Battle Tree Discussion and Records

[GG Unit]

Thank you for the information. I have been thinking of adding Toxapex into my Singles Team for stalling purposes, I am currently thinking of using a stalling team for now. Once Pokebank is released, I have been considering of adding Toxapex into the Durant combination in case if the plan fails. Toxapex resists most of Wishiwashi's and Mimikyu's moves. :)

I think that is going to have to be the way to play Durant this generation; as a lead with one set-up sweeper and 3rd Pokemon that can stall out a lot of evasion item, Protect/Detect, Explosion users, etc. I was thinking Chansey as another one, but Toxapex has the benefit of absorbing Toxic Spikes if the sweeper is weak to those.

If Durant's not the lead you'll run into the problem of Blaziken 4 (mega) outspeeding it after turn 2, and you obviously can't switch it in on a Flare Blitz.

 

[Skewtr]

Oh shit guys, here's a database error of mine that I realized.

Turns out for Landorus/Thundurus/Tornadus trio, the NPCs may use Therian Forme.

I ran into one in the Battle Royal- but I'm sure this is true for Battle Tree as well.

If anyone can figure out which sets of these guys are Therian Forme, let me know. So far, my data assumes they're all Incarnate.

 

[Doobzi]

Nature: Bold
Ability: Regenerator
EV: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 Sp. Def
Item: Rocky Helmet
Moves: Scald, Recover, Haze, Toxic

On the subject of Toxapex, Bluemew was giving this away and I tried it out along side:

Tapu koko @ Terrain Extender
Timid
252 Sp.att / 252 Spe / 4 Def
~T-bolt
~Taunt
~Dazzling Gleam
~Nature's Madness

I've had relative success, blasting past the first 20 in singles and have beat the first 10 with realtive ease on super singles. Haze is actually great in the battle tree given the evasion boosters. It even beat a scizor 1 v 1 while hazing his sword dances.

Edit: Anyone know a good Pheromosa set up to run in the tree?

 

[Cheesedick]

Okay why the hell is there a Shell Smash Kommo-o and how do I get one?

 

[UnhandledException]

Okay why the hell is there a Shell Smash Kommo-o and how do I get one?

its probably leftover from beta since you cant actually get smash kommo-o in-game.

EDIT: Also since i dont see this info anywhere, just for record beating Red in the 50th match gives 50 bonus bp and a stamp in the passport. Also unlocks the Passionate style. He used Venu, Blastoise and Mega Zard-Y.

You fight a major character every 10 wins but it doesnt give bonus bp just increases the reward for subsequent wins by 1. This relates to Super Singles and gains might be different in doubles idk

Mega Evolutions started appearing after the 30th fight, in which Kiawe used a Mega Kangaskhan. Z-Moves are relatively common but appear pretty early on, i think they're there even in first 10 battles.

 

[DocJer]

Hey guys. I'm new here. Been following the battle maison post before the release of S&M. Now trying to get a decent score in single battle.
So far I've found that Toxapex works great with Aegislash. Used to run Aegislash with Gliscor.
Just wondering what you think of this team:

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Scald

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- King's Shield
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak

It's a pretty slow team but a very forgiving team. It easily gets rid of any physical sweeper. Can't think of any sweeper that has been a problem.
Setting up Salamence is a bit more difficult than last generation. It's quite fragile so I only use it when I'm sure I'm faster and get that OHKO or when I can set it up without taking too much damage. Both Toxapex and Aegislash are weak against ground moves, so I keep switching Toxapex with Salamence untill the opponent is out of PP.

Salamence
I used to run it with Draconium Z, which allowed me to take out potential threats quite easily (Raichu / Jolteon). I got Salamencite yesterday, so still figuring out if it's worth it. Mostly use it because of the extra Spd.
Running it with dragon claw because of STAB. Was in doubt if I'd go with Crunch or Earthquake, but Earthquake deals with Magnezone. Who was a huge threat.
Aegislash
Familiar build. Nothing special. Fairy killer with priority move. Easy to get a +6 set up.
@Toxapex
Yeah, no recover or haze. Its job is to poison and stall. Substitute protects me from confusion/T-wave/Burn (reason why Salamence has it). Same goes for protect. Switching this thing out with Aegislash means it has 100% health most of the time.

Been able to play for 2 days so far. So not much of an achievement yet. Got to 30 wins quite easily before getting killed by a Raichu, could've prevented it if I hadn't set up Salamence prematurely. Hope the veterans might have some good tips that lead to improvement of this team. Or maybe you think it's trash. Either way, improvement is good :)

Edit: really feel like Salamence is the weak link here. Either I need to put more in bulk or just give him a full offensive set.... Maybe another teammember? The flying type + intimidate works real good though.

 

[Kadabrium]

I realized I forgot to say this earlier.

A few notes for those planning to use Truant Durant:

• If you use Entrainment on the turn the AI Megas, and you move first, then Truant will activate on that turn. Make sure to keep this in mind to avoid a situation where you don't pay much attention and switch out anyways (which happened to me, but I fortunately turned it around)
• Wishiwashi and Mimikyu cannot have their abilities changed while they are in Schooling and Decoy forms. Not sure when they're outside of it. You cannot pass Truant to them easily.

Have you run into any alolan raichus?

