reach 100+ in roughly five attempts for me.
My loss was to CB granbull, metagross and focus band DD tyranitar.
Final thoughts: It's time to retire from Arena. Had enough of that facility.
https://pokepast.es/99a9acf75e3448ba
Credits to Captain Santana for the Bold Hp grass Suicune. Thank you to Actaeon and Captain Santana and Kommo-o as always.
The spread is as follows.
Suicune (Mani) @ Chesto Berry
Level: 100
Bold Nature
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Def/ 12 SpA / 184 SpD / 4 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA
- Dive
- Hidden Power Grass
- Icy Wind
- Rest
This Suicune plays differently from the Modest set that just tries to muscle past things with power. Suicune's signature move here is Dive (which is one of the best moves for Arena). In the lead spot, Suicune's bulk is such that you can guarantee damage, tie or outright "sweep" by winning judgements and resting off the damage. It's probably the 2nd best lead Arena pokemon, after Yawn Snorlax.
There's some notable differences between Suicune and Milotic, each with it's own little niche.
Suicune's advantages
- Higher natural speed- which allows you dodge t-wave from 0 speed misdreavus, 0 speed Heracross
- Higher natural stats, which allow you to tank ursaring's double edge and Heracross's megahorn, while ALSO living a critical hit thunder bolt from Latios
-Genderless, which means it doesn't have to deal with attract shenigans
Suicune Drawbacks
- Can't run leftovers like Milotic, with only rest as it's form of recovery
- Lower SpA (base 90) in comparison to Milotic's base 100 SpA
The lower special attack and no leftovers is a BIG DEAL in some situations. Dive's low base power of 60 is probably the only drawback to this move.
12 SpA Suicune Dive vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 66-78 (21.9 - 25.9%)
252 SpA Metagross Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 204 SpD Suicune: 100-118 (24.7 - 29.2%)
Unfortunately, you are very likely to tie versus Metagross, instead of win outright like Milotic here @ full health. In a situation where you are at lower hp or get paralyzed, you will most likely win because rest will give you a higher hp at the end of turn 3. There are other instances, where the lack of leftovers kicks in, due to dive not out-damaging SLOWER pokemon.
252+ SpA Latios Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 184 SpD Suicune: 173-204 (42.8 - 50.4%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Ursaring Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Suicune: 169-199 (41.8 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 0+ Atk Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 56+ Def Suicune: 175-207 (43.3 - 51.2%)
252+ Atk Ursaring Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 36+ Def Suicune: 169-199 (41.8 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
+2 0+ Atk Tyranitar Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 56+ Def Suicune: 175-207 (43.3 - 51.2%)
After trying out Suicune in both formats, I decided that Suicune was able to handle Open level a lot better than Milotic due to it's higher stats being more helpful against increased Tyranitar and Dragonite usage. Milotic is better in level 50 because it dominates all Metagross sets.
Latios @ Lum Berry
Level: 100
Timid Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
Set Explanation
- Outspeeds Sceptile and Aerodactyl
- Rest in SpA and HP
The real interesting last pokemon here is Tyranitar. I wanted to have a reason to run Tar, given that the team was going to be in open level.
It's a bit of a mixed bag, being able to revenge Regice, houndoom, Crobat and Jolteon but exasperates my HUGE WATER AND METAGROSS weakness.
Tyranitar (F) @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 228 Atk / 108 Def / 172 Spe
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 30 Def / 21 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power Rock
- Earthquake
- Brick Break / Double Edge/ Hyper Beam
This Tar "usually lives Meteor Mash from Metagross, while outspeeding base 100s after a dragon dance. It needs all the power it can get if it wants to reverse sweep, which is why it has liechi berry. The last move has always been an interesting decision to make. Brick Break helps a lot for Tyranitar, which is very common. Double Edge and Hyper beam would be nice against bulky waters where you need a little bit extra power as a finisher.
170+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 108 Def Tyranitar: 292-344 (85.6 - 100.8%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
+2 228+ Atk Tyranitar Earthquake vs. 170 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 385-454 (112.2 - 132.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Tried this team 10+times and reached 100+ with decent consistency. On average, elite teams reach 100+ in roughly five attempts for me.
My loss was to CB granbull, metagross and focus band DD tyranitar.
Final thoughts: It's time to retire from Arena. Had enough of that facility.
https://pokepast.es/99a9acf75e3448ba
Attachments
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It has been a while again. I have been busy with real life and other games, so Emerald and my Battle Facility project has fallen behind a bit. I have continued, but I have had some long breaks and it has taken a while to get to this point where I have another post worth making.
Kommo-o, it seems that you forgot to update my Battle Tower streak, detailed here. The one for Level 50 Single, ignore the Multi one since it wasn’t eligible for the leaderboards.
And I think my Level 50 Dome streak should be formatted differently, like this:
#5. Suspicious Derivative: (55^) – Slaking / Starmie / Salamence* (15 wins)
Sorry if I’m being picky, I just want it to be correct!
With that done, time for me to report some more streaks. Five in total, but only one that is eligible for the leaderboards.
First of all, I continued at the Battle Dome with the three remaining formats.
Battle Dome (part 2)
And with that, I am done with the Dome. Onwards to the next facility! Except not since before continuing with the next one, I decided to go back to one I had previously completed… or so I thought.
With this, I am done with the Dome. As well as the Palace… for the second time. Four facilities down! I still have the Pyramid, Pike and Factory left, so I’ll continue with one of them next.
Kommo-o, it seems that you forgot to update my Battle Tower streak, detailed here. The one for Level 50 Single, ignore the Multi one since it wasn’t eligible for the leaderboards.
And I think my Level 50 Dome streak should be formatted differently, like this:
#5. Suspicious Derivative: (55^) – Slaking / Starmie / Salamence* (15 wins)
Sorry if I’m being picky, I just want it to be correct!
With that done, time for me to report some more streaks. Five in total, but only one that is eligible for the leaderboards.
First of all, I continued at the Battle Dome with the three remaining formats.
Battle Dome (part 2)
To start with, Open Level Single. I had an ongoing streak of 4, a record streak of 5 and I had completed 20 tournaments in total. I don’t really remember the story behind all of this. One thing I do remember is that I got my first ever Silver Symbol here against Tucker back in 2005 (IIRC, it might also have been early 2006 but late 2005 is more likely) with members of my in-game team in Emerald. This was before I learned about EVs/IVs and stuff, so they were not properly trained. After that, I must either have tried many more times to get to Gold Tucker but never beaten round 6, or maybe I just farmed BP. Not sure and it doesn’t really matter. My return to the format now went much better.
Format: Open Level (Level 100), Single, retail cart
Team:
From my Level 100 box, I withdrew my reliable trio of Heracross, Suicune and Raikou. I have mentioned this team before, now it is time for a proper description and write-up!
Heracross (M) @ Choice Band ** Festus
Ability: Guts
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 100 stats: 285/383/176/88/212/269
Nature: Adamant
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Suicune @ Leftovers ** Velvet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 18 Sp.att / 8 Spd
Level 100 stats: 387/154/305/211/259/178
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest
Raikou @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 38 HP / 252 Sp.att / 220 Spd
Level 100 stats: 311/161/185/305/234/352
Nature: Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Crunch
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
Streak: 20
Picture proof:
With this result, the Dome is the second facility where I have gotten up to and beaten the Gold Boss on both Level 50 and Open Level, the Tower being the first. But unlike for the Tower, I think this streak was a lot less stupid, so I want it added to the leaderboards.
This team isn’t super great and I can’t really recommend it, but it worked. I had previously used it at the Tower to get a streak of 70 as mentioned in a previous post, now I used it here as well. I guess that while the team isn’t super good, it might be better than I think. Unlike my Tower streak (which felt like it happened mostly because of luck rather than skill), this streak at the Dome felt like a more skill-based achievement. It is also better than my Tower streak since I got considerably farther than the Gold Boss instead of losing directly afterwards.
Backstory for these Pokémon: In 2007, I decided to do a big training project on Emerald. I trained a total of 30 Pokémon to level 100. All were EV-trained as well, but most of them did not have good IVs or even good Natures in several cases. It took me 6 months to do this according to my old notes. The purpose was not to use them in the Battle Frontier, I just trained them for fun. Most of them are legendaries (including several that are banned from the Frontier like Mewtwo and Rayquaza) but there are a few regular Pokémon too. After training these 30 Pokémon, I didn’t play Emerald that much for many years as I played the games from the newer generations instead. D/P were also released halfway through this training project.
As for these three… Suicune and Raikou were both caught on Colosseum, so their IVs are not complete garbage, but they aren’t super great either. I caught them on my third playthrough of Colosseum and I was originally planning to reset for a Suicune with “good” IVs and a useful Nature. I wanted Bold but ended up going for this Modest one instead. For Raikou, I just wanted one with a good Nature, couldn’t bother going for IVs or any specific Hidden Power. According to an ancient post on Serebiiforums, I got a Timid Raikou on my 4th attempt, which happened on January 29, 2007… man, that was long ago. Back then, I would never have guessed that 15 years later, this Raikou would end up becoming a member of a Battle Frontier team which managed to get up to and beat the Gold Boss in two different facilities. As for Heracross, it was a breeding leftovers which I didn’t need as I already had an identical one which I raised for level 50, so this one got on the level 100 squad instead.
Regarding their movesets, Heracross is the standard CB set, not much to say about it. Suicune is the standard 2 Attacks + CM/Rest set. A Bold Nature would obviously be better, I don’t think the EVs are optimal either. It worked, but its Physical bulk wasn’t the greatest. I know from personal experiences in Gen 5/6 that Suicune can have better bulk with a Bold Nature. Raikou is a SubCM set. I don’t think I ever checked its Hidden Power, but I went with Crunch as the coverage move anyway, it is very useful against Ghost- and Psychic-types. I gave it a Lum Berry as extra protection against status. It had a Petaya Berry when I used this team at the Tower, allowing Raikou to use a SubPetaya strategy in case of an emergency, but Lum felt like the better choice here.
This team isn’t super great but it did get me a streak of 70 at the Tower and it gave me a streak of 82 battles here in the Dome. It has some notable weaknesses though. I think the most notable is opposing Psychic-types. Heracross is weak to Psychic but I don’t have a Psychic resist. Heracross itself can hit them hard with Megahorn, but that requires it to be faster and Megahorn only has 85% accuracy. Raikou can also hit them with Crunch but it isn’t super powerful before a boost, Raikou does not resist Psychic either. I think the most problematic Psychic-type opponent is Espeon. It has the perfect mix of offense, special bulk and Speed to threaten the team. Three of the opposing Espeon sets also carry Calm Mind which makes it extra threatening if it manages to set up. In addition to that, Espeon is also the Pokémon I lost against both at the Tower and here at the Dome.
Other than that, I found myself being afraid of opposing Heracross. I don’t have any Flying-type moves on the team, and opposing Heracross can potentially beat the whole team. Earthquake destroys Raikou, while Suicune does not like taking hard hitting Megahorns, and my own Heracross can only hit back with Rock Slide for neutral damage.
At first, I was thinking about using Shedinja for the Gold Tucker rounds just like at Level 50. As long as I only use Shedinja against Pokémon that it walls, it doesn’t matter if it is at level 50, it will still win. I wrote down what Pokémon I used for each battle during rounds 5-9 to determine if it was possible to substitute one of them for Shedinja in the Gold Tucker rounds. The results were that I used Heracross in 16 battles, Suicune in 15 and Raikou in 9. So I used Raikou less than Heracross and Suicune. However, I did still use it quite a lot. I did not look at the results super closely before entering Round 10, but my feeling was that all three members of the team were valuable and I couldn’t really substitute any of them for Shedinja. The end result was that I stuck with all three for Round 10 (as well as Round 15 and 20 later on).
Against Silver Tucker, I entered with Suicune/Heracross. He started with Swampert. Suicune easily set up on it. I then beat both Swampert and Charizard, which was his second Pokémon.
In my first battle against Gold Tucker, I picked Suicune and Heracross. Tucker led with Swampert. I used CM, Swampert used EQ and got a Crit. Not good at all. I switched to Hera which tanked an EQ. I then used Megahorn for about 99% while Pert used Mirror Coat for a brilliant failure! Another Megahorn for the KO. Tucker’s second Pokémon was Metagross. I used Megahorn for around 80%, it KO’d Heracross with Meteor Mash. I sent out Suicune. Metagross used Protect twice in a row, but the second one failed and I KO’d with Surf.
Not a super great victory, but I did at least win. It was the first but not last time I didn’t use Shedinja against Gold Tucker, which felt very different. For the first time ever, I did not auto-win against him! Beating him with a regular team turned out to be harder than expected. I thought about using Shedinja against him next time, but I didn’t do that.
After that battle, I thought Tucker would always pick Swampert/Heracross against this team. But that turned out to be wrong. In the first rematch I had against him at the end of Round 15, he used Swampert and Latias! That was very unexpected. In Round 20, he used Swampert/Metagross again. I don’t know why he picked Latias over Metagross in Round 15; it is a mystery. I guess this proves that Tucker does not always pick the same two Pokémon against a specific team.
So that’s the team and my first two battles against Tucker. But what about the rest of the battles? Like for Level 50, I have written battle logs. Those are for all battles from Round 11 and forward. Since there aren’t quite as many as last time, I have included them in this post instead of in a separate link. I used the same team for every round. I think the average battle here were harder here compared to my Level 50 streak. Find the battle logs below:
So yeah, I lost in the third battle of Round 21. My opponent was this:
Beauty Anya. She uses Eeveelutions, any sets. I remembered to save the Battle Video this time around. Watch it below:
Battle summary:
Anya has a team of Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon. The tourney tree reveals that she has used Double-Edge and Shadow Ball in her earlier battles. It means that she has at least one of the following sets: Flareon-1/2/3, Espeon-2, Umbreon-2/4.
I enter with Heracross and Suicune. The idea was that Heracross could OHKO all three of the opposing Pokémon with Megahorn/Earthquake, with Suicune as the backup. It would have an easy time against Flareon while it could potentially set up on Umbreon, and maybe Espeon as well. But as the battle is about to start, I realized my mistake as Heracross will be outrun and OHKO’d by Espeon before it can move. I used the damage calculator to checke the Speed stats for all opposing Espeon. It turns out that even with a Speed IV of 3, they are all faster than Heracross. So this is not good at all. At this point, I realized that I should have entered with Raikou, probably over Heracross.
The battle starts, and Anya leads with Espeon. The worst possible scenario. I switch to Suicune, it tanks a Psychic which fortunately doesn’t do a whole lot. I then go for Calm Mind, the Espeon does the same. I decide to attack next. The Espeon uses Calm Mind again, Surf does around 40% which isn’t very much. Espeon now uses Psychic, Surf for another 40%. Espeon then uses Rest and wakes up with Chesto, confirming set 2. Surf for yet another 40%. Psychic, another Surf. Suicune is then KO’d by the next Psychic. I send out Heracross, but it is slower and gets OHKO’d by Psychic. Anya beat me.
This was a very fair battle, no hax involved. The reason I lost is completely my own fault. I should have picked Raikou over Heracross. Raikou/Suicune would have been the best duo here. Bit I misplayed a bit too. I think I should have tried to stall the Espeon out of PP for Psychic with Suicune’s Pressure, I should have been able to win afterwards. But I still got “lucky” in a way since this Espeon set isn’t the strongest, it has a Docile Nature and no EVs in Sp.att. Instead, it has maxed Attack, probably to hit hard with Shadow Ball. Though it has Calm Mind to boost its Special stats. It is funny how I lost against an Espeon here since it defeated this team in Open Level Single at the Tower as well.
So that’s how my streak ended. As for Anya, she won the final battle as well, making her win the entire tournament! I guess she is a fierce opponent.
And with that, I am done with Single at the Battle Dome.
