I Can Haz 500? [Subway Singles]

[[GS]]

After a decent run in doubles I'm going back to singles. After getting knocked out at 462 I felt it was time to aim higher. The goal is 500+. Most of the team remains the same, bringing back the awesome core of Shuckle and Gastrodon, with some new sauce. Any advice is appreciated.*

Changes in bold

Shuckle @ Chesto Berry
Bold Nature
252 HP/252 Def/6 SpD
• Sturdy •
» Rest
» Gastro Acid
» Power Split
» Struggle Bug

Power Split is what makes this guy threatening. It takes the base attacking stats of both Shuckle and his opponent and divides them evenly, essentially a -2 to both stats. Since it's affecting the base stats of the Pokemon, crits also do significantly less damage. Gastro Acid is for things with Clear Body and Keen Eye etc. allowing Gastrodon to Flash. Struggle Bug lowers SpA even further, which is why he has max Def, and ChestoRest is obvs.*

Gastrodon @ Rindo Berry?
Calm Nature
252 HP/196 Def/60 SpD
• Storm Drain •
» Flash
» Recover
» Memento
» Rock Tomb

Nothing has really changed here, except the Ability. Trick users were never problematic enough to warrant using Sticky Hold, so a free switch-in to water attacks will be quite useful. Flash keeps the attacks away and Memento gives the opponent a further -2 to both attacking stats. Rock Tomb is to make sure my sweeper is faster than the opponent, should they try to hit him with a status move. Recover is obvs. The EV's are for the best overall defensive potential.*

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
252 HP/252 SpA/6 Spe
• Levitate •
» Substitute
» Calm Mind
» Iron Defense
» Flash Cannon

An old friend has returned. I've used this 'Zong many times before and it still gets the job done. Calm Mind and Iron Defense make him virtually invincible, and behind a Sub he can heal off any damage he took setting up. Flash Cannon is STAB, and nothing is immune to it, making it perfect for a mono-attacker. EV's are obvs, but the remainder was thrown in Spe so I can outspeed other 'Zong in the Subway.*

 

[Jinglefruit]

-Highfives- multiplied by 100.

I'd be a little scared of only having 3 damaging moves on my team, but I don't often use stall teams, and it's definitely worked for you.

Any reason you don't use Toxic - or Will-o-wisp for the added attack drop? Or Sandstorm for added damage, seeing as that won't harm any of your pokemon, and has the bonus of a Sp.D boost the Shuckle. Though I wouldn't know what to replace, every move has a purpose.

 

[[GS]]

-Highfives- multiplied by 100.

I'd be a little scared of only having 3 damaging moves on my team, but I don't often use stall teams, and it's definitely worked for you.

Any reason you don't use Toxic - or Will-o-wisp for the added attack drop? Or Sandstorm for added damage, seeing as that won't harm any of your pokemon, and has the bonus of a Sp.D boost the Shuckle. Though I wouldn't know what to replace, every move has a purpose.

Toxic, W-O-W and Sandstorm would end up KO-ing the opponent long before I get the chance to set up Bronzong. If I was running something with SD or Nasty Plot it'd be a little more viable, but since it takes a minimum of 10 turns for 'Zong alone to set up, it's just not possible. 30 minute rounds weren't uncommon with my last team, and the Ferrothorn I used only took 7 turns to set up /:

Thanks for the rate tho ^^

 

[Meeeps]

Ooh, Bronzong over Ferrothorn? I has to say that I'm a fan of no 4x Fire weakness on your sweeper, I always wondered about how effective Ferrothorn was against a Fire-based team...

There is one thing I've always wondered, how necessary is Rest on Shuckle?
When I made my Cripple/Cripple/Sweeper team, I ran Encore over Rest and gave it a Quick Claw. It was mostly for easy swtiches and Quick Claw helped sometimes for getting some early Struggle Bugs in. I never really found a need for Rest (except maybe twice, maybe that's why I only got in to the 90s with my streak, lol).

A steel type special move? So long as something like Slowbro | Bold | Leftovers | Psychic | Surf | Slack Off | Amnesia | HP/Def Doesn't wall you straight away, you should be okay. (man I hate Slowbro!)

Good luck sir!

 

[chap196]

For Shuckle
Use Gyro Ball instead of Gastro Acid for more coverage, also it inflict the most damage to your opponent Pokemon for Shuckle because Shuckle is very slow.

 

[[GS]]

@ meeps: Rest makes sure that he can come back in and cripple another Pokemon should he need to. If you look at my thread for the previous team, he was my last pkmn and stalled with Rest and ended up KO-ing Lucario, thus saving my streak. Also, I've seen the AI switch out when Encored, a gamble I don't like to take. Slowbro is hardly threatening, seeing as I'll be basically invincible. I can just stall him out with Sub if it gets sketchy.

As for the fire weakness, I was lucky enough to not run into a total fire team, but you're right, it could have been a disaster.