 

[zarator]

Hello guys^^ Did anybody have any success using Nihilego? I tried using the following set:

Timid - 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

It's a very fun set, and it quite often leads to explosive plays - if the opponent's lead is KOed, you are almost assured Nihilego will go for a clean sweep. But here's the problem: it's extremely hard to support. Nihilego's weird typing and stat spread leaves it with a wide range of Pokemon it needs to switch out of: Water-types, Ground-types, Steel-types, and Psychic-types (to a lesser extent), as well as anything (and I rly mean anything) with Earthquake.

I first tried to pair it with Slowbro and Tapu Bulu, but I ended up being destroyed by Magnezone (also, the weakness to Bug/Steel mons was a pain in the ass). So, I'd like to ask you: what would the best partners for Nihilego be? I noticed Kartana has a decent type sinergy, resisting Water, Steel, and Psychic types while Nihilego sponges Fire-type attacks (and Kartana seems much more offensively oriented than Ferrothorn). So, maybe, something like Nihilego + Kartana + Togekiss (a special sponge and Ground immunity which can slow Baton Pass to the main sweepers) could work? Do you have other (possibly better ideas)? I would really like to see Nihilego work well...

 

[MKL122788]

I've been theorycrafting for him(as I have a HP ice one as well) and I came up with the best support duo for this is Mega-Gyarados and Aegislash for the traditional swap spamming.

The reason for this, to me, is regular Gyarados resists basically anything thrown out at Nihilego. While it lacks an electric resistance or immunity, Nihilego can sponge electric attacks exceptional well since they are almost all on the special side.

This takes advantage of the natural core strength of Mega-Gyarados + Aegislash duo core in the battle tree while having a beast boost in place.

Just something to think about, I suppose.

 

[annimon]

I just finished Singles Battle #50 with a team of Golisopod, Nihilego, and Kartana. I love this team because Golisopod's signature Ability almost always allows you a safe switch into a UB against a heavily weakened opponent, making it easy to KO and get the Beast Boost to sweep the rest of the opponent's team.

Here is my set:

Golisopod @ leftovers
Adamant, 252 HP, 252 Attack, 4 SpD
First Impression
Aqua Jet
Leech Life
Liquidize

Kartana @ focus sash
Jolly, 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP
Leaf Blade
Smart Strike
Sacred Sword
Night Slash

Nihilego @ lum berry
Timid, 252 SpA, 252 Speed, 4 SpD
Power Gem
Sludge Wave
Thunderbolt
Dazzling Gleam


My strategy is really straightforward. Lead with Golisopod, use First Impression even if they resist, and deal tons of damage. If they cause Emergency Exit to activate, choose appropriate UB, hit with SE move, snowball your way to victory. In fact the worst thing that happens to this team is when Golisopod picks up the kill because then Beast Boost is wasted. (And with that bulk, it's surprisingly difficult for the opponent to force a switch, especially if they have no SE moves.)

Focus sash and lum berry are there mainly for insurance. Lum Berry in particular because Gengar-1 was a real pain in my ass, and the sash has turned around a couple of matches that I might've lost otherwise.

zarator I do like your idea of Togekiss with Nihilego/Kartana. I may try that next if I lose this streak.

 

[Marowak2000]

Hello guys^^ Did anybody have any success using Nihilego? I tried using the following set:

Timid - 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

It's a very fun set, and it quite often leads to explosive plays - if the opponent's lead is KOed, you are almost assured Nihilego will go for a clean sweep. But here's the problem: it's extremely hard to support. Nihilego's weird typing and stat spread leaves it with a wide range of Pokemon it needs to switch out of: Water-types, Ground-types, Steel-types, and Psychic-types (to a lesser extent), as well as anything (and I rly mean anything) with Earthquake.

I first tried to pair it with Slowbro and Tapu Bulu, but I ended up being destroyed by Magnezone (also, the weakness to Bug/Steel mons was a pain in the ass). So, I'd like to ask you: what would the best partners for Nihilego be? I noticed Kartana has a decent type sinergy, resisting Water, Steel, and Psychic types while Nihilego sponges Fire-type attacks (and Kartana seems much more offensively oriented than Ferrothorn). So, maybe, something like Nihilego + Kartana + Togekiss (a special sponge and Ground immunity which can slow Baton Pass to the main sweepers) could work? Do you have other (possibly better ideas)? I would really like to see Nihilego work well...

Iv not got as far as battle tree yet so can only go of last gen experience but hydregion covers almost all those weaknesses, modest with scarf is quite good and he synegises perfectly with aegislash who could be your third poke?
Actually ignore me because I haven't seen hydregion yet, guessing he's not available until bank! He is available!

 

[Zari]

While not *directly* related to battle tree itself, in powergaming/exploring my way through sun I've found a reliable strat of farming BP for buying the necessary battle tree items via playing battle royal. Said strategy literally requires only 1-2 mons -- Reuniclus and either Toxipex or Aegislash -- the former of which which you can get as Duosion via Island Scan on 3rd Island (Tuesdays only, appears on route 16). Mareanie (toxapex prevo) appears as an SOS-only mon in Corsola battles, and Honedge is another Island Scan pokemon (2nd island, Wednesdays only). Reuniclus is the main pokemon to go for (while aegi and 'pex are good in tandem with reuni, they aren't absolutely necessary for this strat to keep winning; they just make it more reliable).