Format: Open Level (Level 100), Single, retail cart
Team:
From my Level 100 box, I withdrew my reliable trio of Heracross, Suicune and Raikou. I have mentioned this team before, now it is time for a proper description and write-up!
Heracross (M) @ Choice Band ** Festus
Ability: Guts
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 100 stats: 285/383/176/88/212/269
Nature: Adamant
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
Suicune @ Leftovers ** Velvet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 18 Sp.att / 8 Spd
Level 100 stats: 387/154/305/211/259/178
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest
Raikou @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 38 HP / 252 Sp.att / 220 Spd
Level 100 stats: 311/161/185/305/234/352
Nature: Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Crunch
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
Streak: 20
Picture proof:
With this result, the Dome is the second facility where I have gotten up to and beaten the Gold Boss on both Level 50 and Open Level, the Tower being the first. But unlike for the Tower, I think this streak was a lot less stupid, so I want it added to the leaderboards.
This team isn’t super great and I can’t really recommend it, but it worked. I had previously used it at the Tower to get a streak of 70 as mentioned in a previous post, now I used it here as well. I guess that while the team isn’t super good, it might be better than I think. Unlike my Tower streak (which felt like it happened mostly because of luck rather than skill), this streak at the Dome felt like a more skill-based achievement. It is also better than my Tower streak since I got considerably farther than the Gold Boss instead of losing directly afterwards.
Backstory for these Pokémon: In 2007, I decided to do a big training project on Emerald. I trained a total of 30 Pokémon to level 100. All were EV-trained as well, but most of them did not have good IVs or even good Natures in several cases. It took me 6 months to do this according to my old notes. The purpose was not to use them in the Battle Frontier, I just trained them for fun. Most of them are legendaries (including several that are banned from the Frontier like Mewtwo and Rayquaza) but there are a few regular Pokémon too. After training these 30 Pokémon, I didn’t play Emerald that much for many years as I played the games from the newer generations instead. D/P were also released halfway through this training project.
As for these three… Suicune and Raikou were both caught on Colosseum, so their IVs are not complete garbage, but they aren’t super great either. I caught them on my third playthrough of Colosseum and I was originally planning to reset for a Suicune with “good” IVs and a useful Nature. I wanted Bold but ended up going for this Modest one instead. For Raikou, I just wanted one with a good Nature, couldn’t bother going for IVs or any specific Hidden Power. According to an ancient post on Serebiiforums, I got a Timid Raikou on my 4th attempt, which happened on January 29, 2007… man, that was long ago. Back then, I would never have guessed that 15 years later, this Raikou would end up becoming a member of a Battle Frontier team which managed to get up to and beat the Gold Boss in two different facilities. As for Heracross, it was a breeding leftovers which I didn’t need as I already had an identical one which I raised for level 50, so this one got on the level 100 squad instead.
Regarding their movesets, Heracross is the standard CB set, not much to say about it. Suicune is the standard 2 Attacks + CM/Rest set. A Bold Nature would obviously be better, I don’t think the EVs are optimal either. It worked, but its Physical bulk wasn’t the greatest. I know from personal experiences in Gen 5/6 that Suicune can have better bulk with a Bold Nature. Raikou is a SubCM set. I don’t think I ever checked its Hidden Power, but I went with Crunch as the coverage move anyway, it is very useful against Ghost- and Psychic-types. I gave it a Lum Berry as extra protection against status. It had a Petaya Berry when I used this team at the Tower, allowing Raikou to use a SubPetaya strategy in case of an emergency, but Lum felt like the better choice here.
This team isn’t super great but it did get me a streak of 70 at the Tower and it gave me a streak of 82 battles here in the Dome. It has some notable weaknesses though. I think the most notable is opposing Psychic-types. Heracross is weak to Psychic but I don’t have a Psychic resist. Heracross itself can hit them hard with Megahorn, but that requires it to be faster and Megahorn only has 85% accuracy. Raikou can also hit them with Crunch but it isn’t super powerful before a boost, Raikou does not resist Psychic either. I think the most problematic Psychic-type opponent is Espeon. It has the perfect mix of offense, special bulk and Speed to threaten the team. Three of the opposing Espeon sets also carry Calm Mind which makes it extra threatening if it manages to set up. In addition to that, Espeon is also the Pokémon I lost against both at the Tower and here at the Dome.
Other than that, I found myself being afraid of opposing Heracross. I don’t have any Flying-type moves on the team, and opposing Heracross can potentially beat the whole team. Earthquake destroys Raikou, while Suicune does not like taking hard hitting Megahorns, and my own Heracross can only hit back with Rock Slide for neutral damage.
At first, I was thinking about using Shedinja for the Gold Tucker rounds just like at Level 50. As long as I only use Shedinja against Pokémon that it walls, it doesn’t matter if it is at level 50, it will still win. I wrote down what Pokémon I used for each battle during rounds 5-9 to determine if it was possible to substitute one of them for Shedinja in the Gold Tucker rounds. The results were that I used Heracross in 16 battles, Suicune in 15 and Raikou in 9. So I used Raikou less than Heracross and Suicune. However, I did still use it quite a lot. I did not look at the results super closely before entering Round 10, but my feeling was that all three members of the team were valuable and I couldn’t really substitute any of them for Shedinja. The end result was that I stuck with all three for Round 10 (as well as Round 15 and 20 later on).
Against Silver Tucker, I entered with Suicune/Heracross. He started with Swampert. Suicune easily set up on it. I then beat both Swampert and Charizard, which was his second Pokémon.
In my first battle against Gold Tucker, I picked Suicune and Heracross. Tucker led with Swampert. I used CM, Swampert used EQ and got a Crit. Not good at all. I switched to Hera which tanked an EQ. I then used Megahorn for about 99% while Pert used Mirror Coat for a brilliant failure! Another Megahorn for the KO. Tucker’s second Pokémon was Metagross. I used Megahorn for around 80%, it KO’d Heracross with Meteor Mash. I sent out Suicune. Metagross used Protect twice in a row, but the second one failed and I KO’d with Surf.
Gold Tucker:
Lead Pert, CM EQ Crit darn, 117 HP
Switch to Hera, EQ to 177 HP
MH for 99%, Mirror Coat (lol) fail, Leftovers recovery
MH KO
Next Meta, MH for maybe 80%, MM KO
Cune, lefties recovery brings me to 141 HP
Meta Protect, Surf fails, lefties to 165 HP
Meta Protect fail, Surf KO
Lead Pert, CM EQ Crit darn, 117 HP
Switch to Hera, EQ to 177 HP
MH for 99%, Mirror Coat (lol) fail, Leftovers recovery
MH KO
Next Meta, MH for maybe 80%, MM KO
Cune, lefties recovery brings me to 141 HP
Meta Protect, Surf fails, lefties to 165 HP
Meta Protect fail, Surf KO
After that battle, I thought Tucker would always pick Swampert/Heracross against this team. But that turned out to be wrong. In the first rematch I had against him at the end of Round 15, he used Swampert and Latias! That was very unexpected. In Round 20, he used Swampert/Metagross again. I don’t know why he picked Latias over Metagross in Round 15; it is a mystery. I guess this proves that Tucker does not always pick the same two Pokémon against a specific team.
So that’s the team and my first two battles against Tucker. But what about the rest of the battles? Like for Level 50, I have written battle logs. Those are for all battles from Round 11 and forward. Since there aren’t quite as many as last time, I have included them in this post instead of in a separate link. I used the same team for every round. I think the average battle here were harder here compared to my Level 50 streak. Find the battle logs below:
Round 11:
Battle 1
Expert Jasper
Tyranitar/Dusclops/Walrein, any sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Tyra, Sandstorm, switch to Hera, Dragon Dance, 4 sets have that, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
Brick Break OHKO
Next Walrein, Sandstorm brings me to 251 HP, Walrein takes a little damage too
BB OHKO
Battle 2
Gentleman Brooks
Vaporeon/Charizard/Slowbro, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zard, TBolt OHKO
Next Vappy, TBolt for around 70%, Surf brings me to 189 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 3
Pokémon Ranger Nelson
Dragonite/Zapdos/Articuno, any sets, Blizzard and Thunderbolt means 3 Arti, 4 Zappy, 3 Nite
Not very good
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zapdos, Sub, TWave fail, does not confirm much though
CM, TWave fail again lol
Repeat 4 times, but on the 5th turn, it uses Roar! Suicune comes in, set 4 confirmed
TBolt brings me to 114 HP, Ice Beam hits and does maybe 70%
TBolt KO’s me
Back to Raikou, Sub, TWave
CM, TWave fail two times, then on the third I CM as it uses Drill Peck, Sub does not break
TBolt KO
Next Nite, TBolt KO
That was a dumb battle.
Battle 4
Pokéfan Malory
Breloom/Blissey/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Breloom, Megahorn OHKO
Next Milotic, Megahorn miss, Surf brings me to 139 HP
Megahorn OHKO
Round 12:
Battle 1
Fisherman Theo
Crawdaunt/Starmie/Lanturn, any sets for Star/Turn, just one for Craw
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Turn, switch to Hera, Confuse Ray confuses me, meaning it is set 1-3 which doesn’t confirm much
Heracross thankfully uses EQ for an OHKO
Next Craw, Hera uses EQ again and does about 90%, gets OHKO’d by Aerial Ace
Raikou, TBolt KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Dorine
Tyranitar/Regirock/Dragonite, any sets, Hyper Beam means Nite-3/4 and/or Regirock-5
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Tyra, Sand Stream, BB OHKO
Next Regi, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
BB for around 80%, Counter KO, set 4 confirmed
Suicune, Regi QC Rock Slide brings me to 296 HP, Surf KO
Thankfully she didn’t use Nite.
Battle 3
Cooltrainer Bryon
Suicune/Zapdos/Regice, any sets, Blizzard and Thunder means Regi-1 and maybe Zappy-1/3
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Zapdos, Sub, Rain Dance, confirms set 1 or 3
CM, Double-Edge, Sub breaks, Zappy takes a little recoil, set 3 confirmed
TBolt, for 99%, Double-Edge brings Raikou to 116 HP, Zappy faints from recoil
Next Regice, TBolt does around 40%, it uses Blizzard but misses
TBolt Crit KO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Gillian
Latias/Entei/Dragonite, any sets, Ice Beam/Earthquake/Flamethrower means Nite-1/2/8/9/10, Entei-2-5, Latias-2/3/4/6/7
Not a very good matchup for me
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Entei, Sub, Double Team, set 3/4 confirmed
CM, Flamethrower, Sub breaks
TBolt hits for a Crit and OHKOs
Next Latias, Crunch for around 65%, Psychic Crit, Raikou faints
Out with Suicune, TBolt brings me to 213 HP, Ice Beam takes Latias to 1%
TBolt brings me to 37 HP, IB KO
That was really close. Maybe I didn’t deserve to win that battle.
Round 13:
Battle 1
Swimmer Elaine (will she beat me here too?)
Slaking/Granbull/Tauros, did not check sets since Bulbapedia didn’t work properly and I was getting impatient
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Granbull, Intimidate again, switch to Raikou, Mega Kick Mega Miss
TBolt for 95%, Mega Miss again
TBolt KO
I got my Revenge! Nice.
Battle 2
Collector Gideon
Meganium/Blaziken/Typhlosion, any sets, Solarbeam means Meganium-2
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mega, MH miss, Light Screen
MH OHKO
Next Typh, switch to Cune, Overheat, Cune at 351 HP after Leftovers, no White Herb which confirms set 2
EQ brings Cune to 284 HP, Surf for around 40%
EQ, CM, Light Screen over
EQ, Surf KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Avery
Heracross/Armaldo/Shuckle, any sets, Double-Edge and EQ means Armaldo-1, potentially any Hera
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, RS for about 80%, Substitute fail
RS KO
Next Hera
RS for around 60%, it uses Rock Tomb but misses
RS miss, Megahorn miss
RS KO
Battle 4
Expert Weston
Latios/Crobat/Registeel, any sets it seems, Bulbapedia fails again and I was losing patience because I had other things to do and I didn’t really have the time for this
We’ll gamble a bit, the page for the Pokémon sets do at least work
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Crobat, TBolt OHKO
Next Regi, Sub, Curse, confirming set 1
TBolt for maybe 30%, Amnesia
CM, Curse
CM, Rest, Chesto wakes it up
TBolt for 30% again, Metal Claw, Sub breaks
TBolt for another 30% or so, maybe even more, MClaw brings Raikou to 160 HP
TBolt Crit KO
Phew.
Round 14:
Battle 1
Cooltrainer Gillian
Dragonite/Articuno/Latias, any sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Nite, Sub, Sunny Day, set 6 confirmed (it knows EQ, why didn’t it do that?
TBolt for about 50%, EQ, Sub breaks
TBolt brings it to 1%, it gets paralyzed and FP
TBolt KO
Next Arti, Protect, TBolt fails, Sun ends
Sub, IB, Sub breaks
Protect, TBolt fails
Protect fails, TBolt brings it to 1% too!
Protect, TBolt fails
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Guitarist Charles
Ampharos/Houndoom/Jolteon, any sets, TBolt means 2 Amphy, any Jolt
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Jolt, EQ OHKO
Next Hound, EQ OHKO
Battle 3
Black Belt Mateo
Aggron/Rhydon/Machamp, any sets, EQ and Thunder means any Rhy, 4 possible Champ, Aggron-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Aggron, BB OHKO
Next Rhy, BB OHKO
Battle 4
Black Belt Raul
Metagross/Hariyama/Forretress, any sets, Rock Slide and Ice Punch means Forry-1/4, any Hari, Meta-1/5/8
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Forry, EQ for around 70%, Double-Edge brings Hera to 135 HP, recoil brings Forry to maybe 10%
EQ KO
Round 15:
Battle 1
Expert Nadia
Rhydon/Steelix/Kingdra, any sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Rhydon, BB OHKO
Next Steelix, BB for around 95%, Rock Tomb brings Hera to 228 HP, Speed lowered, Steelix recovers with Sitrus Berry, set 4 confirmed
BB KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Shania
Umbreon/Gyarados/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Dodrio, it uses Protect first, then TBolt OHKO
Next Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Rolando
Espeon/Starmie/Wobbuffet, any sets, Thunderbolt and Surf means Starmie 2 or 6
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Wobb, really nice!
Sub, CM 6 times as it uses Counter/Mirror Coat to no effect, then Crunch OHKO
Next Starmie, TBolt OHKO
Battle 4
Tucker
He went with Swampert/Metagross last time, so I’m expecting him to do the same here
But I’m leading with Hera this time.
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Pert as expected, MH for 99% just like last time, Mirror Coat fail
MH Miss, Surf brings Hera to 121 HP
MH KO
NextMetagross… Latias? What in the world?
MH OHKO
Very unexpected that he picked Latias as his backup this time around. This means he can choose different Pokémon even if you face him with the same team. Anyway, my new strategy worked much better, Hera is my lead of choice against him from now on.
Round 16:
Battle 1
Beauty Dawn
Jynx/Altaria/Fearow, 2 possible Jynx, one for the others
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Fearow, TBolt OHKO
Next Jynx, Fake Out brings Raikou to 293 HP, set 2 confirmed
Crunch for around 70%, Lovely Kiss miss (Lovely Miss!)
Crunch KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Miriam
Exploud/Cradily/Shiftry, any sets, Giga Drain means Shif-2/4 or Crad-1/3
Willing to risk total disaster = Explosion? Meaning Shif-2/3 in that case
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Shiftry, Fake Out brings Hera to 239 HP
BB Crit OHKO
Next Cradily, BB Crit OHKO again!
Battle 3
Swimmer Elaine (I beat her last time, so hopefully this time too)
Milotic/Blastoise/Exploud, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Exploud, BB OHKO
Next Blast, BB for 80%, Surf Crit OHKO
Out with Raikou, TBolt Crit KO
Sorry babe, but your days of winning against me are over!
