• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Battle frontier team

Ok, so recently i've gone back to playing Pokémon Emerald, and have decided to make a team for the battle frontier, the only limitations that I have are that I can only access Pokémon that I can catch in the game, and I don't have the Shadow Ball TM (though that isn't really much of a factor tbh)

Weezing;110;
EV's: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Sp.D
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Sassy
Item: Macho Brace
Moves:
- Memento
- Will-O-Wisp
- Sludge Bomb
- Taunt

- Weezing's role in this team is to cripple the opposing team's lead Pokémon, in turn allowing ninjask to easily set up, pass speed boosts and a sub onto smeargle, and sweep from there.

- Memento is the main move here as it drops each of the opponents attack stats by 2 stages, this means smearlge gets a free sub from Ninjask as not many Pokémon will be breaking through those after the stat drops.
- Taunt is there primarily to stop Roar users, but is also useful in stopping any statuses.
- Will-O-Wisp is useful to add further attack drops on physical attackers, particularly against any users of Rock type attacks.
- Sludge Bomb works as a filler, only really useful if the opponent uses Taunt.

- The speed lowering nature + Macho Brace are there so it always uses Memento after the opponent attacks (apart from Shuckle, but then again, it is Shuckle), this means Ninjask gets a free switch in which to Protect and set up a sub.
- The heavy investment in Special Defense means that it can take the vast majority of hits from the special side as well as the physical side before using Memento. In fact a quick damage calculation shows that a psychic from a modest, 252 Sp.Atk EV, Alakazam, (or 405 Sp.Atk stat + stab) will do 89.8% - 106%. So even then there is not a 100% chance of a KO.


Ninjask;291;
EV's: 252 HP, 240 Atk, 16 Spe
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Jolly
Item: Sitrus Berry
Moves:
- Protect/Other Move
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Silver Wind

- Ninjask's role here is to pass at least 1 speed boost to Smeargle, and with the previous set up from Weezing, should mean at least one Substitute as well.

- Ok Protect on the first turn guarantees at least one speed boost with which to work with and Baton Pass to Smeargle.
- Substitute could also be used on the first turn just in case of the unlikely event that the opponent switches, but is mainly for use on the second turn. Though that does potentially raise the question: would it be better to start with Protect or Substitute (Smeargle only needs one speed boost after all), and if Substitute, what move would be best to replace Protect?
- Baton Pass is obvious.
- Silver Wind is more of a filler than anything, but can take out the occasional Pokémon, Alakazam if it defeats Weezing is the only one i can think of of note.

- You may be thinking, why only 16 Speed EV's? This is due to (with a 31 speed IV and a speed increasing nature) Ninjask's speed stat being 396 with this amount on EV's, and the highest speed stat found in the battle frontier is 394. Any more EV investment would be wasted.

Smeargle;235;
EV's: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Spe
Ability: Own Tempo
Nature: Jolly
Item: Leftovers
Moves:
- Spore
- Lock-On
- Sheer Cold
- Nightmare/Leech Seed

- Smeargle is where the fun starts.

- Spore is the first move, as the only 100% accurate sleep move in the game it's use is obvious.
- Once the foe is incapacitated by Spore, Lock-On is the next move, only there to make the next move, Sheer Cold, 100% accurate.
- The Third move in this arsenal is of course Sheer Cold, getting a OHKO on anything without Sturdy.
- The final move is in context with those Pokémon that have the ability Sturdy. Nightmare couples well with Spore to take out a foe in four turns, Leech Seed is a slower alternative but does add extra healing to the health gain by Leftovers, this can lower the chance of being KO'd if the opponent wakes up.

- 252 EV investment in speed to take full advantage of a speed boost of ninjask if only one can be passed.
- The other EV's in HP and Def is so it can survive more hits.


Another Point:
- Smearlge could potentially only need 12 EV's in speed if it could receive 2 speed boosts from Ninjask, which would always be the case if Ninjask has Protect.
The case being that if Smeargle had only 12 EV's in speed, then a lot more investment could go into buffing it's defense stat to protect against Sturdy Users (the pokemon being physical attackers barring Magneton).
However this could potentailly mean that if the opponent switches while Ninjask uses Protect, then passing a Substitute to Smeargle and it's potential survivability could be much harder.
So which option would be better, protect (+2 boosts) or no protect (+1 boost)?


Ok so that's my team, please leave any comments/constructive criticism below :)
 

Aura Sensei™

User Title
I strongly suggest you change Smeargle with a Sweeper,because otherwise this team relies on Smeargle.

Try this:

Ninjask Jolly Nature
~Agility
~Protect
~Swords Dance
~Baton Pass

It's goal is to set up then Baton Pass it to your sweeper.Here are two choices for sweepers:

Salamence @Lum Berry
Adamant Nature
~Dragon Dance
~Earthquake
~Aerial Ace
~Rock Slide/Substitute

Simple,I shouldn't need to explain.

