Hey everyone, new guy here and posting a current streak of 500 wins in super singles; also here to give thanks and credit to
iVolke for sharing his awesome team and to Lassi for inspiring me to use a team that doesn't involve intimidates and stalling
strategies (for the most part anyways, I'll explain in a bit). The team has awesome typing synergy that allows you to pivot
out of unfavorable match-ups (most of the time) and with the right play, battles end relatively quickly, usually by M-Scizor if he
can set up on the lead mon. After that he just sweeps the rest of the team barring fire types and fire type coverage moves (again,
most of the time). I made some tweaks to the team and the changes has served me well so far in the run. Here's the team:
Garchomp (F) ("Hilda") @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
Same chomp as iVolke's. D-Drake nukes flying and levitate mons while not having to worry about half damage from misty
terrain by not being grounded. Sub to setup on passive mons by avoiding status and also useful for scouting sets especially
ones that may potentially carry Explosion or ohko moves. Outrage and Earthquake for dual stab to deal as much damage as
possible and with D-Drake not have to worry about confusion from Outrage, although for a one time usage only which can be
annoying if the opponent protects, but otherwise Garchomp's best move to counter mons she can't setup on. SD to setup and
take note usually only one SD is needed because at +2, Garchomp ohkos most mons in the tree even after using up her z move.
4 def allows Garchomp to set up 4 subs although there wasn't really a need to so far. I found Rough Skin extremely useful
for breaking focus sash and for chip damage in general.
Scizor-Mega (M) ("Iron Man") @ Scizorite
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Brutal Swing
- Bullet Punch
I went for maximum HP and SpD investment since there are a lot of strong moves (both physical and special) in the tree that
M-Scizor has to tank; stuff like Hydro Pump, Focus Blast, Stone Edge, Earthquake, Explosion, Thunder, etc. especially since he
usually takes hits while in non Mega form via switch-in, and considering he's the only one in the team with access to recovery in
Roost. Max HP maximizes Roost recovery which is important because I consider potential crits to be M-Scizor's main weakness when
he's setting up especially against faster mons. He's also prone to potential stat drops from secondary effects of moves so it's crucial
M-Scizor doesn't spend too much turns setting up before koing a mon; meaning he doesn't have to set up to +6 every time, either
because he's facing an offensive mon or because of potential secondary effects and sometimes both. Thanks to Roost, he can often
times stall out those strong 5 pp moves and even 10 pp moves via pp max, giving Roost 16 pp in total and he can safely setup after
that. I forgot to mention attack boosting items like Choice Band/Specs and Life Orb that M-Scizor usually has to take care of. Bullet
Punch for Technician and stab boosted priority move which makes up for it being the slowest member of the team and just rips through
opponents at +6.
Now the main change is Brutal Swing over U-Turn (or Brick Break from Lassi's team). I went for Brutal Swing because of its great neutral
coverage while actually benefiting from technician boost (it has exactly 60 base power), giving it a total of 90 basepower. It also counters
bulky Ghost and Psychic types and in hindsight makes Scizor an anti-TR mon by countering Fairy, Psychic, and Ghost types; all of which are
known to be the types of all TR users, usually 2hkoing them at +2 while stalling out TR using SD. Brutal Swing also counters some offensive
threats, like ohkoing M-Alaka, Gengar, and guaranteeing at least 2hkos on all Azelf sets except Azelf-4 which is guaranteed ohko and oh yeah,
also has Fire Blast lol.
Tapu Fini ("Tapu Fini") @ Choice Specs
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Spe / 252 SpA
Timid Nature
- Moonblast
- Surf
- Grass Knot
- Confide
I didn't give her a nickname because Tapu Fini already sounds like a nickname to me. You might notice that I chose a (somewhat)
opposite version of iVolke's set item and nature for Fini, going with Choice Specs instead of Choice Scarf and Timid instead of Modest.