Battle 4
Triathlete Gloria
Whiscash/Jynx/Hariyama, any Jynx/Hari, 2 Cash, EQ and Cross Chop says nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Cash, MH OHKO
Next Hari, switch to Cune, Counter fail, set 1 confirmed (why didn’t it use Fake Out?)
Surf for maybe 30%, Counter fail again
Surf for another 30%, Cross Chop, Leftovers brings Cune to 304 HP
Two more Surfs and I have won, was too lazy to write all of the details since they don’t make a difference anyway
Round 17:
Battle 1
Expert Emma
Dragonite/Miltank/Dusclops, any sets
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Nite, CM, Sunny Day, Set 6 confirmed
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 259 HP after Leftovers
Nite is then faster (QC), probably uses EQ again but I forgot to write it down, CM, Cune at 209 HP after Leftovers
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 87 HP after Leftovers
IB OHKO, Sunny Day ends, Leftovers brings Cune to 111 HP
Next Dusclops, Surf OHKO
Battle 2
Hiker Corey
Metagross/Armaldo/Flygon, any sets, Explosion means Meta-5/6
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Flygon, switch to Cune, EQ Crit, Cune at 185 after Leftovers
EQ next turn brings me to 67 HP, IB OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Ingrid
Latias/Gardevoir/Regice, any sets, Psychic and EQ means Lati-2/3/4/7, any Garde but 4, Regice-4 though set 6 is probably likely since it has Explosion and the info said she is willing to risk total disaster
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Garde, MH OHKO
Next Lati, MH Miss, Psychic OHKOs Hera
Raikou out
Psychic pretty much means Latias-3/7
Crunch and see how it goes
It does around 60%, EQ brings Raikou to 106 HP
Crunch KO
Close.
Battle 4
Psychic Stanly
Claydol/Metagross/Starmie, any sets, Thunder/Shadow Ball/Explosion means Starmie-7, Claydol-1, Meta-5-8
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Claydol, MH, Focus Band, Psychic Crit brings Hera to 30 HP
MH KO
Next Starmie, MH OHKO
Round 18:
Battle 1
Picknicker Ruth
Houndoom/Gengar/Kangaskhan, specific sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Kanga, BB OHKO
Next Hound, BB OHKO
Battle 2
Expert Jasper
Slowking/Cradily/Lapras, any sets, Ice Beam means Slowking-2/3, Lapras-5/7
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Lapras, BB OHKO
Next Slowking, switch to Raikou, Psychic brings it to 190 HP and confirms that it is not set 4
TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Pokémon Breeder Clare
Meganium/Typhlosion/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Typh, EQ OHKO
Next Mega, switch to Raikou, Body Slam brings it to 227 HP
Switch back to Hera, EQ Crit brings it to 188 HP
MH OHKO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Leon
Heracross/Ninetales/Flygon, any sets, Megahorn says nothing, Dragon Claw means Flygon-3/4
Really difficult matchup
Suicune/Raikou
Lead Flygon, EQ takes Cune to 288 HP, IB OHKO
Next Ninetales, Leftovers to 312
Heat Wave brings Cune to 263, burned, Surf for around 95%, Cune at 239 after Leftovers and Burn
Heat Wave brings Cune to 190, Surf KO
That went easier than I thought.
Round 19:
Battle 1
Swimmer Joyce
Milotic/Tauros/Vaporeon, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Vappy, BB for around 70%, Acid Armor
Switch to Raikou, Rest, Lum wakes it up
TBolt for around 70% again, paralyzed, Surf takes Raikou to 176 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Leon
Vaporeon/Gengar/Heracross, any sets (or 4 possible for Gengar), Ice Beam means Vappy-1/3/4
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Hera, switch to my Hera, EQ Crit takes me to 119 HP
RS for around 80%, MH KOs me
Out with Raikou, TBolt KO
Next Vappy, TBolt Crit OHKO
Battle 3
Hex Maniac Carly
Victreebel/Dusclops/Gengar, any sets, Double-Edge and Thunderbolt means Gengar-1/2/6/7/8, Vic-1, Dus-1
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gar, CM, Psychic takes Raikou to 235 HP
Crunch OHKO
Next Dus, Crunch for around 90%, Shadow Ball brings Raikou to 121 HP
Crunch KO
Battle 4
Pokemon Ranger Shania
Gyarados/Exploud/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Next Exploud, TBolt for around 85%, EQ brings me to 93 HP
TBolt KO
Didn’t use Suicune a single time in this round, interesting.
Round 20:
Battle 1
Pokéfan Todd
Jolteon/Absol/Raichu, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Jolt, TBolt takes Hera to 139 HP, EQ OHKO
Next Absol, EQ OHKO
Battle 2
Black Belt Mateo
Shuckle/Medicham/Machamp, any sets, Focus Punch means Champ-1 for sure for once
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, BB for around 60%, Double Team, it recovers a little with Leftovers
BB KO
Next Champ, BB for around 90%, Sub fails
BB KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Liam
Heracross/Masquerain/Shuckle, any Shuckle/Hera, one Mas, Megahorn confirms nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mas, Intimidate, RS still OHKOs
Next Hera, switch to Cune, MH miss
MH brings me to 230 HP, Surf for 40%, Leftovers brings Cune to 254 HP
MH brings Cune to 95 HP, Surf brings Hera to 85%, Leftovers brings Cune to 119
MH KO
Out with my Hera, EQ KO
Battle 4
Tucker
Heracross/Suicune worked the last two times, so I’m going with them again
Lead Pert as expected, MH to 95%, Mirror fail!
MH KO
Next Meta, Protects first
Then MH miss, MM brings Hera to 29 HP
QC EQ KO
Cune, QC EQ again, Cune at 280 HP, CM, 304 HP after Leftovers
Surf for around 45%, EQ takes me to 194 HP, 218 after Leftovers
Protect, Leftovers to 242 HP
Protect, Leftovers to 266 HP
Surf takes Meta down to around 5%, EQ brings Cune to 161 HP, 185 after Leftovers
Surf KO
Fun, but I still wish I had Shedinja.
Round 21:
Battle 1
Parasol Lady Paige
Ludicolo/Houndoom/Starmie, 3 sets for Ludi, specific for Starmie/Hound
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Starmie, MH OHKO
Next Hound, MH miss, Overheat OHKO, White Herb
Raikou, TBolt for around 80%, Crunch brings me to 192 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Dragon Tamer Trevon
Tyranitar/Dragonite/Aerodactyl, any sets, Fire Blast means Aero-3/4, Nite-6
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Tyra, CM, DD, narrows it down to 4 different sets
Surf for 90%, Counter fail, set 5 confirmed
Rock Slide brings Cune to 248 HP, Surf KO
Next Aero, Double-Edge brings Cune to 162 HP, recoil, Surf KO
Battle 3
The loss.
See below for details.
Battle 1
Expert Jasper
Tyranitar/Dusclops/Walrein, any sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Tyra, Sandstorm, switch to Hera, Dragon Dance, 4 sets have that, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
Brick Break OHKO
Next Walrein, Sandstorm brings me to 251 HP, Walrein takes a little damage too
BB OHKO
Battle 2
Gentleman Brooks
Vaporeon/Charizard/Slowbro, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zard, TBolt OHKO
Next Vappy, TBolt for around 70%, Surf brings me to 189 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 3
Pokémon Ranger Nelson
Dragonite/Zapdos/Articuno, any sets, Blizzard and Thunderbolt means 3 Arti, 4 Zappy, 3 Nite
Not very good
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zapdos, Sub, TWave fail, does not confirm much though
CM, TWave fail again lol
Repeat 4 times, but on the 5th turn, it uses Roar! Suicune comes in, set 4 confirmed
TBolt brings me to 114 HP, Ice Beam hits and does maybe 70%
TBolt KO’s me
Back to Raikou, Sub, TWave
CM, TWave fail two times, then on the third I CM as it uses Drill Peck, Sub does not break
TBolt KO
Next Nite, TBolt KO
That was a dumb battle.
Battle 4
Pokéfan Malory
Breloom/Blissey/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Breloom, Megahorn OHKO
Next Milotic, Megahorn miss, Surf brings me to 139 HP
Megahorn OHKO
Round 12:
Battle 1
Fisherman Theo
Crawdaunt/Starmie/Lanturn, any sets for Star/Turn, just one for Craw
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Turn, switch to Hera, Confuse Ray confuses me, meaning it is set 1-3 which doesn’t confirm much
Heracross thankfully uses EQ for an OHKO
Next Craw, Hera uses EQ again and does about 90%, gets OHKO’d by Aerial Ace
Raikou, TBolt KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Dorine
Tyranitar/Regirock/Dragonite, any sets, Hyper Beam means Nite-3/4 and/or Regirock-5
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Tyra, Sand Stream, BB OHKO
Next Regi, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
BB for around 80%, Counter KO, set 4 confirmed
Suicune, Regi QC Rock Slide brings me to 296 HP, Surf KO
Thankfully she didn’t use Nite.
Battle 3
Cooltrainer Bryon
Suicune/Zapdos/Regice, any sets, Blizzard and Thunder means Regi-1 and maybe Zappy-1/3
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Zapdos, Sub, Rain Dance, confirms set 1 or 3
CM, Double-Edge, Sub breaks, Zappy takes a little recoil, set 3 confirmed
TBolt, for 99%, Double-Edge brings Raikou to 116 HP, Zappy faints from recoil
Next Regice, TBolt does around 40%, it uses Blizzard but misses
TBolt Crit KO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Gillian
Latias/Entei/Dragonite, any sets, Ice Beam/Earthquake/Flamethrower means Nite-1/2/8/9/10, Entei-2-5, Latias-2/3/4/6/7
Not a very good matchup for me
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Entei, Sub, Double Team, set 3/4 confirmed
CM, Flamethrower, Sub breaks
TBolt hits for a Crit and OHKOs
Next Latias, Crunch for around 65%, Psychic Crit, Raikou faints
Out with Suicune, TBolt brings me to 213 HP, Ice Beam takes Latias to 1%
TBolt brings me to 37 HP, IB KO
That was really close. Maybe I didn’t deserve to win that battle.
Round 13:
Battle 1
Swimmer Elaine (will she beat me here too?)
Slaking/Granbull/Tauros, did not check sets since Bulbapedia didn’t work properly and I was getting impatient
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Granbull, Intimidate again, switch to Raikou, Mega Kick Mega Miss
TBolt for 95%, Mega Miss again
TBolt KO
I got my Revenge! Nice.
Battle 2
Collector Gideon
Meganium/Blaziken/Typhlosion, any sets, Solarbeam means Meganium-2
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mega, MH miss, Light Screen
MH OHKO
Next Typh, switch to Cune, Overheat, Cune at 351 HP after Leftovers, no White Herb which confirms set 2
EQ brings Cune to 284 HP, Surf for around 40%
EQ, CM, Light Screen over
EQ, Surf KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Avery
Heracross/Armaldo/Shuckle, any sets, Double-Edge and EQ means Armaldo-1, potentially any Hera
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, RS for about 80%, Substitute fail
RS KO
Next Hera
RS for around 60%, it uses Rock Tomb but misses
RS miss, Megahorn miss
RS KO
Battle 4
Expert Weston
Latios/Crobat/Registeel, any sets it seems, Bulbapedia fails again and I was losing patience because I had other things to do and I didn’t really have the time for this
We’ll gamble a bit, the page for the Pokémon sets do at least work
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Crobat, TBolt OHKO
Next Regi, Sub, Curse, confirming set 1
TBolt for maybe 30%, Amnesia
CM, Curse
CM, Rest, Chesto wakes it up
TBolt for 30% again, Metal Claw, Sub breaks
TBolt for another 30% or so, maybe even more, MClaw brings Raikou to 160 HP
TBolt Crit KO
Phew.
Round 14:
Battle 1
Cooltrainer Gillian
Dragonite/Articuno/Latias, any sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Nite, Sub, Sunny Day, set 6 confirmed (it knows EQ, why didn’t it do that?
TBolt for about 50%, EQ, Sub breaks
TBolt brings it to 1%, it gets paralyzed and FP
TBolt KO
Next Arti, Protect, TBolt fails, Sun ends
Sub, IB, Sub breaks
Protect, TBolt fails
Protect fails, TBolt brings it to 1% too!
Protect, TBolt fails
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Guitarist Charles
Ampharos/Houndoom/Jolteon, any sets, TBolt means 2 Amphy, any Jolt
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Jolt, EQ OHKO
Next Hound, EQ OHKO
Battle 3
Black Belt Mateo
Aggron/Rhydon/Machamp, any sets, EQ and Thunder means any Rhy, 4 possible Champ, Aggron-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Aggron, BB OHKO
Next Rhy, BB OHKO
Battle 4
Black Belt Raul
Metagross/Hariyama/Forretress, any sets, Rock Slide and Ice Punch means Forry-1/4, any Hari, Meta-1/5/8
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Forry, EQ for around 70%, Double-Edge brings Hera to 135 HP, recoil brings Forry to maybe 10%
EQ KO
Round 15:
Battle 1
Expert Nadia
Rhydon/Steelix/Kingdra, any sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Rhydon, BB OHKO
Next Steelix, BB for around 95%, Rock Tomb brings Hera to 228 HP, Speed lowered, Steelix recovers with Sitrus Berry, set 4 confirmed
BB KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Shania
Umbreon/Gyarados/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Dodrio, it uses Protect first, then TBolt OHKO
Next Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Rolando
Espeon/Starmie/Wobbuffet, any sets, Thunderbolt and Surf means Starmie 2 or 6
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Wobb, really nice!
Sub, CM 6 times as it uses Counter/Mirror Coat to no effect, then Crunch OHKO
Next Starmie, TBolt OHKO
Battle 4
Tucker
He went with Swampert/Metagross last time, so I’m expecting him to do the same here
But I’m leading with Hera this time.
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Pert as expected, MH for 99% just like last time, Mirror Coat fail
MH Miss, Surf brings Hera to 121 HP
MH KO
Next
MH OHKO
Very unexpected that he picked Latias as his backup this time around. This means he can choose different Pokémon even if you face him with the same team. Anyway, my new strategy worked much better, Hera is my lead of choice against him from now on.
Round 16:
Battle 1
Beauty Dawn
Jynx/Altaria/Fearow, 2 possible Jynx, one for the others
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Fearow, TBolt OHKO
Next Jynx, Fake Out brings Raikou to 293 HP, set 2 confirmed
Crunch for around 70%, Lovely Kiss miss (Lovely Miss!)
Crunch KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Miriam
Exploud/Cradily/Shiftry, any sets, Giga Drain means Shif-2/4 or Crad-1/3
Willing to risk total disaster = Explosion? Meaning Shif-2/3 in that case
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Shiftry, Fake Out brings Hera to 239 HP
BB Crit OHKO
Next Cradily, BB Crit OHKO again!
Battle 3
Swimmer Elaine (I beat her last time, so hopefully this time too)
Milotic/Blastoise/Exploud, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Exploud, BB OHKO
Next Blast, BB for 80%, Surf Crit OHKO
Out with Raikou, TBolt Crit KO
Sorry babe, but your days of winning against me are over!
Battle 4
Triathlete Gloria
Whiscash/Jynx/Hariyama, any Jynx/Hari, 2 Cash, EQ and Cross Chop says nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Cash, MH OHKO
Next Hari, switch to Cune, Counter fail, set 1 confirmed (why didn’t it use Fake Out?)