Alakazam @Leftovers
Timid Nature
~Psychic
~Ice Punch/Fire Punch
~Thunderpunch
~Calm Mind

Again a simple set.
 
I can see your point here and it is a valid one, however the sets you have suggested also end up on relying on one Pokémon, whether that be Salamence or Alakazam (though i can't get Alakazam as i can't trade, but then again it is only an example), now while either of these could work work with the team as they are both reliable sweepers, they also require more turns to set up, this means more potential for damage to be taken, now while this shouldn't matter for the most part, i've found in long plays of places like the battle tower in 4th gen eventually there'll be that lucky crit that KO's you at the wrong moment, or when you're setting up in this case. I've chosen Smeargle because of it's reliability in this factor, and because of it's ability to function as a sweeper with the given set +1 or 2 speed boosts. Your sets would be more in place if there were some clauses, like in the standard metagame were present.
 
Last edited:

Aura Sensei™

User Title
Well you don't need to set up if you run that Ninjask set and pull it off.Just hope I helped some :)
 
aha you did, i'm still yet to do a test run with the team and Ninjask can be cloned for different sets, to allow the potential use of other pokémon as the sweeper, that way i can see how successful i am using different pokémon, so with Salamence, Alakazam, etc. So your thoughts on the team have not gone without second thought :)
 

CMD Calcio

L'Amore per Sempre
The sets and strategy look just fine. But what do you go against powerful special attackers? Weezing can barely take special hits even with max SDef EVs.
 
ah that's what i was talking about in my post when i did some damage calculations. What i was showing is that even off the highest special attack stat found on an opposing pokemon, base 135 on Alakazam, an attack with a base power of 225 (or psychic when factoring in stab and super-effective damage) won't KO it, or at least for the most part.

- The heavy investment in Special Defense means that it can take the vast majority of hits from the special side as well as the physical side before using Memento. In fact a quick damage calculation shows that a psychic from a modest, 252 Sp.Atk EV, Alakazam, (or 405 Sp.Atk stat + stab) will do 89.8% - 106%. So even then there is not a 100% chance of a KO.

I have also worked out that a special attack stat (+psychic stab) of 382 at least is required to take it out, and only Alakazam has a large enough chance to KO for it to be come a problem.

The other Pokémon that fit the criteria are: Espeon (86.8% - 103%), Exeggutor(85% - 100.6%) and Gardevoir (85% - 100.6%)
 

Emeraldfan

Well-Known Member
Have you actually tried this team? To me it seems that you wouldn't reach it any bit high, but that being said, I might just be wrong. It's just that I think that this strategy doesn't exactly work. Or at least, it takes a whole lot of time really.
And what will you do if you encounter an Alakazam or those other three? Memento immediately? To me that seems the best choice. But is that enough to allow Ninjask to set up? Ninjask is fast, that's true, but he's really frail as well. So yeah..
 
no i haven't yet, I wanted to see if there were any flaws with the team build and it's strategy before going ahead and creating it, unfortunately that means that the strategy may not work when i come to test it, however in theory it has quite a lot of potential to work.

And yes, memento immediately for those attackers, the other moves i've chosen for Weezing are for other purposes, like crippling physical attackers with will-o-wisp, stopping roarers with taunt, but yeah the move choice is dependant on the pokémon.
Also you have brought up an important point that i have overlooked, and that is that Alakazam still does enough damage to break Ninjasks subs and so will many others from the looks of it, though not too much of a crucial factor, it does warrant a look at some other pokémon, and the only one of note is Gorebyss (or huntail since it has the same defences), so how about this set:

Gorebyss
EV's: 252 HP, 4 Def, 252 Sp.D
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Calm
Item: Sitrus Berry
Moves:
- Agility
- Substitute
- Amnesia
- Baton Pass

- Ok so agility is obvious
- Substitute for passing
- Amnesia to protect against oncoming super effective hits from electric and grass types
- Baton pass is again obvious

It's unfortunate that im so restricted for options in terms of using a baton pass user in the capacity that i require as there are better options, though Gorebyss could potentially be better than Ninjask considering it's higher defenses.
 

Aura Sensei™

User Title
That should work pretty good,but with Ninjask's Speed Boost itcan passs alot of speed to the sweeper if you also run Agility.
 
true true, but i only need so many boosts to outspeed everything, 1 agility with gorebyss, or 2 Speed Boosts off ninjask, agility on Ninjask would be unnecessary, and could be replaced with a better move. It however could be useful if i decided to use a particularly slow sweeper.
 
Last edited:
Top