@ chap: Shuckle isn't supposed to do damage, he's just there to cripple, Stuggle Bug is just for dropping SpA.

Thanks for the rates guys! ^^

 

[pokemans1]

Very nice stall team. Good luck getting to your goal of 500. Don't think I have the patients required for such long battles. About how long did it take to reach that previous best streak?

 

[davidchu]

Rain Dance could work too if you're afraid of Fire teams. Just sayin

 

[Meeeps]

Alright, fair enough man. I am a big fan of only one 2x weakness on your sweeper (especially since neither of your other pokemon draw out Fire type moves, makes for easy switching) and I wish you the best of luck with your team.

There's really not much else I can possibly add, except perhaps changing the HP EV of Bronzong to something that can divide by 16, so that you can get a higher leftovers percentage boost.
140 HP EVs gives Bronzong 160 HP, this leaves 118 EVs to put on whatever you want (giving 15 extra Def, SpD or Speed).

 

[Lapras!]

Great team Shuckle 10/10

Be careful with using bulldoze on Gastrodon in case you get a critical hit... I'm not really too certain about it since the pokemon to worry about are the faster support pokemon, which are often frail... so even with a calm nature on gastro a crit might still kill them. Perhaps Rock Tomb might be better since it gets less power, doesn't have STAB, and the low accuracy shouldn't be a huge problem for something bulky like gastro against an already crippled pokemon.

Also a pedantic point but in Shuckle's moveset you wrote Power Trick, not Power Split

Alright, fair enough man. I am a big fan of only one 2x weakness on your sweeper (especially since neither of your other pokemon draw out Fire type moves, makes for easy switching) and I wish you the best of luck with your team.

There's really not much else I can possibly add, except perhaps changing the HP EV of Bronzong to something that can divide by 16, so that you can get a higher leftovers percentage boost.
140 HP EVs gives Bronzong 160 HP, this leaves 118 EVs to put on whatever you want (giving 15 extra Def, SpD or Speed).

for the higher lefties boost you don't want it to be divisible by 16... you want to add an extra point on so you can switch into stealth rock an extra time. I know it's a minor point here but it's good practice. But why would you suggest Bronzong to run anything other than full HP EVs? If you take a look at his base HP it's 67... he needs as much as he can get, if you want my opinion.

 

[Meeeps]

for the higher lefties boost you don't want it to be divisible by 16... you want to add an extra point on so you can switch into stealth rock an extra time. I know it's a minor point here but it's good practice. But why would you suggest Bronzong to run anything other than full HP EVs? If you take a look at his base HP it's 67... he needs as much as he can get, if you want my opinion.

Stealth Rocks are not an issue, this is the Battle Subway, not a battle against human opponents.

Having the extra percentage boost really does make a difference over time. Since Bronzong takes 9 turns to set up, I thought it might be helpful to have some added recovery, even if it is small.

 

[Sohryu]

Stealth Rocks are not an issue, this is the Battle Subway, not a battle against human opponents.

I Agree.

Having the extra percentage boost really does make a difference over time. Since Bronzong takes 9 turns to set up, I thought it might be helpful to have some added recovery, even if it is small.

But if it take 9 turns set up, The leftovers number won't really make difference. It need to Sacrifice to much HP EV's in order to make the Magic Lefties Number. Max HP 'Zong heals 10.875 Hp per turn, and with the lefties number it heals? 10 Hp Per turn. So is Exactly the same thing...i Think! xD

 

[Lapras!]

Stealth Rocks are not an issue, this is the Battle Subway, not a battle against human opponents.

My response:

you want to add an extra point on so you can switch into stealth rock an extra time. I know it's a minor point here but it's good practice

Having the extra percentage boost really does make a difference over time. Since Bronzong takes 9 turns to set up, I thought it might be helpful to have some added recovery, even if it is small.

Reducing Bronzong's HP EVs from 252 to 140 doesn't increase his Lefties recovery. Sorry mate.

 

[Meeeps]

To Lapras, I said in my origional post on the issue that it gives a higher PERCENTAGE boost, allowing for an additional 15 Def or SpD.
I commented on SR because this was a Battle Subway thread, I just didn't see the relevance. :x
Please, if you wish to argue it over, just PM me. There is no need to spam a thread with our conversation.

I'm honestly not fussed over the HP EV, it's just that having a rounded number that is divisible by 16 usually is a good thing, especially with Substitute.

To Akanjão, Yeah, I wasn't sure how useful it would be, since it does have to sacrifice a fair bit of EVs to reach the rounded number. I was just thinking out loud (of sorts).

Again, good luck with the team Shuckle. I agree with your Rest reasoning now. I didn't really think of swapping it out after doing the first Power Split and resting.

 

[Fossil Man]

The only thing that really worries me is if some NPC uses Taunt on this team and will practically destroy them. Granted, with a 460+ win streak the last time, I'm assuming that they really aren't THAT smart to use said move.