Surf for maybe 30%, Counter fail again
Surf for another 30%, Cross Chop, Leftovers brings Cune to 304 HP
Two more Surfs and I have won, was too lazy to write all of the details since they don’t make a difference anyway
Round 17:
Battle 1
Expert Emma
Dragonite/Miltank/Dusclops, any sets
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Nite, CM, Sunny Day, Set 6 confirmed
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 259 HP after Leftovers
Nite is then faster (QC), probably uses EQ again but I forgot to write it down, CM, Cune at 209 HP after Leftovers
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 87 HP after Leftovers
IB OHKO, Sunny Day ends, Leftovers brings Cune to 111 HP
Next Dusclops, Surf OHKO
Battle 2
Hiker Corey
Metagross/Armaldo/Flygon, any sets, Explosion means Meta-5/6
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Flygon, switch to Cune, EQ Crit, Cune at 185 after Leftovers
EQ next turn brings me to 67 HP, IB OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Ingrid
Latias/Gardevoir/Regice, any sets, Psychic and EQ means Lati-2/3/4/7, any Garde but 4, Regice-4 though set 6 is probably likely since it has Explosion and the info said she is willing to risk total disaster
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Garde, MH OHKO
Next Lati, MH Miss, Psychic OHKOs Hera
Raikou out
Psychic pretty much means Latias-3/7
Crunch and see how it goes
It does around 60%, EQ brings Raikou to 106 HP
Crunch KO
Close.
Battle 4
Psychic Stanly
Claydol/Metagross/Starmie, any sets, Thunder/Shadow Ball/Explosion means Starmie-7, Claydol-1, Meta-5-8
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Claydol, MH, Focus Band, Psychic Crit brings Hera to 30 HP
MH KO
Next Starmie, MH OHKO
Round 18:
Battle 1
Picknicker Ruth
Houndoom/Gengar/Kangaskhan, specific sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Kanga, BB OHKO
Next Hound, BB OHKO
Battle 2
Expert Jasper
Slowking/Cradily/Lapras, any sets, Ice Beam means Slowking-2/3, Lapras-5/7
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Lapras, BB OHKO
Next Slowking, switch to Raikou, Psychic brings it to 190 HP and confirms that it is not set 4
TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Pokémon Breeder Clare
Meganium/Typhlosion/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Typh, EQ OHKO
Next Mega, switch to Raikou, Body Slam brings it to 227 HP
Switch back to Hera, EQ Crit brings it to 188 HP
MH OHKO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Leon
Heracross/Ninetales/Flygon, any sets, Megahorn says nothing, Dragon Claw means Flygon-3/4
Really difficult matchup
Suicune/Raikou
Lead Flygon, EQ takes Cune to 288 HP, IB OHKO
Next Ninetales, Leftovers to 312
Heat Wave brings Cune to 263, burned, Surf for around 95%, Cune at 239 after Leftovers and Burn
Heat Wave brings Cune to 190, Surf KO
That went easier than I thought.
Round 19:
Battle 1
Swimmer Joyce
Milotic/Tauros/Vaporeon, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Vappy, BB for around 70%, Acid Armor
Switch to Raikou, Rest, Lum wakes it up
TBolt for around 70% again, paralyzed, Surf takes Raikou to 176 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Leon
Vaporeon/Gengar/Heracross, any sets (or 4 possible for Gengar), Ice Beam means Vappy-1/3/4
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Hera, switch to my Hera, EQ Crit takes me to 119 HP
RS for around 80%, MH KOs me
Out with Raikou, TBolt KO
Next Vappy, TBolt Crit OHKO
Battle 3
Hex Maniac Carly
Victreebel/Dusclops/Gengar, any sets, Double-Edge and Thunderbolt means Gengar-1/2/6/7/8, Vic-1, Dus-1
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gar, CM, Psychic takes Raikou to 235 HP
Crunch OHKO
Next Dus, Crunch for around 90%, Shadow Ball brings Raikou to 121 HP
Crunch KO
Battle 4
Pokemon Ranger Shania
Gyarados/Exploud/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Next Exploud, TBolt for around 85%, EQ brings me to 93 HP
TBolt KO
Didn’t use Suicune a single time in this round, interesting.
Round 20:
Battle 1
Pokéfan Todd
Jolteon/Absol/Raichu, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Jolt, TBolt takes Hera to 139 HP, EQ OHKO
Next Absol, EQ OHKO
Battle 2
Black Belt Mateo
Shuckle/Medicham/Machamp, any sets, Focus Punch means Champ-1 for sure for once
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, BB for around 60%, Double Team, it recovers a little with Leftovers
BB KO
Next Champ, BB for around 90%, Sub fails
BB KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Liam
Heracross/Masquerain/Shuckle, any Shuckle/Hera, one Mas, Megahorn confirms nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mas, Intimidate, RS still OHKOs
Next Hera, switch to Cune, MH miss
MH brings me to 230 HP, Surf for 40%, Leftovers brings Cune to 254 HP
MH brings Cune to 95 HP, Surf brings Hera to 85%, Leftovers brings Cune to 119
MH KO
Out with my Hera, EQ KO
Battle 4
Tucker
Heracross/Suicune worked the last two times, so I’m going with them again
Lead Pert as expected, MH to 95%, Mirror fail!
MH KO
Next Meta, Protects first
Then MH miss, MM brings Hera to 29 HP
QC EQ KO
Cune, QC EQ again, Cune at 280 HP, CM, 304 HP after Leftovers
Surf for around 45%, EQ takes me to 194 HP, 218 after Leftovers
Protect, Leftovers to 242 HP
Protect, Leftovers to 266 HP
Surf takes Meta down to around 5%, EQ brings Cune to 161 HP, 185 after Leftovers
Surf KO
Fun, but I still wish I had Shedinja.
Round 21:
Battle 1
Parasol Lady Paige
Ludicolo/Houndoom/Starmie, 3 sets for Ludi, specific for Starmie/Hound
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Starmie, MH OHKO
Next Hound, MH miss, Overheat OHKO, White Herb
Raikou, TBolt for around 80%, Crunch brings me to 192 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Dragon Tamer Trevon
Tyranitar/Dragonite/Aerodactyl, any sets, Fire Blast means Aero-3/4, Nite-6
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Tyra, CM, DD, narrows it down to 4 different sets
Surf for 90%, Counter fail, set 5 confirmed
Rock Slide brings Cune to 248 HP, Surf KO
Next Aero, Double-Edge brings Cune to 162 HP, recoil, Surf KO
Battle 3
The loss.
See below for details.
Beauty Anya. She uses Eeveelutions, any sets. I remembered to save the Battle Video this time around. Watch it below:
Battle summary:
Anya has a team of Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon. The tourney tree reveals that she has used Double-Edge and Shadow Ball in her earlier battles. It means that she has at least one of the following sets: Flareon-1/2/3, Espeon-2, Umbreon-2/4.
I enter with Heracross and Suicune. The idea was that Heracross could OHKO all three of the opposing Pokémon with Megahorn/Earthquake, with Suicune as the backup. It would have an easy time against Flareon while it could potentially set up on Umbreon, and maybe Espeon as well. But as the battle is about to start, I realized my mistake as Heracross will be outrun and OHKO’d by Espeon before it can move. I used the damage calculator to checke the Speed stats for all opposing Espeon. It turns out that even with a Speed IV of 3, they are all faster than Heracross. So this is not good at all. At this point, I realized that I should have entered with Raikou, probably over Heracross.
The battle starts, and Anya leads with Espeon. The worst possible scenario. I switch to Suicune, it tanks a Psychic which fortunately doesn’t do a whole lot. I then go for Calm Mind, the Espeon does the same. I decide to attack next. The Espeon uses Calm Mind again, Surf does around 40% which isn’t very much. Espeon now uses Psychic, Surf for another 40%. Espeon then uses Rest and wakes up with Chesto, confirming set 2. Surf for yet another 40%. Psychic, another Surf. Suicune is then KO’d by the next Psychic. I send out Heracross, but it is slower and gets OHKO’d by Psychic. Anya beat me.
Battle 3
Beauty Anya
Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon, any sets, Double-Edge and Shadow Ball, Flare-1/2/3, Espy-2, Umby-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Espy, switch to Cune, Psychic to 296 HP after Leftovers
Both use CM
It uses CM again, I Surf for maybe 40%
Psychic takes Cune to 206 HP, Surf brings it down to around 20%, 230 HP after Leftovers
It uses Rest, Chesto wakes it, I Surf for 40% again, 254 HP after Leftovers
Psychic takes Cune to 135 HP after Leftovers, Surf it down to 20% again
Psychic KOs Cune
And Hera gets outrun and OHKO’d by Psychic
RIP streak
Beauty Anya
Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon, any sets, Double-Edge and Shadow Ball, Flare-1/2/3, Espy-2, Umby-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Espy, switch to Cune, Psychic to 296 HP after Leftovers
Both use CM
It uses CM again, I Surf for maybe 40%
Psychic takes Cune to 206 HP, Surf brings it down to around 20%, 230 HP after Leftovers
It uses Rest, Chesto wakes it, I Surf for 40% again, 254 HP after Leftovers
Psychic takes Cune to 135 HP after Leftovers, Surf it down to 20% again
Psychic KOs Cune
And Hera gets outrun and OHKO’d by Psychic
RIP streak
So that’s how my streak ended. As for Anya, she won the final battle as well, making her win the entire tournament! I guess she is a fierce opponent.
And with that, I am done with Single at the Battle Dome.
After completing my streak at Open Level Single, I decided to try Double at the Dome. I continued on my streaks at both Level 50 and Open Level, below are the results.
I started with Level 50. I had an ongoing streak of 3 since before, don’t remember when or how I got it. I had only completed 3 tournaments, so I had never made any previous attempts. Dome Double is an interesting format since you enter with 3 Pokémon, then pick two from those, which are the only ones you use for the battle. Since your opponent will also pick 2, it means that you will see which two they picked immediately at the start of the battle.
I used a team of Salamence/Gengar/Metagross for round 4-5, then I switched Metagross for Slaking. With two Pokémon immune to Ground, I would be able to Quake more freely. I used Metagross for the earlier rounds since opponents in the early rounds are more likely to carry Protect, which Slaking loses against. My Metagross isn’t super great though. It is rather slow, which I guess isn’t too surprising since it doesn’t have any Speed EVs. The inaccuracy of Meteor Mash was a bit problematic too. In one battle, it missed twice against an opposing Lunatone, which put me in a very bad situation as the Omastar that remained might have been able to beat Metagross with a Rain Dance-boosted Hydro Pump. But that did fortunately not happen since it missed.
I didn’t use Metagross that much, I mostly went with Salamence/Gengar. I also thought my Metagross knew Shadow Ball. I had a memory of it knowing that, and I had written that it knew Shadow Ball in my old notes. But when I checked it in the game, it had Rock Slide instead. Not sure how I got it mixed up. Guess I just wasn’t very careful back then. Either way, I think Shadow Ball is the better move, it feels like Rock Slide doesn’t really offer any valuable coverage while Shadow Ball is great against opposing Psychic- and Ghost-types. I guess I could change it, trading over a Shadow Ball TM from FR/LG is easy and cheap. Maybe I’ll do that later on.
Another thing that I noted was that my Gengar has a Speed stat of 153, which is exactly one point above max Speed neutral base 100s. Such as my Salamence and Slaking. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if I just got lucky when I EV’d it back in the day, but it was pretty cool when I noticed it now. Unfortunately, 153 Speed isn’t super great for the Dome due to the 3 IV glitch since it means that Gengar will Speed tie with many opponents. But it allowed Gengar to always move before Slaking and Salamence, which was great.
I got a streak of 8 rounds. I lost in the first battle in Round 9. I was up against a trainer with Kingdra/Hariyama/Dewgong. I went with Gengar/Slaking, my opponent chose Dewgong/Hariyama. On the first turn, Hariyama used Fake Out on Slaking, Gengar used TBolt on Dewgong for around 95%, Slaking flinched, Dewgong used Sheer Cold but missed. On turn 2, Gengar KO’d Dewgong with TBolt, Hariyama KO’d Slaking with a Crit Cross Chop. Gengar then used TBolt on Hariyama for about 50%, Hariyama used Rock Slide on Gengar for around 50% as well. Hariyama then lived another TBolt with a little HP left, while Gengar got KO’d by another Rock Slide.
A rather sour loss, but it was mostly fair so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. I guess I might have been able to win if I had picked Salamence instead of Slaking, but I was afraid of the opposing Dewgong/Kingdra and their Ice/Dragon-type moves. It doesn’t matter though, I did not expect a super long streak and I’m satisfied with this. The team was quite fun to use but not super great in the end.
I continued with Open Level Double. I had a streak of 1 since before. Like with Level 50, it was all I had ever tried for this format. I entered with a team of Swampert/Zapdos/Latios. Similar to Level 50, the plan was to allow Swampert free Quaking thanks to having two partners immune to Ground. However, the team was rather slow to play with and it wasn’t super great offensively. Swampert and Zapdos were pretty good defensively though. In case anyone wonders, my Latios sucks. I wish I had a better one on Gen 3.
I got a streak of 7 rounds here. I lost in round 8, 3rd battle: I was up against a trainer with Donphan/Armaldo/Nidoking. I entered with Swampert/Latios, my opponent picked Nidoking/Donphan. On the first turn, Donphan activated its QC and used Fissure, which hit Swampert. Latios used Ice Beam on Donphan, which survived. Nidoking used Horn Drill, but it missed. Latios then used Ice Beam on Nidoking, it survived. Latios then got KO’d by Blizzard + Rock Slide. This was a rather haxy loss, I don’t think I could have done much to prevent it. Maybe if I had let Swampert use Protect on turn 1, but I couldn’t predict that the Donphan would use Fissure.
I also had a notable battle in Round 5. I had picked Swampert/Latios and got to face a duo of Marowak/Steelix. On the first turn of the battle, the Steelix got a QC activation, it used Explosion to wipe out everything on the field. Since everything fainted at the same time, it came down to judging by a Referee. I have heard that this will happen if you get a tie in the Dome, but this was the first time I got experience it myself. And somehow, I won. Even if my Swampert and Latios fainted before the opponent’s Marowak and Steelix. I thought that in the case of a tie like this, the side that fainted first would lose (since that’s how tie battles are determined in Gen 5 and on). But it turns out that it isn’t the case in Gen 3. I’m not sure what determines the winner in case of a tie. I tried to find the answer on Bulbapedia, but I only found a small mention in their descriptions of seedings in the Dome:
“Seedings are determined by their ranking: the sum of the combined base stat totals of all Pokémon, plus 1/20 of the product of the number of different types represented by the Pokémon and the highest level among the Pokémon. If two Trainers tie in ranking, the higher internal Trainer number will win the tiebreaker; the player will always win the tiebreaker against any CPU Trainer, while Dome Ace Tucker will win any tiebreaker against other CPU Trainers. In the event of a tie battle, the higher seed advances and the lower seed is eliminated.”
So I guess I won because I had a higher seed? Or am I understanding it wrong? If anyone knows the answer, I would like to know. Anyway, I was very surprised when it happened since I really thought I would lose that battle.
I started with Level 50. I had an ongoing streak of 3 since before, don’t remember when or how I got it. I had only completed 3 tournaments, so I had never made any previous attempts. Dome Double is an interesting format since you enter with 3 Pokémon, then pick two from those, which are the only ones you use for the battle. Since your opponent will also pick 2, it means that you will see which two they picked immediately at the start of the battle.
I used a team of Salamence/Gengar/Metagross for round 4-5, then I switched Metagross for Slaking. With two Pokémon immune to Ground, I would be able to Quake more freely. I used Metagross for the earlier rounds since opponents in the early rounds are more likely to carry Protect, which Slaking loses against. My Metagross isn’t super great though. It is rather slow, which I guess isn’t too surprising since it doesn’t have any Speed EVs. The inaccuracy of Meteor Mash was a bit problematic too. In one battle, it missed twice against an opposing Lunatone, which put me in a very bad situation as the Omastar that remained might have been able to beat Metagross with a Rain Dance-boosted Hydro Pump. But that did fortunately not happen since it missed.
