Project QR: Your experiences and stories with silly QR Code Teams

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Remember back in January, when the excitement of Pokebank was in the air? During that time period, Gamefreak snuck in a pretty cool feature: QR code teams. With these, when you logged into your PGL account, you could just scan a team and use it, no Pokemon required! You could even search for specific stuff you wanted in a QR code team, such as "show only singles teams that have Garchomp and the move Fire Fang".

However, I don't think we've talked too much about the more esoteric parts of QR team hunting. Sure, we lightly touched upon their use in the sample team thread, but that thread is more about using simple teams that work as great introductions to the metagame. I think we can go further than that!

If you want to participate in this thread, use this link to search for teams! https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/search

What this thread is for

The goal is simple: I want you to use the search function for QR code teams that meet some sort of specific thing thing you're looking for, then test them out! After you've tested them, post a link to the team here, and tell us a story about it! I want you to talk about stuff like what the hook of the team is, how well it did, or if the team you used was beginner friendly or not. Stuff like that!

What you define as a cool team is up to you. The team may have an unusual Pokemon, or it might just be a high rated QR team you enjoy using. Almost anything is fair game here as long as the team makes sense! AKA, don't post silly in game QR code teams, post serious teams!

What this thread isn't for

What I don't want this thread to become is a replacement for the sample team thread. I know that thread hasn't been updated in a while (hopefully we can change that!), but I don't want you to submit your own teams: the goal here is to use the search function to find interesting stuff, not your own teams, we got a thread for that right here! http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sm-battle-spot-singles-sample-teams.3593055/

To get things started, I'll submit two teams here. I may update the OP with particularly cool and proven teams users here find!

HINT: An easy way to find out the natures and IVs of a QR code team is to scan them in the battle tree, then compare them with stats of the Pokemon on showdown!

Team Qwilfish Rain: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-47CB-400F

Format: Singles

The hook: This is a rain team, but instead of using your usual rain sweeper like Kingdra, it uses Qwilfish, who has some surprising benefits over Kingdra!

The team in showdown format

Qwilfish @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Poison Jab
- Aqua Jet
- Destiny Bond

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- King's Shield
- Substitute
- Toxic

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 10 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Hurricane
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Thundurus-Therian @ Electrium Z
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 36 HP / 220 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Sludge Wave
- Agility

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 70
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 3 SpA
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Extreme Speed

Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 52 Atk / 52 Def / 92 SpD / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- U-turn
- Knock Off


So what we have here is something sorta akin to your usual rain team. That is, you send Pelipper out against teams without weather control, and you take advantage of the new sweeping opportunities that the weather gives you by switching to something else with U-turn. Now lets talk about Qwilfish. I'm under no illusion that Qwilfish is a better choice than the standard rain sweepers like Kingdra, but this thing actually shocked me with its resourcefulness. First of all, being able to 2HKO Tapu Fini is extremely cool, and something only Ludicolo is capable of otherwise. Secondly, Destiny Bond has gotten me out of a LOT of jams! This may be more because of the surprise value, but foes tend to try to take down Qwilfish as soon as possible, so they don't expect it to go kamikaze and take them down with it!

There is some other weird stuff on this team to address. Agility is not something you see often on Thundurus-T, but this team has convinced me that its no joke: I've seen some teams try to save weakened Scarfers or Garchomp specfically to take out Thundurus-T, so they're in for a nasty shock when Thundurus-T outspeeds them all! I'm not quite sure what the 36 HP EVs do, but maybe someone could do some calcs...

Fire Punch Dragonite may seem like a weird choice... and it is, but I think its here for a good reason: Ferrothorn is a big problem for this team, and sometimes I've found myself getting out of rain mode just to nail that thing with Fire Punch!

I love Substitute Aegislash, and this one is a particularly fast one. 115 doesn't hit any special speed marks as far as I know, but it does outspeed some neat stuff such as 4 Speed Mega Venusaur, 4 Speed Rotom-W / H and 4 Speed Cresselia, which can really come in handy. Otherwise, this Aegislash is a godsend against Porygon2, which can be important since this team isn't a big fan of that thing otherwise!

I have no idea what's up with that Mega Scizor EV spread. I love Mega Scizor on rain, but the lack of Roost can be a real problem at times, since otherwise this thing would do pretty well against Ferrothorn.

So the verdict? This team has alerted me to some cool sets to use, and in season 2, it actually got me to past 1700: not an impressive rating, but it was neat since I was so busy that season. However, this team has serious problems with Ferrothorn, and I find the lack of Roost on Mega Scizor to be a big oversight with that bulky EV spread. Also, I personally prefer faster Pelipper when using sash, since then you can outspeed slower Mega Venusaur, which I find to be very useful!

While Qwilfish won't be replacing Kingdra any time soon, this team did at least make me start to ponder about alternative rain builds, and it's something I want to explore further with other rain Pokemon!

Team Happy Hour: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-4DFD-BF83

Format: Singles

The Hook: This team is an ordinary offensive team with a twist: it uses Normalium Z Happy Hour Greninja as a surprise sweeper! According to the description, this team ranked around 1700 as well, which is decent.

The team in showdown format

Greninja @ Normalium Z
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Happy Hour
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Gunk Shot

Charizard @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance

Garchomp @ Focus Sash
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 53
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Tomb
- Earthquake

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 61
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 25 Atk / 26 SpA
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Electric]

Cresselia @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 156 Def / 148 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 17 SpD
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Moonlight
- Toxic

Lucario-Mega @ Lucarionite
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake


So basically, the goal here is usually to set up Stealth Rock with Garchomp to get rid of annoying Focus Sash Pokemon, then sweep with one of the designated sweepers: usually Mega Charizard X or Mega Lucario. Greninja can sweep, but in my experience, that's something that only works really late game compared to the other two as a surprise.

Boy tho, Happy Hour Greninja can be one hell of a surprise! While I wouldn't call it powerful, it can seriously mess up gameplans around Greninja, usually making a fool of common Choice Scarf revenge killers in particular! While I wouldn't call Greninja bulky after a defense boost, it is capable of surviving some surprising stuff, such as unboosted Garchomp Outrages.

However, there is one fatal flaw to this team: The Tapu Lele and Cresselia have imperfect IVs. This is a big bummer, since you can't just bottle cap them yourself, this isn't your team! Normally, I'd disqualify myself from using a team like that, but Happy Hour Greninja is a weird Japan only event, so there isn't much to choose from.

Personally, if I somehow got access to a Happy Hour Greninja, besides just fixing the IVs, I'd probably use Jolly Mega Charizard X since I always like outspeeding Choice Scarf Tapu Lele after a boost. I get what this guy is going for with Toxic Garchomp as well, but the lack of Outrage puts this Garchomp at a serious disadvantage vs other Garchomps as well, which can be very irritating.

There are other Happy Hour Greninja teams out there that are probably workable (in fact if you search Happy Hour, there's one with Nihilego that I also thought was alright, but didn't use as much), but this is the one I had the most success with despite the faulty IVs.
 
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