I don't have any quarrels with this team, very nice to see someone going for a stall/wall team. Very creative, I think. I see a question around the Rindo Berry, so I guess the least I could do is maybe toss some ideas out and hope they stick.

Aside from Rindo Berry, which is a good consideration just due to Gastrodon's x4 weakness, perhaps we could use Quick Claw to give a nice chance to set up before the opponent can strike. Also, the Rocky Helmet could help provide some light damage to those foolish enough to touch your team of walls. There's one that struck me as a neat item, the Red Card; get hit = attcker gets removed from play sounds very nice to me. Although, I haven't played B/W for quite some time so I don't know if this item is legal in the Battle Subway. Also, there's out favorite option of Leftovers on him as well.

 

[Lapras!]

To Lapras, I said in my origional post on the issue that it gives a higher PERCENTAGE boost, allowing for an additional 15 Def or SpD.
I commented on SR because this was a Battle Subway thread, I just didn't see the relevance. :x
Please, if you wish to argue it over, just PM me. There is no need to spam a thread with our conversation.

Goodness. Someone's getting defensive (excuse the pun XD). I was just giving you ways to help improve your rating dude.

Bronzong doesn't benefit from moving HP EVs into Def and SpD... lol. His base HP is 67, which is quite low. As such you want to invest as much in HP as you can, because, no matter how high his defences are, he needs hit points to defend. His defences are already naturally high so you address them last. His HP, being the problem area, should be addressed first, i.e., maximised. Do you see where I'm coming from here? You should only bother with Lefties recovery points for pokemon with high HP, like Snorlax or Blissey.

I'm honestly not fussed over the HP EV, it's just that having a rounded number that is divisible by 16 usually is a good thing, especially with Substitute.

Uh... you want it NOT to be a multiple of 16, if you have Substitute... it's the same deal as with stealth rock. Has no-one taught you about Lefties recovery points +1? I don't even know why you're trying to argue with me if you don't even know what they are...

Sorry Shuckle, for Magnets-ing up your thread...

 

[[GS]]

@ meeps: As Lapras! said, 'Zong's HP is fairly low so you should always max it first. Honestly, this is true for most pokemon, as it gives you the best potential defensively. As for the lefties number, your HP should be divisible by 16 +1. This is basically useless to me though, especially since I'd have to drop a decent amount of EV's to get 1 extra hit point per turn. With Sub you'd want an HP stat divisible by 4, but that's only if you're running a pinch berry or have something to abuse like Torrent/Swarm/Blaze etc. So it's not necessary here.

@ fossil man: Hey! Good to see ya around these parts again. Taunt doesn't bother me too much with 2 leads, as I can just switch when I need to.

Red Card kind of defeats the purpose of stat killing, but quick claw could be decent, I've just never had good luck with it /:

@ Lapras!: Good point about Rock Tomb, I'll use that instead. I'm glad someone can follow my thought process lol

 

[Roeno]

This team looked interesting when I saw the unconventional Pokémon, so I wanted to try it out myself.

Unfortunately I didn't get any luck this time, since the first team I faced had a Taunting Bisharp with Defiant as a lead.
I'd like to know how your team handles that? Because you can't Power Split him, since he Taunts you. You can't lower his stats, because then he gets attack boosts, plus that Sucker Punch goes first anyway. You could stall him out by switching between Shuckle and Gastrodon, but this is the Subway where random criticals, Iron Head flinches and Rock Smash defense drops are not uncommon to happen. So yeah, this team got destroyed by that Bisharp alone.

But this was just the worst Pokémon for this team to face I thought, so I tried again, back from the start.
First Pokémon I see is Taunt Mandibuzz with Flatter and Toxic. So yeah, this one isn't as bad as Bisharp, but still, that damn Taunt! I got past it, but Rock Tomb didn't help that much. It missed 3 times in a row, before it hit, and then missed 2 times in a row again. I was able to kill it off, but it was still close.

So yeah, I like this team in theory, but Taunt is just a death sentence. Maybe you got lucky with not having to face a lot of Taunters in your big streak, but I didn't have any luck with that.
Also about Gastrodon, maybe try Lum Berry, Quick Claw or BrightPowder over Rindo Berry. In the few battles I had with this team, I never had to use that Berry, so I could see those other items being helpful once in a while.

I hope you get far with this team, because I like the Pokémon and sets you use. But you will need a ton of luck, so good luck!

 

[Vandslaux]

I think I saw a 600+ Tower team using Curse + Amnesia Registeel, so Bronzong could work, but I'm concerned as to how your team will deal with Sheer Cold spamming Ice-type teams if the first pokemon is something like SD Beartic.

 

[[GS]]

Yea, Registeel is a beast. Shuckle has Sturdy, so they can usually be dealt with. Besides, it's pretty obvs whic pkmn are OHKO abusers so I'm prepared.