I didn’t use Metagross that much, I mostly went with Salamence/Gengar. I also thought my Metagross knew Shadow Ball. I had a memory of it knowing that, and I had written that it knew Shadow Ball in my old notes. But when I checked it in the game, it had Rock Slide instead. Not sure how I got it mixed up. Guess I just wasn’t very careful back then. Either way, I think Shadow Ball is the better move, it feels like Rock Slide doesn’t really offer any valuable coverage while Shadow Ball is great against opposing Psychic- and Ghost-types. I guess I could change it, trading over a Shadow Ball TM from FR/LG is easy and cheap. Maybe I’ll do that later on.
Another thing that I noted was that my Gengar has a Speed stat of 153, which is exactly one point above max Speed neutral base 100s. Such as my Salamence and Slaking. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if I just got lucky when I EV’d it back in the day, but it was pretty cool when I noticed it now. Unfortunately, 153 Speed isn’t super great for the Dome due to the 3 IV glitch since it means that Gengar will Speed tie with many opponents. But it allowed Gengar to always move before Slaking and Salamence, which was great.
I got a streak of 8 rounds. I lost in the first battle in Round 9. I was up against a trainer with Kingdra/Hariyama/Dewgong. I went with Gengar/Slaking, my opponent chose Dewgong/Hariyama. On the first turn, Hariyama used Fake Out on Slaking, Gengar used TBolt on Dewgong for around 95%, Slaking flinched, Dewgong used Sheer Cold but missed. On turn 2, Gengar KO’d Dewgong with TBolt, Hariyama KO’d Slaking with a Crit Cross Chop. Gengar then used TBolt on Hariyama for about 50%, Hariyama used Rock Slide on Gengar for around 50% as well. Hariyama then lived another TBolt with a little HP left, while Gengar got KO’d by another Rock Slide.
A rather sour loss, but it was mostly fair so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. I guess I might have been able to win if I had picked Salamence instead of Slaking, but I was afraid of the opposing Dewgong/Kingdra and their Ice/Dragon-type moves. It doesn’t matter though, I did not expect a super long streak and I’m satisfied with this. The team was quite fun to use but not super great in the end.
I continued with Open Level Double. I had a streak of 1 since before. Like with Level 50, it was all I had ever tried for this format. I entered with a team of Swampert/Zapdos/Latios. Similar to Level 50, the plan was to allow Swampert free Quaking thanks to having two partners immune to Ground. However, the team was rather slow to play with and it wasn’t super great offensively. Swampert and Zapdos were pretty good defensively though. In case anyone wonders, my Latios sucks. I wish I had a better one on Gen 3.
I got a streak of 7 rounds here. I lost in round 8, 3rd battle: I was up against a trainer with Donphan/Armaldo/Nidoking. I entered with Swampert/Latios, my opponent picked Nidoking/Donphan. On the first turn, Donphan activated its QC and used Fissure, which hit Swampert. Latios used Ice Beam on Donphan, which survived. Nidoking used Horn Drill, but it missed. Latios then used Ice Beam on Nidoking, it survived. Latios then got KO’d by Blizzard + Rock Slide. This was a rather haxy loss, I don’t think I could have done much to prevent it. Maybe if I had let Swampert use Protect on turn 1, but I couldn’t predict that the Donphan would use Fissure.
I also had a notable battle in Round 5. I had picked Swampert/Latios and got to face a duo of Marowak/Steelix. On the first turn of the battle, the Steelix got a QC activation, it used Explosion to wipe out everything on the field. Since everything fainted at the same time, it came down to judging by a Referee. I have heard that this will happen if you get a tie in the Dome, but this was the first time I got experience it myself. And somehow, I won. Even if my Swampert and Latios fainted before the opponent’s Marowak and Steelix. I thought that in the case of a tie like this, the side that fainted first would lose (since that’s how tie battles are determined in Gen 5 and on). But it turns out that it isn’t the case in Gen 3. I’m not sure what determines the winner in case of a tie. I tried to find the answer on Bulbapedia, but I only found a small mention in their descriptions of seedings in the Dome:
“Seedings are determined by their ranking: the sum of the combined base stat totals of all Pokémon, plus 1/20 of the product of the number of different types represented by the Pokémon and the highest level among the Pokémon. If two Trainers tie in ranking, the higher internal Trainer number will win the tiebreaker; the player will always win the tiebreaker against any CPU Trainer, while Dome Ace Tucker will win any tiebreaker against other CPU Trainers. In the event of a tie battle, the higher seed advances and the lower seed is eliminated.”
So I guess I won because I had a higher seed? Or am I understanding it wrong? If anyone knows the answer, I would like to know. Anyway, I was very surprised when it happened since I really thought I would lose that battle.
I said I was done with the Palace and that I wouldn’t try Doubles here. But I thought it over and changed my mind. I decided to give it a spin just so that I would have tried every format I can at the Frontier. I played this very casually, I did not look up opposing sets. My goal (if you can call it that) was to win at least one round in both Level 50 and Open Level. I managed to accomplish that. I had never tried Palace Doubles before, so I had no ongoing streaks here.
Double battles with just three Pokémon are really weird. I am used to having four, since that is what you have in the Tower and its successors in the newer generations. But I guess it can be fun to try something different for a change of pace.
For Level 50, I entered with a team of Medicham/Porygon2/Slowbro. Since I wasn’t doing this super seriously, I just picked three fun Pokémon, their defensive synergy isn’t super great. Medicham was chosen because it is one of the few Physical attackers I have raised for Level 50 which doesn’t know Earthquake. It has three offensive moves and Bulk Up, which means it has moves from two categories. Porygon2 was chosen because it is a fun Pokémon and I wanted to try it somewhere. Despite raising one for the Frontier, I don’t think I have ever used it anywhere. It also has moves from all three categories. I put it in the lead with Medicham because of Trace. If it traced a bad Ability like Truant, I could just switch it out. And if it traced something good, I would keep it in! I picked Slowbro as the last Pokémon because I felt like it. Slowbro resists Fighting which Porygon2 is weak too, thus offering at least a little bit of defensive synergy. It also has moves from two categories.
I got a streak of 22. The loss happened because my team mostly did the wrong moves and generally refused to attack, while my opponent did many right moves and attacked a lot. Not going to describe it in detail, I don’t remember it either. Annoying, but I hadn’t really expected to get particularly far so that’s okay.
Afterwards, I continued with Open Level. This seems to be an unpopular format since there are zero entries for this format on the leaderboards right now! Who will be the first? Not me, that’s for sure.
From my Level 100 box, I put together a team of Swampert/Moltres/Zapdos. Swampert seemed solid, and just like at the Dome, having two Flying-types as partners would allow it to Quake freely. Swampert and Moltres have moves from two categories, Zapdos from all three. I got a streak of 23, I won one more battle than in Level 50. The loss involved Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt an opposing Nidoqueen, and Swampert getting hit by Attract from an opposing Kingdra which made it unable to move for the rest of the battle. Another idiotic loss, but it doesn’t matter.
I also noticed some things during this format. One very interesting thing that happened was that on two occasions, my opponent switched out their Pokémon. It happened once in Level 50 and once in Open Level. I am not sure why this happened, my theory is that it was because they tried to “predict” which move I was going to use and switched to their backup because it resisted the type in question. I thought I should mention it since the AI very rarely switches out in the Frontier (from my experiences at least).
One other thing I noticed here, and as I hinted at above, was that my Pokémon did not always care about type effectiveness. Apart from Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt the Nidoqueen, there were many other situations where it happened. For instance, Porygon2 tried to Thunder Wave a Barboach, and Medicham tried to Shadow Ball a Pidgeot. Or the best (worst) of all: I had Swampert and Moltres out against a Noctowl and Ninjask. Swampert used Earthquake!
Another fun thing that happened was that my Moltres once got a Crit Flamethrower in the Sun against an opposing Salamence, which scored an OHKO! That was really cool.
Palace Doubles wasn’t very fun, sadly. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else. Most battle were very slow-paced, they came down to just pressing A and waiting for the Pokémon (hopefully mine) to finally attack. I will never try this format again.
After this, I have tried every format at the Palace, and I have no reason to ever go back to it. For real this time.
Double battles with just three Pokémon are really weird. I am used to having four, since that is what you have in the Tower and its successors in the newer generations. But I guess it can be fun to try something different for a change of pace.
For Level 50, I entered with a team of Medicham/Porygon2/Slowbro. Since I wasn’t doing this super seriously, I just picked three fun Pokémon, their defensive synergy isn’t super great. Medicham was chosen because it is one of the few Physical attackers I have raised for Level 50 which doesn’t know Earthquake. It has three offensive moves and Bulk Up, which means it has moves from two categories. Porygon2 was chosen because it is a fun Pokémon and I wanted to try it somewhere. Despite raising one for the Frontier, I don’t think I have ever used it anywhere. It also has moves from all three categories. I put it in the lead with Medicham because of Trace. If it traced a bad Ability like Truant, I could just switch it out. And if it traced something good, I would keep it in! I picked Slowbro as the last Pokémon because I felt like it. Slowbro resists Fighting which Porygon2 is weak too, thus offering at least a little bit of defensive synergy. It also has moves from two categories.
I got a streak of 22. The loss happened because my team mostly did the wrong moves and generally refused to attack, while my opponent did many right moves and attacked a lot. Not going to describe it in detail, I don’t remember it either. Annoying, but I hadn’t really expected to get particularly far so that’s okay.
Afterwards, I continued with Open Level. This seems to be an unpopular format since there are zero entries for this format on the leaderboards right now! Who will be the first? Not me, that’s for sure.
From my Level 100 box, I put together a team of Swampert/Moltres/Zapdos. Swampert seemed solid, and just like at the Dome, having two Flying-types as partners would allow it to Quake freely. Swampert and Moltres have moves from two categories, Zapdos from all three. I got a streak of 23, I won one more battle than in Level 50. The loss involved Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt an opposing Nidoqueen, and Swampert getting hit by Attract from an opposing Kingdra which made it unable to move for the rest of the battle. Another idiotic loss, but it doesn’t matter.
I also noticed some things during this format. One very interesting thing that happened was that on two occasions, my opponent switched out their Pokémon. It happened once in Level 50 and once in Open Level. I am not sure why this happened, my theory is that it was because they tried to “predict” which move I was going to use and switched to their backup because it resisted the type in question. I thought I should mention it since the AI very rarely switches out in the Frontier (from my experiences at least).
One other thing I noticed here, and as I hinted at above, was that my Pokémon did not always care about type effectiveness. Apart from Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt the Nidoqueen, there were many other situations where it happened. For instance, Porygon2 tried to Thunder Wave a Barboach, and Medicham tried to Shadow Ball a Pidgeot. Or the best (worst) of all: I had Swampert and Moltres out against a Noctowl and Ninjask. Swampert used Earthquake!
Another fun thing that happened was that my Moltres once got a Crit Flamethrower in the Sun against an opposing Salamence, which scored an OHKO! That was really cool.
Palace Doubles wasn’t very fun, sadly. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else. Most battle were very slow-paced, they came down to just pressing A and waiting for the Pokémon (hopefully mine) to finally attack. I will never try this format again.
After this, I have tried every format at the Palace, and I have no reason to ever go back to it. For real this time.
Heracross (F) Lum Berry
Lum Berry
Adamant max Atk, Max speed good ivs above 15 in all other stats except spark
Bred using two max atk, max spd heracross’s at level 53
-brick break
-Megahorn
-earthquake
-rock slide
Starmie brightpowder
Max spatk, a mixed set but i didn’t record which Iv’s and Evs. Modest Iv checker says “wonderfully outstanding”, which is why i never bred for max speed.
Bright powder
-Surf
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
Flygon Soft sand
Max atk, max speed adamant. 15 or more iv’s in each other stat except spatk
-earthquake
-rock slide
-swift
-fly
I got 50 in battle arena with this team, and i suspect, whenever i get time, i will get 56 wins. i've never posted on smogon before, and have a dislike for modern smogon, for banning strategies I enjoy. mostly just posting as a preliminary, to my gold win. the only reason i desire to post here is because no one else has leaderboards.
I just wanted to know the rules. and how this works, before i make my official gold post later. my rules for my run are
-no legendaries
-no pseudos
-no trades
making a team in emerald is hard if you want it to be really good. I can now see why cheating in pokemon developed so quickly. my heracross was really fast to breed, being within the first 10 eggs, whereas flygon took me like a week to breed. starmie was hard too because you have to not get the illuminate ability.
i lost too, charizard, on 50 wins, because it was faster and flamethrowered my heracross, and i sent out starmie, which got bite flinched and died. finally my flygon hit rock slide, but their next mon was milotic with ice beam, and i couldn't ohko with earthquake
I will explain my team comp when i get 56 wins. i feel confident, it will happen soon
Attachments
56 Wins Battle Arena, As Shown in Post Above This One
Heracross
Lum Berry
Adamant
max Atk, Max speed good ivs above 15 in all other stats except spark
Bred using two max atk, max speed heracross’s at level 53
-brick break
-Megahorn
-earthquake
-rock slide
Heracross has lum berry because he's out the most out of all my pokemon, which makes him likely to be statused. Statusing heracross can cripple sweeps, so I like Lum Berry. Heracross's moveset makes most moves neutral or super-effective.
Starmie
Modest
Bright powder
Max spatk, a mixed def and Spdef set but i didn’t record which Iv’s and Evs. Iv checker says “wonderfully outstanding”, which is why i never bred for max speed.
-Surf
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
Bright Powder came up alot, and moves like thunder missed alot. thunder is the only memorable one, but I'm glad I used brightpowder, and remember it coming up alot. Starmies focus is setting off super effective moves.
Flygon
Max atk, max speed adamant. 15 or more iv’s in each other stat except spatk
Soft sand
-earthquake
-rock slide
-swift
-fly
All he does is make fast earthquakes.
Self Imposed Restrictions:
emerald Only
no pseudos
no legendaries
So the battle Arena is one of the weirdest frontier facilities, and no one ever talks about it. its unique because of the KO system, as well as the no switching mechanic. I rarely ever get KO's by refferee, except when the AI trys to setup double team or calm mind. I think thats cool, that the facility penalizes stall, and makes it risky to use non-attacking moves. The switching is the worst part, and really endangered my run's in my early silver runs months ago. If for example my heracross loses to a pokemon like Jolteon, I would have to sacrifice starmie, to get to flygon, giving my opponent a 2-for-1.
Because i can't switch, the order of my team is important. heracross is my lead, and he loses badly too flying, fire, and psychic moves. starmie resists psychic, has surf for fire, and has thunderbolt for flying. starmie sucks against electrics, so flygon can follow it to unleash earthquake. most games ended with a starmie at low to medium hp. flygon has earthquake which can clean up most things at low hp. I chose not to run choice band, because theres no switches, which makes choice band bad. You might also notice my team is setup Physical->special->physical which helps not losing to a wall of either type.
if i were to redo this run, i'd try other fast sweepers. i really like tentacruel, dodrio, gardevoir, houndoom, manectric, and crobat. theres also alot of notable pokemon outside hoenn I like too (alakazam, charizard, Eeveelutions, etc.) For anyone who hasn't got silver I Reccomend you pick pokemon with high speed (above 80) ev and 1-2 perfect Iv in your attacking/speed stat. I got this run after 2 attempts, but I made many attempts using worse teams, and I struggled getting above 29 wins.
Kommo-o please tell me what I can do to improve my posts
And yes Brightpowder did activate and save some games.
Heracross
Lum Berry
Adamant
max Atk, Max speed good ivs above 15 in all other stats except spark
Bred using two max atk, max speed heracross’s at level 53
-brick break
-Megahorn
-earthquake
-rock slide
Heracross has lum berry because he's out the most out of all my pokemon, which makes him likely to be statused. Statusing heracross can cripple sweeps, so I like Lum Berry. Heracross's moveset makes most moves neutral or super-effective.
Starmie
Modest
Bright powder
Max spatk, a mixed def and Spdef set but i didn’t record which Iv’s and Evs. Iv checker says “wonderfully outstanding”, which is why i never bred for max speed.