The main reason behind this is because I wanted a bulky Fini that can take hits, even super effective ones if she has to, and it is possible
with max HP investment. Choice Specs balances out the lack of SpA boosting nature and allows full HP investment since she doesn't care
about outspeeding everyone. I went for Timid because with Specs, she doesn't really need the extra power most of the time on the mons
she checks; I guess except for M-Garchomp which guarantees a ohko with Modest Fini but take note M-Garchomp outspeeds Modest Fini
so I'd rather take that 75% chance for ohko using a Timid set (252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp-
Mega: 204-242 (94.8 - 112.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO). A Timid set also outspeeds certain threats such as most Rotom sets and checks
stuff like all Excadrill sets, Incineroar-3, and as mentioned M-Garchomp. I also noticed that Modest Fini misses out on some important
guaranteed ohkos against legends such as Latios-3,4 and Latias-3. Choice Specs with Timid nature fixes this while still outspeeding a good
half of the battle tree.
If you guys want to try out this team for yourselves, Modest is also a viable option but just watch out for the threats that outspeed her.
Misty Surge for anti status and a mandatory switch in against ice moves targeted on Garchomp to avoid that 10% freeze chance on M-Scizor.
Moonblast and Surf as obligatory dual stab, Grass Knot hits bulky water types most notably 2hkoing all Suicune sets and ohking quadruple grass
weak mons such as Barbaracle, Carracosta, Gastrodon, and M-Swampert. The last moveslot is Confide instead of Ice Beam because of this one
battle against M-Audino lead around battle 230 where I nearly lost. The only reason I won was because of a SpA drop from spamming Moonblast
on M-Audino and because M-Audino decided to spam draining kiss after only 2 Calm Minds. Anymore than that and I probably would have lost.
I didn't save a video because I nearly had a heart attack after the battle and it was then I realized, the team wasn't exactly perfect and I had to
find a way to counter it (btw M-Audino has flamethrower so M-Scizor is a no-go). The answer was Confide in order to bring it down to -6 SpA
and sweep with Garchomp (Yep you heard that right, using Garchomp to setup and sweep against M-Audino). Tapu Fini is bulky enough to
run Confide and bring M-Audino down to -6 SpA without dying and the idea was, switch-in to Garchomp, setup one SD, then 2hko with EQ.
I have a video of it later and was literally the only battle during the whole streak so far that I was able to use Confide on the same M-Audino lead
which I encountered for the second time at battle 447. Take note this isn't full-proof because worst case scenario, M-Audino pulls of a double
crit on Garchomp, but that's way better than hoping for a crit and SpA drop on M-Audino from Moonblast spamming Fini lol.
Anyways, Ice Beam was the least used move with Fini, notably ohkoing quadruple ice weak mons such as Landorus, Gliscor, and dragon
pseudo-legends such as Salamence, Garchomp, and Dragonite, as well as countering legends such as Tornadus, Thundurus, and Zapdos.
It's not guaranteed ohko, unfortunately, and ideally Fini shouldn't even be facing the latter two. Moonblast already counters said dragon
pseudo-legends and Surf already ohkos all Gliscor sets and Landorus sets except Landorus-1 (252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Fini Surf vs. 0
HP / 252+ SpD Landorus: 156-186 (95.1 - 113.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO). There are a few other threats besides M-Audino that I
planned to use Confide on but I'll mention them later in the threat list (Yep, I'm also writing a threat list aside from a relatively long write up
for a first time poster lol. Pretty sure I'm mentioning stuff iVolke has already mentioned in his original post but I'd also like to share my experiences
and stuff I learned in the tree; considering a new guy posting a big streak, some may find it dubious at first, so I should at least sound like I know what
I'm talking about haha jk). Here's the threat list.
Threat List:
Audino-3 (Mega): No surprise and the first actual threat the team has faced during the run. Confide up to -6 and for some reason it stops using
Calm Mind after reaching +6 in SpD, which is nice. Switch to Garchomp and 2hko with +2 EQ.