Anyways, the set I've been using is the following:

Reuniclus ~ Magic Guard ~ Fightinium-Z
Relaxed, (ideally) 31/xx/31/31/31/00
20 hp / 252 def / 28 spa / 204 sdf / remaining 6 evs wherever
Psychic or Psyshock / Focus Blast / Shadow Ball / Trick Room

Basic strategy is to *always* TR turn 1 -- the AI will more often than not, count Reuniclus as a "non-threat pokemon" for some reason (at least until you get some KOs under your belt, by which point it's probably already too late for them lol). This means that like 90% of the time you will get TR up turn 1, and still be at 100% health. Because of this, we have the following relevant calcs to consider:

252+ Atk Tyranitar-Mega Crunch vs. 20 HP / 252+ Def Reuniclus: 156-186 (82.9 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gengar-Mega Shadow Ball vs. 20 HP / 204 SpD Reuniclus: 152-182 (80.8 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And in return:

28 SpA Reuniclus All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tyranitar-Mega in sandstorm: 204-244 (98.5 - 117.8%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
28 SpA Reuniclus Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gengar-Mega: 134-162 (99.2 - 120%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
28 SpA Reuniclus Psychic vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gengar-Mega: 134-158 (99.2 - 117%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

Yeah....for a mon the AI essentially doesn't prioritize at all, Reuniclus packs quite the punch. The best part is that All-Out Pummeling (fighting Z-move) has 100% accuracy, despite focus blast having only 70% (!). The choice between psychic and psyshock is really up in the air; the latter has a higher OHKO chance on mega-gengar, but does less to stuff like enemy toxapex, garchomp, and such. Either way works, however, (both are obtained via levelup) so really it boils down to personal preference. Note that because even mega gengar fails to OHKO with shadow ball on this Reuniclus setup (barring a crit), the AI with mega gengar will use protect turn 1 essentially always, so you can setup TR freely without care in that case, then proceed to just KO it with your respective psychic-type move on turn 2. Final moveslot is mainly filler, but shadow ball rounds out Reuniclus' coverage against opposing psychic types quite nicely. You'll want magic guard as your ability to stop scald burns from damaging you, which is the tipping factor it has over overcoat.

The other two team members don't matter all that much, but they *do* have to be something fairly tanky because of the self-KO clause being in effect in battle royals. Toxapex works nicely here (either merciless or regenerator is fine), as does defensive Aegislash. Both should be bred for 31/xx/31/xx/31/xx at minimum, though, with a defensive, -spe nature (I personally use sassy Aegislash with leftovers).


Just thought I'd share this with the community at large, because I've found it makes farming BP/BP items really easy. Cheers!

 

[LucarioMega]

Hello guys^^ Did anybody have any success using Nihilego? I tried using the following set:

Timid - 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Power Gem
- Sludge Wave
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

It's a very fun set, and it quite often leads to explosive plays - if the opponent's lead is KOed, you are almost assured Nihilego will go for a clean sweep. But here's the problem: it's extremely hard to support. Nihilego's weird typing and stat spread leaves it with a wide range of Pokemon it needs to switch out of: Water-types, Ground-types, Steel-types, and Psychic-types (to a lesser extent), as well as anything (and I rly mean anything) with Earthquake.

I first tried to pair it with Slowbro and Tapu Bulu, but I ended up being destroyed by Magnezone (also, the weakness to Bug/Steel mons was a pain in the ass). So, I'd like to ask you: what would the best partners for Nihilego be? I noticed Kartana has a decent type sinergy, resisting Water, Steel, and Psychic types while Nihilego sponges Fire-type attacks (and Kartana seems much more offensively oriented than Ferrothorn). So, maybe, something like Nihilego + Kartana + Togekiss (a special sponge and Ground immunity which can slow Baton Pass to the main sweepers) could work? Do you have other (possibly better ideas)? I would really like to see Nihilego work well...

Kartana is a great partner to Nihilego. Im using the same set (Dazzing Gleam for HP) with Jolly Kartana and is great. My other member is DD bulky Mega Salamance as lead, and they cover each other weaknesses pretty well but Togekiss looks good to because its the same role of Mega Salamance, a bulky Flying type. So far i have 120 wins with that team (I used Mega Gengar-Toxa-Chansey team for like 20 wins but is the same)

Iv not got as far as battle tree yet so can only go of last gen experience but hydregion covers almost all those weaknesses, modest with scarf is quite good and he synegises perfectly with aegislash who could be your third poke?
Actually ignore me because I haven't seen hydregion yet, guessing he's not available until bank!

By the way, you can find Denio with Island Scan on Tuesday in Melemele .

 

[WHOOARGH]

I'd suggest a Tapu Fini. That thing is amazingpants in Battle Tree.

I adopted HeadsILoseTailsYouWin's Tapu Fini to my own Timid Fini as a specs set, and it worked great, even with average (Decent rating) special attack and defense IVs.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
-Moonblast
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot


This Pokemon can do so much for your team if you're running Dragon/Steel. It absorbs and scouts status, ice, dragon, and fire, can take neutral hits fairly well, and hits back quite hard.