-Surf
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
Bright Powder came up alot, and moves like thunder missed alot. thunder is the only memorable one, but I'm glad I used brightpowder, and remember it coming up alot. Starmies focus is setting off super effective moves.
Flygon
Max atk, max speed adamant. 15 or more iv’s in each other stat except spatk
Soft sand
-earthquake
-rock slide
-swift
-fly
All he does is make fast earthquakes.
Self Imposed Restrictions:
emerald Only
no pseudos
no legendaries
So the battle Arena is one of the weirdest frontier facilities, and no one ever talks about it. its unique because of the KO system, as well as the no switching mechanic. I rarely ever get KO's by refferee, except when the AI trys to setup double team or calm mind. I think thats cool, that the facility penalizes stall, and makes it risky to use non-attacking moves. The switching is the worst part, and really endangered my run's in my early silver runs months ago. If for example my heracross loses to a pokemon like Jolteon, I would have to sacrifice starmie, to get to flygon, giving my opponent a 2-for-1.
Because i can't switch, the order of my team is important. heracross is my lead, and he loses badly too flying, fire, and psychic moves. starmie resists psychic, has surf for fire, and has thunderbolt for flying. starmie sucks against electrics, so flygon can follow it to unleash earthquake. most games ended with a starmie at low to medium hp. flygon has earthquake which can clean up most things at low hp. I chose not to run choice band, because theres no switches, which makes choice band bad. You might also notice my team is setup Physical->special->physical which helps not losing to a wall of either type.
if i were to redo this run, i'd try other fast sweepers. i really like tentacruel, dodrio, gardevoir, houndoom, manectric, and crobat. theres also alot of notable pokemon outside hoenn I like too (alakazam, charizard, Eeveelutions, etc.) For anyone who hasn't got silver I Reccomend you pick pokemon with high speed (above 80) ev and 1-2 perfect Iv in your attacking/speed stat. I got this run after 2 attempts, but I made many attempts using worse teams, and I struggled getting above 29 wins.
Kommo-o please tell me what I can do to improve my posts
And yes Brightpowder did activate and save some games.
Last edited:
Hey all it's aizawa (black mage zeref from discord)
Been a long butt time since i've posted on here and figured i should post some of my record.
357 rooms cleared in the battle pike with the following team of
Starmie @ Mystic Water
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/x/105/167/105/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/x/30/30
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spd
Level 50 stats: 171/205/100/104/100/151
Nature: Adamant
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Flying 70
- Brick Break
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 6 Spd
Level 50 stats: 362/20/68/95/155/76
Nature: Bold
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- softboiled
- Heal Bell
Description for the team: Wanted a team to be able to do alot of damage in a quick amount of time with the least amount of set-up. Figured starmie and salamence to be my best bet with Blissey being the teams healer and attack sponge just in case i came across something that starmie and mence couldn't handle.
How I loss: Kept running into rooms with kirlia and kept getting status and sadly ran into a room with a somewhat strong trainer with starmie already dead and mence with blissey both paralyzed :/
Issues and Worries: Main issues were banded mons like Mega Kick Ursaring and Granbull whenever mence wasn't available to cripple them and going into kirlia rooms and being frozen while also dealing with double battles with no healing reward afterwards.
Been a long butt time since i've posted on here and figured i should post some of my record.
357 rooms cleared in the battle pike with the following team of
Starmie @ Mystic Water
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 136/x/105/167/105/167
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/x/30/30
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 248 Spd
Level 50 stats: 171/205/100/104/100/151
Nature: Adamant
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Flying 70
- Brick Break
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 6 Spd
Level 50 stats: 362/20/68/95/155/76
Nature: Bold
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- softboiled
- Heal Bell
Description for the team: Wanted a team to be able to do alot of damage in a quick amount of time with the least amount of set-up. Figured starmie and salamence to be my best bet with Blissey being the teams healer and attack sponge just in case i came across something that starmie and mence couldn't handle.
How I loss: Kept running into rooms with kirlia and kept getting status and sadly ran into a room with a somewhat strong trainer with starmie already dead and mence with blissey both paralyzed :/
Issues and Worries: Main issues were banded mons like Mega Kick Ursaring and Granbull whenever mence wasn't available to cripple them and going into kirlia rooms and being frozen while also dealing with double battles with no healing reward afterwards.
Attachments
Last edited:
Currently in the middle of 30+ winstreak in the battles dome with the following team.
Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
IVs: 31/0/31/31/30/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 156/85/100/182/130/178
Nature: Timid
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Claw
- Psychic
Tauros @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/30/15/30/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 151/152/115/46/90/178
Nature: Jolly
- Return
- Strength
- Hidden Power Ghost (70)
- Earthquake
Metagross @ Lax incense
Ability: Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/30/31/31
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Atk / 6 Spa / (Idk why)
Level 50 stats: 187/205/150/103/110/90
Nature: Adamant
- Shadow Ball
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Had a bit of a scare when a certain Steelix deciding to use explosion after I knocked out it's scizor partner >w>
Threats: QC mons like slowking, Being stuck spamming earthquake against flying/Levitate mons if latios gets KOed, and the dreaded sheer cold walrein...
Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
IVs: 31/0/31/31/30/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.att / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 156/85/100/182/130/178
Nature: Timid
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Claw
- Psychic
Tauros @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/30/15/30/31
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Level 50 stats: 151/152/115/46/90/178
Nature: Jolly
- Return
- Strength
- Hidden Power Ghost (70)
- Earthquake
Metagross @ Lax incense
Ability: Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/30/31/31
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Atk / 6 Spa / (Idk why)
Level 50 stats: 187/205/150/103/110/90
Nature: Adamant
- Shadow Ball
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Explosion
Had a bit of a scare when a certain Steelix deciding to use explosion after I knocked out it's scizor partner >w>
Threats: QC mons like slowking, Being stuck spamming earthquake against flying/Levitate mons if latios gets KOed, and the dreaded sheer cold walrein...
Attachments
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Thanks for letting me know and I fixed both your entries as well as ghaymes Battle Factory entry. Please let me know if there's anything else you guys need me to edit to make sure your records are properly displayed.It has been a while again. I have been busy with real life and other games, so Emerald and my Battle Facility project has fallen behind a bit. I have continued, but I have had some long breaks and it has taken a while to get to this point where I have another post worth making.
Kommo-o, it seems that you forgot to update my Battle Tower streak, detailed here. The one for Level 50 Single, ignore the Multi one since it wasn’t eligible for the leaderboards.
And I think my Level 50 Dome streak should be formatted differently, like this:
#5. Suspicious Derivative: (55^) – Slaking / Starmie / Salamence* (15 wins)
Sorry if I’m being picky, I just want it to be correct!
With that done, time for me to report some more streaks. Five in total, but only one that is eligible for the leaderboards.
First of all, I continued at the Battle Dome with the three remaining formats.
Battle Dome (part 2)
To start with, Open Level Single. I had an ongoing streak of 4, a record streak of 5 and I had completed 20 tournaments in total. I don’t really remember the story behind all of this. One thing I do remember is that I got my first ever Silver Symbol here against Tucker back in 2005 (IIRC, it might also have been early 2006 but late 2005 is more likely) with members of my in-game team in Emerald. This was before I learned about EVs/IVs and stuff, so they were not properly trained. After that, I must either have tried many more times to get to Gold Tucker but never beaten round 6, or maybe I just farmed BP. Not sure and it doesn’t really matter. My return to the format now went much better.
Format: Open Level (Level 100), Single, retail cart
Team:
From my Level 100 box, I withdrew my reliable trio of Heracross, Suicune and Raikou. I have mentioned this team before, now it is time for a proper description and write-up!
View attachment 436405
Heracross (M) @ Choice Band ** Festus
Ability: Guts
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
Level 100 stats: 285/383/176/88/212/269
Nature: Adamant
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
View attachment 436404
Suicune @ Leftovers ** Velvet
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 18 Sp.att / 8 Spd
Level 100 stats: 387/154/305/211/259/178
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest
View attachment 436406
Raikou @ Lum Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 38 HP / 252 Sp.att / 220 Spd
Level 100 stats: 311/161/185/305/234/352
Nature: Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Crunch
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
Streak: 20
Picture proof:
With this result, the Dome is the second facility where I have gotten up to and beaten the Gold Boss on both Level 50 and Open Level, the Tower being the first. But unlike for the Tower, I think this streak was a lot less stupid, so I want it added to the leaderboards.
This team isn’t super great and I can’t really recommend it, but it worked. I had previously used it at the Tower to get a streak of 70 as mentioned in a previous post, now I used it here as well. I guess that while the team isn’t super good, it might be better than I think. Unlike my Tower streak (which felt like it happened mostly because of luck rather than skill), this streak at the Dome felt like a more skill-based achievement. It is also better than my Tower streak since I got considerably farther than the Gold Boss instead of losing directly afterwards.
Backstory for these Pokémon: In 2007, I decided to do a big training project on Emerald. I trained a total of 30 Pokémon to level 100. All were EV-trained as well, but most of them did not have good IVs or even good Natures in several cases. It took me 6 months to do this according to my old notes. The purpose was not to use them in the Battle Frontier, I just trained them for fun. Most of them are legendaries (including several that are banned from the Frontier like Mewtwo and Rayquaza) but there are a few regular Pokémon too. After training these 30 Pokémon, I didn’t play Emerald that much for many years as I played the games from the newer generations instead. D/P were also released halfway through this training project.
As for these three… Suicune and Raikou were both caught on Colosseum, so their IVs are not complete garbage, but they aren’t super great either. I caught them on my third playthrough of Colosseum and I was originally planning to reset for a Suicune with “good” IVs and a useful Nature. I wanted Bold but ended up going for this Modest one instead. For Raikou, I just wanted one with a good Nature, couldn’t bother going for IVs or any specific Hidden Power. According to an ancient post on Serebiiforums, I got a Timid Raikou on my 4th attempt, which happened on January 29, 2007… man, that was long ago. Back then, I would never have guessed that 15 years later, this Raikou would end up becoming a member of a Battle Frontier team which managed to get up to and beat the Gold Boss in two different facilities. As for Heracross, it was a breeding leftovers which I didn’t need as I already had an identical one which I raised for level 50, so this one got on the level 100 squad instead.
Regarding their movesets, Heracross is the standard CB set, not much to say about it. Suicune is the standard 2 Attacks + CM/Rest set. A Bold Nature would obviously be better, I don’t think the EVs are optimal either. It worked, but its Physical bulk wasn’t the greatest. I know from personal experiences in Gen 5/6 that Suicune can have better bulk with a Bold Nature. Raikou is a SubCM set. I don’t think I ever checked its Hidden Power, but I went with Crunch as the coverage move anyway, it is very useful against Ghost- and Psychic-types. I gave it a Lum Berry as extra protection against status. It had a Petaya Berry when I used this team at the Tower, allowing Raikou to use a SubPetaya strategy in case of an emergency, but Lum felt like the better choice here.
This team isn’t super great but it did get me a streak of 70 at the Tower and it gave me a streak of 82 battles here in the Dome. It has some notable weaknesses though. I think the most notable is opposing Psychic-types. Heracross is weak to Psychic but I don’t have a Psychic resist. Heracross itself can hit them hard with Megahorn, but that requires it to be faster and Megahorn only has 85% accuracy. Raikou can also hit them with Crunch but it isn’t super powerful before a boost, Raikou does not resist Psychic either. I think the most problematic Psychic-type opponent is Espeon. It has the perfect mix of offense, special bulk and Speed to threaten the team. Three of the opposing Espeon sets also carry Calm Mind which makes it extra threatening if it manages to set up. In addition to that, Espeon is also the Pokémon I lost against both at the Tower and here at the Dome.
Other than that, I found myself being afraid of opposing Heracross. I don’t have any Flying-type moves on the team, and opposing Heracross can potentially beat the whole team. Earthquake destroys Raikou, while Suicune does not like taking hard hitting Megahorns, and my own Heracross can only hit back with Rock Slide for neutral damage.
At first, I was thinking about using Shedinja for the Gold Tucker rounds just like at Level 50. As long as I only use Shedinja against Pokémon that it walls, it doesn’t matter if it is at level 50, it will still win. I wrote down what Pokémon I used for each battle during rounds 5-9 to determine if it was possible to substitute one of them for Shedinja in the Gold Tucker rounds. The results were that I used Heracross in 16 battles, Suicune in 15 and Raikou in 9. So I used Raikou less than Heracross and Suicune. However, I did still use it quite a lot. I did not look at the results super closely before entering Round 10, but my feeling was that all three members of the team were valuable and I couldn’t really substitute any of them for Shedinja. The end result was that I stuck with all three for Round 10 (as well as Round 15 and 20 later on).
Against Silver Tucker, I entered with Suicune/Heracross. He started with Swampert. Suicune easily set up on it. I then beat both Swampert and Charizard, which was his second Pokémon.
In my first battle against Gold Tucker, I picked Suicune and Heracross. Tucker led with Swampert. I used CM, Swampert used EQ and got a Crit. Not good at all. I switched to Hera which tanked an EQ. I then used Megahorn for about 99% while Pert used Mirror Coat for a brilliant failure! Another Megahorn for the KO. Tucker’s second Pokémon was Metagross. I used Megahorn for around 80%, it KO’d Heracross with Meteor Mash. I sent out Suicune. Metagross used Protect twice in a row, but the second one failed and I KO’d with Surf.
Not a super great victory, but I did at least win. It was the first but not last time I didn’t use Shedinja against Gold Tucker, which felt very different. For the first time ever, I did not auto-win against him! Beating him with a regular team turned out to be harder than expected. I thought about using Shedinja against him next time, but I didn’t do that.Gold Tucker:
Lead Pert, CM EQ Crit darn, 117 HP
Switch to Hera, EQ to 177 HP
MH for 99%, Mirror Coat (lol) fail, Leftovers recovery
MH KO
Next Meta, MH for maybe 80%, MM KO
Cune, lefties recovery brings me to 141 HP
Meta Protect, Surf fails, lefties to 165 HP
Meta Protect fail, Surf KO
After that battle, I thought Tucker would always pick Swampert/Heracross against this team. But that turned out to be wrong. In the first rematch I had against him at the end of Round 15, he used Swampert and Latias! That was very unexpected. In Round 20, he used Swampert/Metagross again. I don’t know why he picked Latias over Metagross in Round 15; it is a mystery. I guess this proves that Tucker does not always pick the same two Pokémon against a specific team.
So that’s the team and my first two battles against Tucker. But what about the rest of the battles? Like for Level 50, I have written battle logs. Those are for all battles from Round 11 and forward. Since there aren’t quite as many as last time, I have included them in this post instead of in a separate link. I used the same team for every round. I think the average battle here were harder here compared to my Level 50 streak. Find the battle logs below:
So yeah, I lost in the third battle of Round 21. My opponent was this:Round 11:
Battle 1
Expert Jasper
Tyranitar/Dusclops/Walrein, any sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Tyra, Sandstorm, switch to Hera, Dragon Dance, 4 sets have that, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
Brick Break OHKO
Next Walrein, Sandstorm brings me to 251 HP, Walrein takes a little damage too
BB OHKO
Battle 2
Gentleman Brooks
Vaporeon/Charizard/Slowbro, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zard, TBolt OHKO
Next Vappy, TBolt for around 70%, Surf brings me to 189 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 3
Pokémon Ranger Nelson
Dragonite/Zapdos/Articuno, any sets, Blizzard and Thunderbolt means 3 Arti, 4 Zappy, 3 Nite
Not very good
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Zapdos, Sub, TWave fail, does not confirm much though
CM, TWave fail again lol
Repeat 4 times, but on the 5th turn, it uses Roar! Suicune comes in, set 4 confirmed
TBolt brings me to 114 HP, Ice Beam hits and does maybe 70%
TBolt KO’s me
Back to Raikou, Sub, TWave
CM, TWave fail two times, then on the third I CM as it uses Drill Peck, Sub does not break
TBolt KO
Next Nite, TBolt KO
That was a dumb battle.
