[S/M] I Beat Blue in the Battle Tree!

[0kamii]

Hey, everybody! It's 0kamii, and I just finished giving our old rival a thorough thrashing!

I know in my last post I said I'd be back on Monday, but I was casually racking up BP in the Battle Tree and I just happen to make it to Blue. I figured there was no point in backing down and...lo and behold, I beat him. I know that's not saying much, considering hundreds of players have already achieved this feat, but I figured I may as well share mine as inspiration to other trainers. If you'd rather just watch the battle and be done with it, the code is below:
 

CXNW-WWWW-WWW7-PCJW

 

Thanks to my new SIM card, I shouldn't have to worry about any further corruption, so all my Battle Videos should be viewable in the future. Since you're more than capable of watching the battle, and since you already know I won, here's a brief list and analysis of the team I used to win 20 consecutive battles.

 

 

 

Not the most standard team, I know. But since when is good ol' 0kamii known for being standard? These four mons have a surprising amount of synergy, and seeing as how they swept through the Battle Tree Doubles Challenge with relatively little difficulty, I figured I'd show them off. Keep in mind that this is in no way the perfect Batte Tree team, just one that worked. That being said, let's get into the sets!

 

The Team

 

Beartic @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Icicle Crash
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower

 

Beartic was the inspiration for the team, and I'm glad to see that he didn't do terribly. I've always wanted to use a Beartic in something, and frankly I was worried that a Swift Swim Beartic was too gimmicky. I thought that he'd maybe last a battle or two, I hadn't the slightest idea he'd go all the way. Beartic's Attack stat getting boosted to 130 this gen really made a difference, and with maxed Attack plus a Life Orb in rain, little survived a hit from him. The idea with my shirokuma was to hit hard and fast, that way the opponent lost their pokémon before they even had a chance to move. Beartic has decent coverage too, and the boost Aqua Jet gets in rain really put it over the top. Obviously however, Beartic has some glaring weaknesses, and he couldn't take on the Batte Tree alone. With Swift Swim as his ability, there was only one logical partner.

 

Pelipper @ Focus Sash
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
- Protect
- Hurricane
- Scald
- Tailwind

 

Not much to say about Pelipper here. This is one half of the popular 'Double Duck' core that's been steadily growing in usage over the VGC 2017 metagame since its first big appearance at the London Internationals in December. The set is pretty basic, but it covers all of Beartic's weaknesses with an alarming amount of consistency. Fighting? Hurricane. Fire and Rock? Scald. Steel? Superpower's got to covered. Not only that, but Pelipper covers half of its own weaknesses with Scald, and Electric-Type is covered by the rest of the team. Set up Tailwind first turn and sweep. I didn't invent it, but hey, why reinvent the wheel? Now if only Beartic were legal in VGC 2017; I'm sure these two would shine!

 

Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk / 4 Sp. Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Thunder
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power - Ice
- Volt Switch

 

It's not uncommon for me to use places like the Battle Tree to test VGC sets before I post them over in the Competitive Discussion forums. As you might have noticed, this Jolteon set is the exact same one as showcased in my VGC analysis of Jolteon, link right here if you're interested: (http://pokemonforever.com/Thread-VGC-Jol...ith-0kamii). I know that it's not necessarily a good idea to test VGC sets at the Battle Tree when I should be testing them on Showdown, but if they don't work at the Battle Tree, they definitely won't work on Showdown...believe me. People are smarter than the AI. But anyway, thanks to the rain Jolteon can hit hard and hit fast. Thanks to Volt Absorb it can sponge Electric-Type attacks intended for Pelipper, and with Volt Switch it can swap right back out in case there's a rogue Ground-Type on the field that Hidden Power can't OHKO. Jolteon is so good on this team. No question. Also, Shadow Ball is like the only coverage move Jolteon gets...so...yeah. That's basically all I need to say about this little lightning fox. He's a star.

 

Metagross @ Assault Vest
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Meteor Mash
- Hammer Arm

 

Okay, I'm going to level with you all for a moment. I didn't actually use Metagross in my battle against Blue. Matter of fact, I rarely used Metagross at all during my win streak. He works well with the team thanks to the abundance of Ground-Type answers, as well as Fire-Types being weakened in the rain, but it was so common for my opponents to get obliterated by Beartic, Pelipper, and Jolteon, that I rarely ever found a reason to send out Metagross. He appeared once in a while, to great effect too, but it was just so infrequently that I can't really evaluate his performance all that well. This set specifically isn't of my own creation, it was suggested to me on the Pokémon Showdown Calculator: (https://pokemonshowdown.com/damagecalc/). It just worked because my team already had so much offensive presence that I needed someone with a bit of bulk. Metagross is a great pokémon, I know it is. We all do. But in this case, who'd have known it was going to get outshined by a Beartic?

 

 

Well, there you have it. With these four [three, really] mons, I challenged the Battle Tree, fought my way to Blue, and ultimately surpassed him. I had a lot of fun designing this team, and frankly I'm still shocked by how well they did. Now I can take on the Super Doubles Challenge, and when I battle to 49 wins and challenge Blue again, I'll be sure to make another post about it. Will I have a different team? Probably, but we'll just have to find out. Thanks for reading everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow with a different kind of post that I think you'll all love. Battle onwards, friends!

- 0kamii

P.S. Amethyst 0mega unfortunately just had a member quit, so if you're interested in joining the breeder's guild, PM me and we'll see if you have what it takes to wear the sigil. Good luck to all the applicants!