Garchomp should work well with Fini since it can absorb any electric type attacks for it, while Fini eats ice and dragon all day (doesn't even risk an unlucky freeze!).
Scizor eats any poison aimed at Fini. I pp stalled Blizzards and Hydro Pumps at least twice on my way to 50 just swapping Fini and Aegislash.

Tapu Fini is such a great switch in to scout sets as a result. And it'll either KO things or bait an attack that you can swap another Pokemon into and start boosting.

The status immunity is fantastic for setting up Scizor and Garchomp Sword Dances too. The AI doesn't seem to recognize Misty Terrain sometimes. It'll drop Swaggers on you and raise your attack for you, for example, or keep trying to hit will-o-wisp and confuse ray. Yeah. Never have to worry about status conditions again.

Since you're using Garchomp though, you'll have to watch out and remember that Dragon type moves have 50% power on Misty Terrain. Not an issue when using Dragonite and Salamence since they're off the ground (They don't get the status immunity though!)I'm a dummy :c

Been tracking this thread for awhile looking for a good team to farm bp. I haven't actually heavily invested in a team yet so all the IVs and EVs are all over the place but this is what I'm aiming for. I got to 50 streak pretty easily before being taken out and once this team is fully set up with proper IVs and EVs I think it can break 100 easily too.

Team in question:

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Outrage
-Extremespeed
-Earthquake
-Dragon Dance

The standard dragonite, still puts of work. Not much to say about the actual set, multiscale and lum berry almost guarantees your first dd, and when he gets the dd in there he can one shot most things with outrage. With a good roll sometimes you won't need to go past +1 outrage for an entire team. Main problems I had were few but will completely stop him. There's a protean greninja that one shots dragonite with blizzard that showed up around 40 streak or so. I'm pretty sure he's got scarf or some kind of choice item too. I ran into a lead garchomp twice which was scarfed with outrage that also gives this set lots of problems because scarfed chomp outspeeds this dragonite even after 1 dd. This garchomp is really common when you run into Wally and I was very surprised to see it on some random trainer also. There's also an annoying whimsicott that sets up with sub and hard to stop with this loadout but if you can work out a boost or two you can extremespeed if you really have to. Would definitely switch out instead.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Moonblast
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot

Picked this up after reading the thread. Did a lot of work. I really wanted to swap out the choice specs for maybe a Z move or life orb but she really doesn't have the same impact and lasting power if you run those. Even with no defense investment this thing took quite a beating and did good damage along with being a safe swap like Lystomato laid out. Not much to say besides that this thing really does complement dragons and steel core. Being locked into choice specs screwed me a few times though.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Zen Headbutt
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Earthquake

This was originally a mega-scizor but after messing around a bit megagross fit this particular team way better since base metagross is way bulkier and easier to swap in than scizor. Clear body allows you to swap into some weird gimmicky stat reducing things. Not much else to say he just goes mega and hits hard.

Other things I tried were mega salamence, clefable and aegislash. Mega salamence lead was pretty good but dragonite is more reliable to setup with and gave me access to another mega evo option. Clefable was honestly great also and saved me a few times but I wanted a faster paced team to rush past battles. I swapped her out for tapu fini and she has way more synergy with that team. Aegislash was also insanely good but I ran into some annoying matchups with protect which is pretty common in the battle tree and annoyed me a lot. Currently like dragonite/fini/metagross a lot and going to start building it seriously.

 

[GG Unit]

It definitely seems better to use an UB in the back as a revenge killer.

An Earthquake weakness is a major pain to work around though; in all likelihood it's the most common move you'll find (I'm seeing 140 users of it on the Tree spreadsheet compared to 100 Protect users) so its users will have every sort of coverage imaginable, and on top of that I'd guess everything that gets Sturdy has at least some Ground move. Ideally you want something that can punish a free switch-in by setting up, because otherwise even if you switch in Hydreigon and take out the first Pokemon, you're in the same place you'd have been if you just led with it (and likely worse because you can get locked into a bad move).

Anyway, thinking about covering those weaknesses almost has me wondering why nobody's tried Shedinja on a previous generation's team (obviously would have to wait until Bank now). It could be a great PP staller - imagine having it as the lead and using Protect + Spite to get rid of an opponent's Stone Edge PP to make it easy for a teammate to set up, while still having the ability to come back in and completely wall something else. I doubt the AI would be smart enough to try setting up against it if it has a super-effective attack it could use.

 

[iVolke]

Been tracking this thread for awhile looking for a good team to farm bp. I haven't actually heavily invested in a team yet so all the IVs and EVs are all over the place but this is what I'm aiming for. I got to 50 streak pretty easily before being taken out and once this team is fully set up with proper IVs and EVs I think it can break 100 easily too.