Battle 4
Pokéfan Malory
Breloom/Blissey/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Breloom, Megahorn OHKO
Next Milotic, Megahorn miss, Surf brings me to 139 HP
Megahorn OHKO
Round 12:
Battle 1
Fisherman Theo
Crawdaunt/Starmie/Lanturn, any sets for Star/Turn, just one for Craw
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Turn, switch to Hera, Confuse Ray confuses me, meaning it is set 1-3 which doesn’t confirm much
Heracross thankfully uses EQ for an OHKO
Next Craw, Hera uses EQ again and does about 90%, gets OHKO’d by Aerial Ace
Raikou, TBolt KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Dorine
Tyranitar/Regirock/Dragonite, any sets, Hyper Beam means Nite-3/4 and/or Regirock-5
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Tyra, Sand Stream, BB OHKO
Next Regi, Sandstorm brings Hera to 268 HP
BB for around 80%, Counter KO, set 4 confirmed
Suicune, Regi QC Rock Slide brings me to 296 HP, Surf KO
Thankfully she didn’t use Nite.
Battle 3
Cooltrainer Bryon
Suicune/Zapdos/Regice, any sets, Blizzard and Thunder means Regi-1 and maybe Zappy-1/3
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Zapdos, Sub, Rain Dance, confirms set 1 or 3
CM, Double-Edge, Sub breaks, Zappy takes a little recoil, set 3 confirmed
TBolt, for 99%, Double-Edge brings Raikou to 116 HP, Zappy faints from recoil
Next Regice, TBolt does around 40%, it uses Blizzard but misses
TBolt Crit KO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Gillian
Latias/Entei/Dragonite, any sets, Ice Beam/Earthquake/Flamethrower means Nite-1/2/8/9/10, Entei-2-5, Latias-2/3/4/6/7
Not a very good matchup for me
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Entei, Sub, Double Team, set 3/4 confirmed
CM, Flamethrower, Sub breaks
TBolt hits for a Crit and OHKOs
Next Latias, Crunch for around 65%, Psychic Crit, Raikou faints
Out with Suicune, TBolt brings me to 213 HP, Ice Beam takes Latias to 1%
TBolt brings me to 37 HP, IB KO
That was really close. Maybe I didn’t deserve to win that battle.
Round 13:
Battle 1
Swimmer Elaine (will she beat me here too?)
Slaking/Granbull/Tauros, did not check sets since Bulbapedia didn’t work properly and I was getting impatient
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Granbull, Intimidate again, switch to Raikou, Mega Kick Mega Miss
TBolt for 95%, Mega Miss again
TBolt KO
I got my Revenge! Nice.
Battle 2
Collector Gideon
Meganium/Blaziken/Typhlosion, any sets, Solarbeam means Meganium-2
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mega, MH miss, Light Screen
MH OHKO
Next Typh, switch to Cune, Overheat, Cune at 351 HP after Leftovers, no White Herb which confirms set 2
EQ brings Cune to 284 HP, Surf for around 40%
EQ, CM, Light Screen over
EQ, Surf KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Avery
Heracross/Armaldo/Shuckle, any sets, Double-Edge and EQ means Armaldo-1, potentially any Hera
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, RS for about 80%, Substitute fail
RS KO
Next Hera
RS for around 60%, it uses Rock Tomb but misses
RS miss, Megahorn miss
RS KO
Battle 4
Expert Weston
Latios/Crobat/Registeel, any sets it seems, Bulbapedia fails again and I was losing patience because I had other things to do and I didn’t really have the time for this
We’ll gamble a bit, the page for the Pokémon sets do at least work
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Crobat, TBolt OHKO
Next Regi, Sub, Curse, confirming set 1
TBolt for maybe 30%, Amnesia
CM, Curse
CM, Rest, Chesto wakes it up
TBolt for 30% again, Metal Claw, Sub breaks
TBolt for another 30% or so, maybe even more, MClaw brings Raikou to 160 HP
TBolt Crit KO
Phew.
Round 14:
Battle 1
Cooltrainer Gillian
Dragonite/Articuno/Latias, any sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Nite, Sub, Sunny Day, set 6 confirmed (it knows EQ, why didn’t it do that?
TBolt for about 50%, EQ, Sub breaks
TBolt brings it to 1%, it gets paralyzed and FP
TBolt KO
Next Arti, Protect, TBolt fails, Sun ends
Sub, IB, Sub breaks
Protect, TBolt fails
Protect fails, TBolt brings it to 1% too!
Protect, TBolt fails
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Guitarist Charles
Ampharos/Houndoom/Jolteon, any sets, TBolt means 2 Amphy, any Jolt
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Jolt, EQ OHKO
Next Hound, EQ OHKO
Battle 3
Black Belt Mateo
Aggron/Rhydon/Machamp, any sets, EQ and Thunder means any Rhy, 4 possible Champ, Aggron-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Aggron, BB OHKO
Next Rhy, BB OHKO
Battle 4
Black Belt Raul
Metagross/Hariyama/Forretress, any sets, Rock Slide and Ice Punch means Forry-1/4, any Hari, Meta-1/5/8
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Forry, EQ for around 70%, Double-Edge brings Hera to 135 HP, recoil brings Forry to maybe 10%
EQ KO
Round 15:
Battle 1
Expert Nadia
Rhydon/Steelix/Kingdra, any sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Rhydon, BB OHKO
Next Steelix, BB for around 95%, Rock Tomb brings Hera to 228 HP, Speed lowered, Steelix recovers with Sitrus Berry, set 4 confirmed
BB KO
Battle 2
Pokémon Ranger Shania
Umbreon/Gyarados/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Dodrio, it uses Protect first, then TBolt OHKO
Next Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Rolando
Espeon/Starmie/Wobbuffet, any sets, Thunderbolt and Surf means Starmie 2 or 6
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Wobb, really nice!
Sub, CM 6 times as it uses Counter/Mirror Coat to no effect, then Crunch OHKO
Next Starmie, TBolt OHKO
Battle 4
Tucker
He went with Swampert/Metagross last time, so I’m expecting him to do the same here
But I’m leading with Hera this time.
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Pert as expected, MH for 99% just like last time, Mirror Coat fail
MH Miss, Surf brings Hera to 121 HP
MH KO
NextMetagross… Latias? What in the world?
MH OHKO
Very unexpected that he picked Latias as his backup this time around. This means he can choose different Pokémon even if you face him with the same team. Anyway, my new strategy worked much better, Hera is my lead of choice against him from now on.
Round 16:
Battle 1
Beauty Dawn
Jynx/Altaria/Fearow, 2 possible Jynx, one for the others
Raikou/Suicune
Lead Fearow, TBolt OHKO
Next Jynx, Fake Out brings Raikou to 293 HP, set 2 confirmed
Crunch for around 70%, Lovely Kiss miss (Lovely Miss!)
Crunch KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Miriam
Exploud/Cradily/Shiftry, any sets, Giga Drain means Shif-2/4 or Crad-1/3
Willing to risk total disaster = Explosion? Meaning Shif-2/3 in that case
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Shiftry, Fake Out brings Hera to 239 HP
BB Crit OHKO
Next Cradily, BB Crit OHKO again!
Battle 3
Swimmer Elaine (I beat her last time, so hopefully this time too)
Milotic/Blastoise/Exploud, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Exploud, BB OHKO
Next Blast, BB for 80%, Surf Crit OHKO
Out with Raikou, TBolt Crit KO
Sorry babe, but your days of winning against me are over!
Battle 4
Triathlete Gloria
Whiscash/Jynx/Hariyama, any Jynx/Hari, 2 Cash, EQ and Cross Chop says nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Cash, MH OHKO
Next Hari, switch to Cune, Counter fail, set 1 confirmed (why didn’t it use Fake Out?)
Surf for maybe 30%, Counter fail again
Surf for another 30%, Cross Chop, Leftovers brings Cune to 304 HP
Two more Surfs and I have won, was too lazy to write all of the details since they don’t make a difference anyway
Round 17:
Battle 1
Expert Emma
Dragonite/Miltank/Dusclops, any sets
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Nite, CM, Sunny Day, Set 6 confirmed
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 259 HP after Leftovers
Nite is then faster (QC), probably uses EQ again but I forgot to write it down, CM, Cune at 209 HP after Leftovers
CM, EQ Crit brings Cune to 87 HP after Leftovers
IB OHKO, Sunny Day ends, Leftovers brings Cune to 111 HP
Next Dusclops, Surf OHKO
Battle 2
Hiker Corey
Metagross/Armaldo/Flygon, any sets, Explosion means Meta-5/6
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Meta, EQ OHKO
Next Flygon, switch to Cune, EQ Crit, Cune at 185 after Leftovers
EQ next turn brings me to 67 HP, IB OHKO
Battle 3
Psychic Ingrid
Latias/Gardevoir/Regice, any sets, Psychic and EQ means Lati-2/3/4/7, any Garde but 4, Regice-4 though set 6 is probably likely since it has Explosion and the info said she is willing to risk total disaster
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Garde, MH OHKO
Next Lati, MH Miss, Psychic OHKOs Hera
Raikou out
Psychic pretty much means Latias-3/7
Crunch and see how it goes
It does around 60%, EQ brings Raikou to 106 HP
Crunch KO
Close.
Battle 4
Psychic Stanly
Claydol/Metagross/Starmie, any sets, Thunder/Shadow Ball/Explosion means Starmie-7, Claydol-1, Meta-5-8
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Claydol, MH, Focus Band, Psychic Crit brings Hera to 30 HP
MH KO
Next Starmie, MH OHKO
Round 18:
Battle 1
Picknicker Ruth
Houndoom/Gengar/Kangaskhan, specific sets
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Kanga, BB OHKO
Next Hound, BB OHKO
Battle 2
Expert Jasper
Slowking/Cradily/Lapras, any sets, Ice Beam means Slowking-2/3, Lapras-5/7
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Lapras, BB OHKO
Next Slowking, switch to Raikou, Psychic brings it to 190 HP and confirms that it is not set 4
TBolt OHKO
Battle 3
Pokémon Breeder Clare
Meganium/Typhlosion/Milotic, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Typh, EQ OHKO
Next Mega, switch to Raikou, Body Slam brings it to 227 HP
Switch back to Hera, EQ Crit brings it to 188 HP
MH OHKO
Battle 4
Cooltrainer Leon
Heracross/Ninetales/Flygon, any sets, Megahorn says nothing, Dragon Claw means Flygon-3/4
Really difficult matchup
Suicune/Raikou
Lead Flygon, EQ takes Cune to 288 HP, IB OHKO
Next Ninetales, Leftovers to 312
Heat Wave brings Cune to 263, burned, Surf for around 95%, Cune at 239 after Leftovers and Burn
Heat Wave brings Cune to 190, Surf KO
That went easier than I thought.
Round 19:
Battle 1
Swimmer Joyce
Milotic/Tauros/Vaporeon, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Tauros, Intimidate, BB OHKO
Next Vappy, BB for around 70%, Acid Armor
Switch to Raikou, Rest, Lum wakes it up
TBolt for around 70% again, paralyzed, Surf takes Raikou to 176 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Cooltrainer Leon
Vaporeon/Gengar/Heracross, any sets (or 4 possible for Gengar), Ice Beam means Vappy-1/3/4
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Hera, switch to my Hera, EQ Crit takes me to 119 HP
RS for around 80%, MH KOs me
Out with Raikou, TBolt KO
Next Vappy, TBolt Crit OHKO
Battle 3
Hex Maniac Carly
Victreebel/Dusclops/Gengar, any sets, Double-Edge and Thunderbolt means Gengar-1/2/6/7/8, Vic-1, Dus-1
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gar, CM, Psychic takes Raikou to 235 HP
Crunch OHKO
Next Dus, Crunch for around 90%, Shadow Ball brings Raikou to 121 HP
Crunch KO
Battle 4
Pokemon Ranger Shania
Gyarados/Exploud/Dodrio, specific sets
Raikou/Heracross
Lead Gyara, TBolt OHKO
Next Exploud, TBolt for around 85%, EQ brings me to 93 HP
TBolt KO
Didn’t use Suicune a single time in this round, interesting.
Round 20:
Battle 1
Pokéfan Todd
Jolteon/Absol/Raichu, specific sets
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Jolt, TBolt takes Hera to 139 HP, EQ OHKO
Next Absol, EQ OHKO
Battle 2
Black Belt Mateo
Shuckle/Medicham/Machamp, any sets, Focus Punch means Champ-1 for sure for once
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Shuckle, BB for around 60%, Double Team, it recovers a little with Leftovers
BB KO
Next Champ, BB for around 90%, Sub fails
BB KO
Battle 3
Bug Maniac Liam
Heracross/Masquerain/Shuckle, any Shuckle/Hera, one Mas, Megahorn confirms nothing
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Mas, Intimidate, RS still OHKOs
Next Hera, switch to Cune, MH miss
MH brings me to 230 HP, Surf for 40%, Leftovers brings Cune to 254 HP
MH brings Cune to 95 HP, Surf brings Hera to 85%, Leftovers brings Cune to 119
MH KO
Out with my Hera, EQ KO
Battle 4
Tucker
Heracross/Suicune worked the last two times, so I’m going with them again
Lead Pert as expected, MH to 95%, Mirror fail!
MH KO
Next Meta, Protects first
Then MH miss, MM brings Hera to 29 HP
QC EQ KO
Cune, QC EQ again, Cune at 280 HP, CM, 304 HP after Leftovers
Surf for around 45%, EQ takes me to 194 HP, 218 after Leftovers
Protect, Leftovers to 242 HP
Protect, Leftovers to 266 HP
Surf takes Meta down to around 5%, EQ brings Cune to 161 HP, 185 after Leftovers
Surf KO
Fun, but I still wish I had Shedinja.
Round 21:
Battle 1
Parasol Lady Paige
Ludicolo/Houndoom/Starmie, 3 sets for Ludi, specific for Starmie/Hound
Heracross/Raikou
Lead Starmie, MH OHKO
Next Hound, MH miss, Overheat OHKO, White Herb
Raikou, TBolt for around 80%, Crunch brings me to 192 HP
TBolt KO
Battle 2
Dragon Tamer Trevon
Tyranitar/Dragonite/Aerodactyl, any sets, Fire Blast means Aero-3/4, Nite-6
Suicune/Heracross
Lead Tyra, CM, DD, narrows it down to 4 different sets
Surf for 90%, Counter fail, set 5 confirmed
Rock Slide brings Cune to 248 HP, Surf KO
Next Aero, Double-Edge brings Cune to 162 HP, recoil, Surf KO
Battle 3
The loss.
See below for details.
Beauty Anya. She uses Eeveelutions, any sets. I remembered to save the Battle Video this time around. Watch it below:
Battle summary:
Anya has a team of Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon. The tourney tree reveals that she has used Double-Edge and Shadow Ball in her earlier battles. It means that she has at least one of the following sets: Flareon-1/2/3, Espeon-2, Umbreon-2/4.
I enter with Heracross and Suicune. The idea was that Heracross could OHKO all three of the opposing Pokémon with Megahorn/Earthquake, with Suicune as the backup. It would have an easy time against Flareon while it could potentially set up on Umbreon, and maybe Espeon as well. But as the battle is about to start, I realized my mistake as Heracross will be outrun and OHKO’d by Espeon before it can move. I used the damage calculator to checke the Speed stats for all opposing Espeon. It turns out that even with a Speed IV of 3, they are all faster than Heracross. So this is not good at all. At this point, I realized that I should have entered with Raikou, probably over Heracross.
The battle starts, and Anya leads with Espeon. The worst possible scenario. I switch to Suicune, it tanks a Psychic which fortunately doesn’t do a whole lot. I then go for Calm Mind, the Espeon does the same. I decide to attack next. The Espeon uses Calm Mind again, Surf does around 40% which isn’t very much. Espeon now uses Psychic, Surf for another 40%. Espeon then uses Rest and wakes up with Chesto, confirming set 2. Surf for yet another 40%. Psychic, another Surf. Suicune is then KO’d by the next Psychic. I send out Heracross, but it is slower and gets OHKO’d by Psychic. Anya beat me.