Cofagrigus-3 and Jellicent-3: Both have Will-O-Wisp and TR. Switch to Fini and Confide up to -6 while stalling out TR. Don't mind the burn when Misty Terrain
runs out. Switch to M-Scizor the turn before TR runs out to avoid burn and hit with Brutal Swing because it seems the AI will prioritize TR over Will-O-Wisp.
Brutal Swing will do about half damage. Switch to Fini and spam Confide, this time only to stall out the second TR and for when Cofagrigus-3 starts spamming
Destiny Bond after being left with about half health. For Jellicent-3, Water Spout should run out of PP and would either spam Recover or switch out, which
is not so ideal but leaves Jellicent-3 pretty much harmless. Again, switch to M-Scizor the turn before TR runs out and finish off with Brutal Swing (watch out for Destiny Bond Cofagrigus-3 if it still has pp for it). Haven't actually gotten the chance to try it on them so I'm just theorymonning for these two.
Ohko moves and Lax Incense/Bright Powder mons: Not just a threat to this team but to all teams in general but that's also why Garchomp has D-Drake and Sub. Special mention to Dugtrio-2; being the fastest ohko move user in the tree. My approach is to D-Drake immediately to bypass Bright Powder miss and so far I've seen it use either Fissure or Sandstorm turn 1 so just hope it doesn't Sub lol.
Salazzle: Poison/Fire typing that immediately threatens two-thirds of the team especially with this non-Scarf Fini variant. Best play is to let Garchomp take
the Fake-out in order to break a potential sash from Salazzle-3. Finish of with EQ and if it's Salazzle-4, Garchomp has a 50% chance of moving first thanks to
their speed tie at 169 Spe. Take note Garchomp survives non crit Dragon Pulse from Salazzle-4 so it's important he stays healthy if this guy comes out.
Strong Attackers (Choice items/Life Orb): Best bet is to switch to M-Scizor and keep using Roost to stay healthy and stall out those 5 or 10 pp moves. SD plus
Roost combo is perfect against stuff that deals less than 50% max damage to M-Scizor and is slower than him. Against faster mons, M-Scizor would have to
take a hit on the switch and another hit before roosting up so it's important M-Scizor keeps his health up by using Roost often. An extreme example would be
Slaking-3 lead holding Choice Band. Turn 1, switch to M-Scizor on Giga Impact, which deals about 70-80% damage to its non Mega form, and then Roost. Slaking recharges while Roost heals up to 70% health at least and in Mega form, use Roost again. At this point, just hope it doesn't crit because M-Scizor survives non crit Giga Impact, dealing about 50-60% damage and that wouldn't be a good time for a crit when you're at 70% health lol. So basically watch out for crits when using M-Scizor.
TR teams: M-Scizor counters most of them so use SD to stall out TR.
Some Battle Videos:
Battle No. 200 vs. Plumeria: PRAG-WWWW-WWW7-C3ZM
Battle No. 300 vs. Cynthia: QZJG-WWWW-WWW7-G3B3
Battle No. 400 vs. Grimsley: DGAW-WWWW-WWW7-GL23
Battle No. 500 vs. Cynthia: BNCW-WWWW-WWW7-YURZ
Battle No. 447 vs. Scientist Tivon: C2UW-WWWW-WWW7-JA7H
- I was so excited that it actually worked that I totally forgot about the potential Sturdy Carbink and paid for it, sadly. M-Scizor cleans up and takes care of Bronzong.
Closing Notes:
Personally, I think that the special trainers you meet every ten battles is basically a free win for me due to how few, and therefore, how easily predictable
their sets are, especially against people like Wally, carrying only 4 mons with 2 sets each lol. I saved these battles videos because I consider them as
"benchmark wins" for every 100th battle after unlocking Starf berry at 200. Battle-wise, they aren't too special but the more interesting battles, I did mention
in the threat list and shows how to deal with them accordingly. I'll be taking a break for a while and maybe work on something for doubles. Again, I would like
to thank iVolke for sharing his awesome team and also I definitely recommend this team to everyone and see for themselves how good it really is and since you
guys made it this far, thanks for reading!