Team in question:

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
-Outrage
-Extremespeed
-Earthquake
-Dragon Dance

The standard dragonite, still puts of work. Not much to say about the actual set, multiscale and lum berry almost guarantees your first dd, and when he gets the dd in there he can one shot most things with outrage. With a good roll sometimes you won't need to go past +1 outrage for an entire team. Main problems I had were few but will completely stop him. There's a protean greninja that one shots dragonite with blizzard that showed up around 40 streak or so. I'm pretty sure he's got scarf or some kind of choice item too. I ran into a lead garchomp twice which was scarfed with outrage that also gives this set lots of problems because scarfed chomp outspeeds this dragonite even after 1 dd. This garchomp is really common when you run into Wally and I was very surprised to see it on some random trainer also. There's also an annoying whimsicott that sets up with sub and hard to stop with this loadout but if you can work out a boost or two you can extremespeed if you really have to. Would definitely switch out instead.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Moonblast
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Grass Knot

Picked this up after reading the thread. Did a lot of work. I really wanted to swap out the choice specs for maybe a Z move or life orb but she really doesn't have the same impact and lasting power if you run those. Even with no defense investment this thing took quite a beating and did good damage along with being a safe swap like Lystomato laid out. Not much to say besides that this thing really does complement dragons and steel core. Being locked into choice specs screwed me a few times though.

Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
-Zen Headbutt
-Meteor Mash
-Bullet Punch
-Earthquake

This was originally a mega-scizor but after messing around a bit megagross fit this particular team way better since base metagross is way bulkier and easier to swap in than scizor. Clear body allows you to swap into some weird gimmicky stat reducing things. Not much else to say he just goes mega and hits hard.

Other things I tried were mega salamence, clefable and aegislash. Mega salamence lead was pretty good but dragonite is more reliable to setup with and gave me access to another mega evo option. Clefable was honestly great also and saved me a few times but I wanted a faster paced team to rush past battles. I swapped her out for tapu fini and she has way more synergy with that team. Aegislash was also insanely good but I ran into some annoying matchups with protect which is pretty common in the battle tree and annoyed me a lot. Currently like dragonite/fini/metagross a lot and going to start building it seriously.

Except Extremespeed is not legal until Pokemon Bank.

 

[WHOOARGH]

Except Extremespeed is not legal until Pokemon Bank.

Huh good catch. I've been getting most of my things by trading legends through GTS. I was already sad I couldn't get the elemental punches but that sucks too. Any suggestions for the last move?

 

[MKL122788]

On a completely random side note:

Got my first Pheromosa that I wanted for Battle Tree purposes:

Modest 31/31/31/16/24/31 HP Ground.

Special Sweeper Pheromosa with hidden power ground is one I really wanted to test. Of course, now I have to get it to 100.

Anyone have any ideas of what other kinds of Pheromosa I should get? I already have a naive one from trade and now this modest one. I get to get 3 more.

 

[iVolke]

Huh good catch. I've been getting most of my things by trading legends through GTS. I was already sad I couldn't get the elemental punches but that sucks too. Any suggestions for the last move?

I like Roost. Gives you a chance to get Multiscale back. Fire Punch is another option. You can get Fire/Thunder Punch as a relearn move.

 

[Zari]

Huh good catch. I've been getting most of my things by trading legends through GTS. I was already sad I couldn't get the elemental punches but that sucks too. Any suggestions for the last move?

I like Roost. Gives you a chance to get Multiscale back. Fire Punch is another option. You can get Fire/Thunder Punch as a relearn move.

Roost is good, but for 2-attack dragonite waterfall provides the most neutral coverage in tandem with outrage; eq + outrage is completely walled by togekiss, and heatran gives fire punch + outrage some trouble, so waterfall is a nice compromise between the two. Waterfall also pairs nicely with dragon dance because of the flinch chance, too. If you end up running 3 attacks, though, I would definitely recommend running both earthquake and fire punch for maximum coverage.

 

[WHOOARGH]

I'm not a huge fan of roost esp in battle tree but I was not aware fire punch was just a relearn move. Definitely picking that up since I do have a lot of trouble with steels.

 

[Coeur7]

EXCISED

 

[iVolke]

reporting on a thrown-together team which has at least reached 20 victories, involving two gts acquisitions, as i haven't had the opportunity to get something good running but definitely want that destiny knot (a team of pickup meowths has failed me) and test the waters. (test results: there are a lot of waters.)

(lineup: kartana, salazzle, garchomp)

kartana@botanium z
evs: none yet
ivs: 31 atk / def / sdef; everything else 20+
hasty nature +spd -def
beast boost
germany
- leaf blade
- x scissor
- brick break [now sacred sword]
- smart strike

in fact, this one's my own; i really should have reset for optimal natures on the ultra beasts, impatience got the better of me (i wisened up for the tapus). it supports the team very well by virtue of the wonderful typing. if this had u-turn it would be perfect (pheromosa would make this team 100% weak to bulky waters such as energy ball jellicent)

it probably learns a better steel stab (...right?), but screw you double team/brightpowder nonsense, and i was giddy enough not to take the detour to the move tutor before attempting the tree

z-move + fast ultra beast is a very good combo in general for rather obvious reasons (z items mimic choice items, but without the drawback, when used with beast boost). i imagine that nihilego and pheromosa will also wreck the battle tree on the right teams (xurki might be too slow). competitive talk seems to be all about pheromosa and perhaps for good reason, but kartana has grown on me, mostly because this team is in desperate need of not "support" but rather a lacedaimonian answer against waters ("if"). also unlike pheromosa, this one has a 50/50 chance of actually pulling through if it's your last mon against something with near-full health, depending on what side of the physical/special spectrum your enemy will hit. only the lack of u-turn disappoints me

salazzle@life orb
evs: 6 hp / 252 satk / 252 spd
ivs: flawless with 0 atk
timid nature +spd -atk
corrosion
spain
- nasty plot
- sludge wave
- fire blast
- dragon pulse