This was a very fair battle, no hax involved. The reason I lost is completely my own fault. I should have picked Raikou over Heracross. Raikou/Suicune would have been the best duo here. Bit I misplayed a bit too. I think I should have tried to stall the Espeon out of PP for Psychic with Suicune’s Pressure, I should have been able to win afterwards. But I still got “lucky” in a way since this Espeon set isn’t the strongest, it has a Docile Nature and no EVs in Sp.att. Instead, it has maxed Attack, probably to hit hard with Shadow Ball. Though it has Calm Mind to boost its Special stats. It is funny how I lost against an Espeon here since it defeated this team in Open Level Single at the Tower as well.Battle 3
Beauty Anya
Flareon/Espeon/Umbreon, any sets, Double-Edge and Shadow Ball, Flare-1/2/3, Espy-2, Umby-3
Heracross/Suicune
Lead Espy, switch to Cune, Psychic to 296 HP after Leftovers
Both use CM
It uses CM again, I Surf for maybe 40%
Psychic takes Cune to 206 HP, Surf brings it down to around 20%, 230 HP after Leftovers
It uses Rest, Chesto wakes it, I Surf for 40% again, 254 HP after Leftovers
Psychic takes Cune to 135 HP after Leftovers, Surf it down to 20% again
Psychic KOs Cune
And Hera gets outrun and OHKO’d by Psychic
RIP streak
So that’s how my streak ended. As for Anya, she won the final battle as well, making her win the entire tournament! I guess she is a fierce opponent.
And with that, I am done with Single at the Battle Dome.And with that, I am done with the Dome. Onwards to the next facility! Except not since before continuing with the next one, I decided to go back to one I had previously completed… or so I thought.After completing my streak at Open Level Single, I decided to try Double at the Dome. I continued on my streaks at both Level 50 and Open Level, below are the results.
I started with Level 50. I had an ongoing streak of 3 since before, don’t remember when or how I got it. I had only completed 3 tournaments, so I had never made any previous attempts. Dome Double is an interesting format since you enter with 3 Pokémon, then pick two from those, which are the only ones you use for the battle. Since your opponent will also pick 2, it means that you will see which two they picked immediately at the start of the battle.
I used a team of Salamence/Gengar/Metagross for round 4-5, then I switched Metagross for Slaking. With two Pokémon immune to Ground, I would be able to Quake more freely. I used Metagross for the earlier rounds since opponents in the early rounds are more likely to carry Protect, which Slaking loses against. My Metagross isn’t super great though. It is rather slow, which I guess isn’t too surprising since it doesn’t have any Speed EVs. The inaccuracy of Meteor Mash was a bit problematic too. In one battle, it missed twice against an opposing Lunatone, which put me in a very bad situation as the Omastar that remained might have been able to beat Metagross with a Rain Dance-boosted Hydro Pump. But that did fortunately not happen since it missed.
I didn’t use Metagross that much, I mostly went with Salamence/Gengar. I also thought my Metagross knew Shadow Ball. I had a memory of it knowing that, and I had written that it knew Shadow Ball in my old notes. But when I checked it in the game, it had Rock Slide instead. Not sure how I got it mixed up. Guess I just wasn’t very careful back then. Either way, I think Shadow Ball is the better move, it feels like Rock Slide doesn’t really offer any valuable coverage while Shadow Ball is great against opposing Psychic- and Ghost-types. I guess I could change it, trading over a Shadow Ball TM from FR/LG is easy and cheap. Maybe I’ll do that later on.
Another thing that I noted was that my Gengar has a Speed stat of 153, which is exactly one point above max Speed neutral base 100s. Such as my Salamence and Slaking. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if I just got lucky when I EV’d it back in the day, but it was pretty cool when I noticed it now. Unfortunately, 153 Speed isn’t super great for the Dome due to the 3 IV glitch since it means that Gengar will Speed tie with many opponents. But it allowed Gengar to always move before Slaking and Salamence, which was great.
I got a streak of 8 rounds. I lost in the first battle in Round 9. I was up against a trainer with Kingdra/Hariyama/Dewgong. I went with Gengar/Slaking, my opponent chose Dewgong/Hariyama. On the first turn, Hariyama used Fake Out on Slaking, Gengar used TBolt on Dewgong for around 95%, Slaking flinched, Dewgong used Sheer Cold but missed. On turn 2, Gengar KO’d Dewgong with TBolt, Hariyama KO’d Slaking with a Crit Cross Chop. Gengar then used TBolt on Hariyama for about 50%, Hariyama used Rock Slide on Gengar for around 50% as well. Hariyama then lived another TBolt with a little HP left, while Gengar got KO’d by another Rock Slide.
A rather sour loss, but it was mostly fair so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. I guess I might have been able to win if I had picked Salamence instead of Slaking, but I was afraid of the opposing Dewgong/Kingdra and their Ice/Dragon-type moves. It doesn’t matter though, I did not expect a super long streak and I’m satisfied with this. The team was quite fun to use but not super great in the end.
I continued with Open Level Double. I had a streak of 1 since before. Like with Level 50, it was all I had ever tried for this format. I entered with a team of Swampert/Zapdos/Latios. Similar to Level 50, the plan was to allow Swampert free Quaking thanks to having two partners immune to Ground. However, the team was rather slow to play with and it wasn’t super great offensively. Swampert and Zapdos were pretty good defensively though. In case anyone wonders, my Latios sucks. I wish I had a better one on Gen 3.
I got a streak of 7 rounds here. I lost in round 8, 3rd battle: I was up against a trainer with Donphan/Armaldo/Nidoking. I entered with Swampert/Latios, my opponent picked Nidoking/Donphan. On the first turn, Donphan activated its QC and used Fissure, which hit Swampert. Latios used Ice Beam on Donphan, which survived. Nidoking used Horn Drill, but it missed. Latios then used Ice Beam on Nidoking, it survived. Latios then got KO’d by Blizzard + Rock Slide. This was a rather haxy loss, I don’t think I could have done much to prevent it. Maybe if I had let Swampert use Protect on turn 1, but I couldn’t predict that the Donphan would use Fissure.
I also had a notable battle in Round 5. I had picked Swampert/Latios and got to face a duo of Marowak/Steelix. On the first turn of the battle, the Steelix got a QC activation, it used Explosion to wipe out everything on the field. Since everything fainted at the same time, it came down to judging by a Referee. I have heard that this will happen if you get a tie in the Dome, but this was the first time I got experience it myself. And somehow, I won. Even if my Swampert and Latios fainted before the opponent’s Marowak and Steelix. I thought that in the case of a tie like this, the side that fainted first would lose (since that’s how tie battles are determined in Gen 5 and on). But it turns out that it isn’t the case in Gen 3. I’m not sure what determines the winner in case of a tie. I tried to find the answer on Bulbapedia, but I only found a small mention in their descriptions of seedings in the Dome:
“Seedings are determined by their ranking: the sum of the combined base stat totals of all Pokémon, plus 1/20 of the product of the number of different types represented by the Pokémon and the highest level among the Pokémon. If two Trainers tie in ranking, the higher internal Trainer number will win the tiebreaker; the player will always win the tiebreaker against any CPU Trainer, while Dome Ace Tucker will win any tiebreaker against other CPU Trainers. In the event of a tie battle, the higher seed advances and the lower seed is eliminated.”
So I guess I won because I had a higher seed? Or am I understanding it wrong? If anyone knows the answer, I would like to know. Anyway, I was very surprised when it happened since I really thought I would lose that battle.With this, I am done with the Dome. As well as the Palace… for the second time. Four facilities down! I still have the Pyramid, Pike and Factory left, so I’ll continue with one of them next.I said I was done with the Palace and that I wouldn’t try Doubles here. But I thought it over and changed my mind. I decided to give it a spin just so that I would have tried every format I can at the Frontier. I played this very casually, I did not look up opposing sets. My goal (if you can call it that) was to win at least one round in both Level 50 and Open Level. I managed to accomplish that. I had never tried Palace Doubles before, so I had no ongoing streaks here.
Double battles with just three Pokémon are really weird. I am used to having four, since that is what you have in the Tower and its successors in the newer generations. But I guess it can be fun to try something different for a change of pace.
For Level 50, I entered with a team of Medicham/Porygon2/Slowbro. Since I wasn’t doing this super seriously, I just picked three fun Pokémon, their defensive synergy isn’t super great. Medicham was chosen because it is one of the few Physical attackers I have raised for Level 50 which doesn’t know Earthquake. It has three offensive moves and Bulk Up, which means it has moves from two categories. Porygon2 was chosen because it is a fun Pokémon and I wanted to try it somewhere. Despite raising one for the Frontier, I don’t think I have ever used it anywhere. It also has moves from all three categories. I put it in the lead with Medicham because of Trace. If it traced a bad Ability like Truant, I could just switch it out. And if it traced something good, I would keep it in! I picked Slowbro as the last Pokémon because I felt like it. Slowbro resists Fighting which Porygon2 is weak too, thus offering at least a little bit of defensive synergy. It also has moves from two categories.
I got a streak of 22. The loss happened because my team mostly did the wrong moves and generally refused to attack, while my opponent did many right moves and attacked a lot. Not going to describe it in detail, I don’t remember it either. Annoying, but I hadn’t really expected to get particularly far so that’s okay.
Afterwards, I continued with Open Level. This seems to be an unpopular format since there are zero entries for this format on the leaderboards right now! Who will be the first? Not me, that’s for sure.
From my Level 100 box, I put together a team of Swampert/Moltres/Zapdos. Swampert seemed solid, and just like at the Dome, having two Flying-types as partners would allow it to Quake freely. Swampert and Moltres have moves from two categories, Zapdos from all three. I got a streak of 23, I won one more battle than in Level 50. The loss involved Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt an opposing Nidoqueen, and Swampert getting hit by Attract from an opposing Kingdra which made it unable to move for the rest of the battle. Another idiotic loss, but it doesn’t matter.
I also noticed some things during this format. One very interesting thing that happened was that on two occasions, my opponent switched out their Pokémon. It happened once in Level 50 and once in Open Level. I am not sure why this happened, my theory is that it was because they tried to “predict” which move I was going to use and switched to their backup because it resisted the type in question. I thought I should mention it since the AI very rarely switches out in the Frontier (from my experiences at least).
One other thing I noticed here, and as I hinted at above, was that my Pokémon did not always care about type effectiveness. Apart from Zapdos trying to Thunderbolt the Nidoqueen, there were many other situations where it happened. For instance, Porygon2 tried to Thunder Wave a Barboach, and Medicham tried to Shadow Ball a Pidgeot. Or the best (worst) of all: I had Swampert and Moltres out against a Noctowl and Ninjask. Swampert used Earthquake!
Another fun thing that happened was that my Moltres once got a Crit Flamethrower in the Sun against an opposing Salamence, which scored an OHKO! That was really cool.
Palace Doubles wasn’t very fun, sadly. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else. Most battle were very slow-paced, they came down to just pressing A and waiting for the Pokémon (hopefully mine) to finally attack. I will never try this format again.
After this, I have tried every format at the Palace, and I have no reason to ever go back to it. For real this time.
A good reason why I haven't added this streak is because I find it really hard to believe that this team would've been able to hit 200 wins and let alone hit 100.
252 Atk Breloom Hidden Power Ghost vs. 0 HP / 255 Def Alakazam: 192-226 (76.4 - 90%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
This goes without saying. This is how much HP Ghost does to a Pokemom that even without 0 investment in Speed, it outspeeds your "ace" and it immediately sends it back to the egg it came from with a STAB Psychic. I am not sure what I should believe you do when you see this Pokemon lead and there is no mention of it as being a severe threat to your team. It OHKOs Breloom immediately and if you're telling me that I am supposed to believe that Milotic is a switch-in, I have bad news for you: You are switching into a STAB move that immediately forces you to Recover and while you may think that maybe Brightpowder will let you run away from this, what if it doesn't works? Milotic can either switch into a critical hit or a Sp. Def drop which are equally damaging and switching back into Breloom means you also put your Pokemon at risk of paralysis taking into account that even if you pull an Icy Wind (assuming it will always hit specially against Zam 4 which runs Brightpowder), there are plenty of things that can go wrong on a situation like this.
Your Milotic's only accurate move is Recover and while chances are that it may end up saving a streak with Brightpowder, this is not consistent on the long run since you are betting on a random 10% chance to miss. I also have to say that relying on Hypnosis' 60% chance to burn a Chesto or Lum Berry is doubtful at best considering that a set like Gardevoir 2 can pretty much set up Double Team and eventually sweep your team with Calm Mind and Psychic.
Sleep only grants you 2-5 turns and this is not Gen 4 where Breloom can set up infinite turns of sleep while Substituting because what will happen if you get the opponent to wake up two or three times on the 2nd turn? You won't be able to be behind a Substitute at worst and you'll end up having Breloom up against a faster opponent.
How sure can you be that Gardevoir and Starmie are two targets you can "safely" Spore against? Because of the Modest nature of Raikou, it speeds tie with Starmie at best which means that using Calm Mind in front of it is not safe because it can eat a critical hit on the process or worst land a crit before you even try to kill it. Gardevoir has 8 whooping sets which all threaten your team seriously. How safe is it to Spore when Garde 2 has a Chesto Berry, Set 3 has a Lum Berry and Set 4 has a Brightpowder waiting for you. Am I suppose to believe that after "215 wins" Gardevoir's only way to win against your team is by "landing a critical hit"?
There are plenty of reasons for me to believe that this streak is save stated which goes against this leaderboard's rules and as a result, I will not add this to the records page.
Hey, thanks for the reply. I understand your decision. I'll admit I have no proof other than the 215 record on my hacked save file, and some replays I guess, but this was a legit streak.
Now, I don't know how controversial this is, but I usually start at streaks of 35 to skip the monotony at the beginning, and I for sure did it for this one. I personally don't think this matters, especially since you could just switch teams after 35 and the battle tower would have to adapt all over again. I'm not even sure if this is how the tower works, but I am sure this would compromise my record and I appologize for not mentioning it. I didn't see it as important when I made the post.
As far as how good the team is, here are a few things to consider:
- Milotic can switch into Alakazam and drop its speed with Icy Wind, and perhaps land a shaky Hypnosis, allowing Breloom to set up. If I can't scout the item, Raikou can still set up and sweep (or I can chance it with Breloom). Of course, critical hits and status are a thing so this is not a reliable strategy.
- You are correct, this team sucks versus Gardevoir, and I have lost majorly against it. You are keen for figuring that out haha
- I believe luck had been on my side for the 215 run. For example, I know I had made risky plays turn one, opting to Spore without scouting the item. These gave me relatively quick wins which probably made me think my team was better than it actually was.
- Double team has actually not given me much issue. It is possible that, for whatever reason, the tower does not send many double teamers my way. Also, Breloom does a good job of stopping their shenanigans.
- I usually hard switch Raikou into Starmie and knock it out outright with a Thunderbolt rather than attempting to set up. It is in fact a big threat to Breloom and Milotic and I almost always choose to just take it down ASAP.
- Breloom doesn't always get a KO with a sub up but it does happen quite often. And even if it isn't able to, that doesn't always mean an instant loss. Again, luck definitely played a big role.
I still stand by my streak. I will say that I have had difficulty getting even to 100 after getting the 215, so there's that. I really did think it was a good team but it is not as consistent as I first thought.
Sorry for any trouble! I was really just trying to share some cool strategies. I wasn't necessarily trying to get on the leaderboards. If you would like me to edit or remove my post, please feel free to contact me.
I might try to grind a streak in the future. If you could point me towards the rules for this, that would help as well.