this thing is probably as legitimate as the 2004/05 juventus serie a performance but holy moly, does +2 orb salazzle not take names (sludge wave is an ohko on e.g. lapras) and it surprisingly takes a hit (that is, exactly one); also this has a really cool x0.25 bug resist and appreciates the lures of ice and fire from its teammates. i do enjoy kinklizard much more than previously expected, this thing hits harder than starmie and outspeeds it too

still loses to waters (if unboosted... it outspeeds and ohkos them most likely otherwise), random quakes, rock stabs, which the rest of this team can mostly handle (no ground resist, though). sometimes wishes that it could learn dark pulse rather than dragon pulse, since i cannot hit a few ghosts super-effectively, but hitting dragons can help out chomp anyway.

fire blast because i like to live dangerously

garchomp@focus sash
evs: all over the place
ivs: pretty good, but no 31 atk
jolly nature +spd -satk
sand veil (sadly)
japan
- swords dance
- outrage
- earthquake
- aerial ace

you know this one, and the malice of its tenderness (or vice versa). fairies hinder your outrage but dclaw is strictly worse in my book because it misses unboosted ohkos.

ace has helped in a few situations but i'm mostly running it because i can't think of a replacement move

----

this is how this team and i have performed so far:

1) carbink, komala, tsareena: carbink is 4x weak to steel, komala surprises with held berry (weakens fighting) and flails back for 2-2; salazzle cleans up
2) houndoom, liepard, absol: houndoom outspeeds and kills untrained kartana but loses to garchomp even after burning it; liepard does nothing; absol tries dt but gets 2hkod by outrage. this battle demonstrates why ev training is necessary though, making the difference between 2-3 and 3-2
3) gigalith, bewear, wishiwashi: telegraphs itself as sand stream gigalith, on which the kusanagi *performs* (z-move); bewear gets ohko'd by +1 brick break (wonder if it had fluffy?); wishiwashi gets ohko'd by +2 leaf blade. reminder that this was with 0 atk evs
4) ludicolo, flareon, lycanroc-sun: x-scissor only 2hkos, but ludicolo used rain dance? z-move on flareon; it holds on with sash and ohkos. flareon can't hurt chomp, though. chomp outspeeds lycanroc-s for me, which has 112 base (imperfect ivs? evs? nature?) and ohkos with +4 eq
5) dugtrio, toxapex, togedemaru: duggy used sand storm okay, tangled hair proves annoying, but kartana still sweeps the surprisingly incompetent opposition. saw z toxic spikes from toxapex
6) toxapex, mawile, togedemaru: unfortunately, 0 atk evs means that z leaf blade misses the ohko on toxapex, which burns with scald to render kartana mostly harmless (still enough to drag mawile down to 20%). mawile unwisely taunts salazzle after i have already used nasty plot. why is everyone using that damn pikamouse
7) greninja, houndoom, sawk: leaf blade ohko, switch to salazzle based on prior experience; sadly sucker punch wrecks me so it's back to chomp which hard-counters that thing except for eating the wisp burn. in this case, wisp misses twice anyway so chomp goes through; sawk turns out to outspeed my badly-ev'd chomp, but misplays revenge (good grief)
8) rhyperior, tentacruel, gyarados: rhyperior uses protect, but i used z leaf blade. feels like a pocket pair. kartana ohkos gyara at +2 with non-critical leaf blade
9) mimikyu, bewear, vanilluxe: fortunately this mimikyu proves to find no answer to smart strike, manages to land the t-wave though. bewear doesn't outspeed in any case (perhaps due to new para speed debuff rules?) and gets ohko'd; ice cream wrecks with ice beam but fails to dazzle the salazzle
10) ludicolo, gastrodon, carracosta: 3-0
11) ferrothorn, zoroark, breloom: switch to salazzle, it uses t-wave (argh) but then eats the fire blast without objecting? nasty plot zoroark comes in, fire blast misses (dammit) but chomp gets zoro, and breloom just doesn't threaten this team
12) dugtrio, machamp, lycanroc-s: note that kartana takes physical hits quite well for what you'd expect from a paper sword; this battle goes exactly as you'd expect btw
13) metagross, flareon, [gen 6 ice platform]: 30 hp dmg from metagross' meteor mash. this is with a -def nature and no evs invested. kartana owns those resisted physical hits. flareon utterly wrecks it, but like almost all fire mons, flareon is also chomp setup fodder of the finest vintage; ice thing barely survives +4 outrage (what?!) but lazzle just snipes that one in turn
14) medicham, bewear, gastrodon: i dare not underestimate medicham so z-move it is. this thing flings a shadow ball (lol) but barely breaks 60%. bewear barely survives brick break and wrecks with force palm (i think); chomp in, aer-ace ko, outrage 2hko on gastro
15) gothitelle, tyranitar, toxapex: it uses fake tears, because kartana's 50 sdef (not base, this is the actual lv50 stat with a 31 iv, i believe) commands such respect. ohkoing tyranitar never felt so satisfactory. +2 leaf blade from 0 atk ev kartana misses the ohko on toxapex only barely, sheer insanity
16) haxorus, salazzle, [gen 6 squid]: i know next to nothing about most gen5/gen6 mons right now, including their english names, so do forgive my idiosyncrasy. haxorus doesn't seem to have anything of note in this situation (he switches to salazzle after taking a smart strike in return to taunt). lazzle is just another fire mon waiting to get set up on by chomp, its toxic means nothing because the battle lasts 3 turns from that point onward
17) magmortar, haxorus, pidgeot: switch to chomp because kartana surely can't do anything but deal 70% and die here; sd, confuse ray. i switch on his will-o-wisp rather than risk losing chomp to confusion; i attempt sludge wave (psychic risk, so no nasty plot) but it quick claw-confuse rays salazzle (thanks game freak). luckily, lazzle pulls through with the 2hko and dpulse weakens haxorus (it kills with eq in return, though). chomp eq on haxorus, outrage 2hko (!) on pidgeot, that's it. 2-0
18) beartic, crabominable, froslass: steel move for ohko x3 (froslass spends its outspeed on hail, haha)
19) crabominable, glaceon, rotom-fridge: qc blizzard from my favorite eeveelution ends kartana's sweep (coup de glace honhonhon) but lazzle hits 2/3 times which proves sufficient. a curious accumulation of these mono-ice teams
20) BATTLE LEGEND: trainer red! the music changes to a harmonica-flavoured variation on the rby champion theme, by the way. charizard, lapras, venusaur: switch to chomp to take fire fang (<10% dmg). chomp takes two dclaws before lapras ohkos with ice shard; i decide to spend z leaf blade on lapras and x-scissor venusaur; it only uses ingrain and synthesis because annoyingly, 0 atk ev xscissor does 48% to it; i'm guessing this is some leech seed set. 2-0 and 20 gp (!), also unlocks "super single battles" for me. revisiting the tree has red give me all the kanto starter mega stones

----

it seems that a lot of mons get picked multiple times for whatever reason (toxapex and bewear showed up thrice, and a lot of things came up twice), and i'm quite sure that the computer "builds" either weather teams or mono teams (#18, #19; battle #10 looks suspiciously like a rain team)

last note: i love that you can set the battle music in-game (i use e4 music), and the tree theme being a play on the old emerald frontier theme makes me rather fond of the developers too, this place probably even deserves it in terms of the fun offered

edit: so my first streak has ended at the 10th battle in super singles, but i'm curious to see how a better chomp (i have a gible lying around) and kartana will fare. team has no way to hit ghosts and dislikes getting outsped

1) rotom-mower, dhelmise, lopunny: xscissor 55%, reflect; then my z-leaf blade ... does almost nothing, volt switch to dhelmise. i'm getting outplayed! switch to lazzle, take dark claw, fire blast ohko; lopunny takes 90% from fblast before koing salazzle. lope then outspeeds lol, i really need to get those evs up i guess. chomp being healthy results in victory
2) minior, lucario, golurk: minior is not aegislash, and only sets up reflect. luke takes 90% from sacred sword (and note that i outsped it without speed evs), aura sphere kills though. chomp cleans up
3) palossand, dugtrio, ferrothorn: z-leaf blade ohko; dugtrio only sets up sandstorm? +2 sacred sword with some atk will ohko ferrothorn as well; but the 2hko i get doesn't matter because thorn only t-waves, and it's too late at that point
4) jellicent, [ice platform], gothitelle: always z-leaf blade on bulky water leads with this team. +1 smart strike isn't quite a 2hko on ice platform for me; avalanche 2hkos back. it can't hurt salazzle, though (or so it seems); gothitelle loses to +2 sludge wave
5) drifblim, beartic, banette: drifblim is a bit of a problem, i cannot hit it super-effectively at all with this team... and it's the salac/stockpile baton passer. fortunately the boost just goes to beartic, which doesn't even outspeed at +1 lol. crit ohko from +1 leaf blade on banette decides the matter
6) komala, porygon-z, dhelmise: didn't expect that berry weakening my sacred sword; also chomp gets outsped by pory-z (scarfed or just bad evs?). +2 aerial ace misses the ohko on dhelmise (again, bad evs...) for a somewhat narrow victory all things considered
7) zoroark, drapion, sableye: kartana gets fast-taunted by "sableye" but doesn't exactly care. oh look, it's focus sash zoroark! drapion cuts me up with its impressive physical bulk, but now chomp carries the game.
8) hariyama, salazzle, pidgeot: z leaf blade ohko (its fake out doesn't matter here). i decide to sac against salazzle to ensure fresh chomp; enemy lazzle nasty plots unwisely, eq and i'm not losing against pidgeot
9) staraptor, nidoking, [ice platform] : staraptor u-turns to nidoking, smart strike does 60% and kos the next turn. thanks i guess? it also has a sash and endeavor. i really need to look up ice platform's name btw
10) plumeria! oh god it's mega gengar, which just blasts kartana with shadow ball. chomp revenges with eq, but enemy salazzle's dpulse wrecks it... own lazzle pushes through but needs a good matchup; now i'm crossing my fingers... no, she has crobat for last, outspeeds and kills. not sure how to play this differently, in fact, since mega-gar just 2hkos chomp so switching was not an option

----

thinking about it, the real weakness of the team is that none of the three members wants to lead, there's no "life orb starmie" that just hits everything to set up the situation where the others sweep, maybe i should test tapu fini over salazzle

I'm running the Scarf Modest Fini set posted earlier to try it out alongside Dragonite and Aegislash. The status block is really useful, but the power can be underwhelming, sometimes even when you hit for super effective damage.

I'm not a huge fan of roost esp in battle tree but I was not aware fire punch was just a relearn move. Definitely picking that up since I do have a lot of trouble with steels.

I've used it to set up to +6 against opponents you normally can't, but you do sometimes miss the 3rd attack.

 

[UnhandledException]

First attempt at Super Singles. Misplayed against a mega Latios and got swept by Mesprit ending my streak at 68 wins. I really like this team:

Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Timid Nature
Ability: Electric Surge
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Volt Switch
Thunderbolt
Dazzling Gleam
Grass Knot


Golisopod @ Assault Vest
Adamant Nature
Ability: Emergency Exit
252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spe
First Impression
Leech Life
Sucker Punch
Liquidation


Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Jolly Nature
Ability: Rough Skin
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Outrage
Dragon Claw

Tapu Koko is an amazing lead. I chose to lead with it over Golisopod because Golisopod can actually switch into things for Tapu Koko eg. Earthquuakes but Tapu Koko cannot switch into anything. Thunderbolt hits very hard, and in about half the games Koko finishes the match in 3-4 turns. Also Tapu Koko can take a non-crit Poison Jab from Crobat + Life Orb damage if it loses the speed tie which I risked in every game. There isnt much else to say, I prefer to Volt Switch out of bulkier water types esp. Wishwashi since they can hold Wacan Berry and OHKO back. Against Beedrill after like 30 matches it is better to switch out since Jolly mega Bee outspeeds and KOs. I like Grass Knot as a fourth move to beat Swampert and Mudsdale after weakening them with Golisopod and being able to at least do something to Steelix which are all big threats. The AI is smart enough to predict Thunderbolt or Voltswitch and will switch out if it has a good resist or immunity however it wont know that you have an electric move untill you reveal it, so first turn is always safe. Generally I like to keep Koko alive as long as I can so I dont lose to last mon Walrein or something. Lead Golisopod on the AI's side will never opt to go for First Impression since its resisted so its safe to stay in against it.
Zap Plate is usable if you dont want the recoil but then the last two moves become garbage and Koko cant take hits anyways. HP Ice is an option, imo i'd put it over Dazzling Gleam since killing Dnite and Chomp Mence etc in one turn is better than killing Grimsley's Scrafty.

Golisopod is interesting, I liked using it in the Battle Royal a lot but even in the tree its pretty good. It gives priority which is very important to stop setup sweepers and handles bulky grass types really well which can be troublesome to Koko and Garchomp if at low health. With Assault Vest Golisopod has very good bulk and can take a hit from most stuff without being forced to switch out(which is handy when you want to switch it in). Leech Life complements that bulk and allows to have a bug move to hit the new switch in. All in all I dont think I miss the power of choice band at all but the extra bulk on the special side is very useful.

Garchomp is standard really, it switches into poison attacks and Arcanine Flare Blitz since Koko cant kill it in one hit. Its also a nice check to Staraptor if i lose Koko and covers my misplays lol. I like having Dragon Claw because in a lot og situations the opponent has an unrevealed mon and I dont want to be locked in, but I dont like to give up the power of Outrage. A lot of the trainers on the other side of battle number 40 have a bunch of dragons so Dragon Claw is useful there if the last mon is unrevealed. Poison Jab is workable over Dragon Claw though as Shiinotic is actually a bit difficult to handle. I'll probably use Poison Jab when I go at it again though in a couple days.

I used a similar version of this team to beat the Singles Battles, but had a damp rock modest Pelipper and Thunder on Koko. That was pretty fun too but Pelipper is kind of garbage so I put Golisopod to get some bulk and an Ice resistance. Maybe Pelipper is usable with some speed and Tailwind idk.

 

[Shibayan]

The other is Bulky DD Roost Mega Salamance with Toxapex and Scarf Tapu Lele. The three of them have came clutch and getting the 3 kils in some wins, but Toxapex just destroys Red and some offense teams. And what Mega Salamance cant take, surely Tapu Lele can. In Psy Terrain just 2HKO everything, no matter resists.

I found a bulky mon like Toxapex or Chansey really necesary in 40+ streaks, because offense and legendaries are all over the place, so they can take things slow.

I got my 50 streak first go with this M-Salamence/Scarf Lele/Toxapex setup. And I completely agree about how good Toxapex is. M-Salamence punches holes through most things, but does not like going toe to toe with a lot of the ice/rock/fairy-based teams. That's when Toxapex comes in with outstalling any ice/rock-based counters as well as some fairies. It is seriously immortal. The only time I lost Toxapex was sheer cold shenanigans and when I misplayed against Red's Lapras-4 and ate a Psychic Z-Move to the face.

Scarf Lele was the most situational member - I really only used it for quick revenge kills and as a safe switch-in to fairies carrying Psychic that I don't want Toxapex to tank. Having said that, there were times where it's come in clutch with the terrain-boosted Psychic spam. It's just that I sometimes underestimated its special bulk and was surprised at how much damage it took from special sweepers. Not having it Hyper-Trained probably didn't help either.