Big brain combos you've used in-game

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Whitney in HGSS marks one of the few times I've resorted to using debuffs to win. Instead of trying to brute force Miltank, I had Quilava and Flaaffy collaborate to lower its stats as much as they could, with Flaaffy paralyzing it with Thunder Wave after forcing Miltank to consume the Lum Berry due to Static, then spamming Growl to soften Miltank's damage output, while I had Quilava spam Leer and Smoke Screen to lower its accuracy and Defense substantially. After Flaaffy and Quilava softened Miltank with a series of debuffs, I sent in Heracross and went for the kill with a single Brick Break.

Also one of the funniest ways I attempted to defeat Clair's Kingdra was with Perish Song Lapras. Lapras is bulky enough to survive repeated hits from Kingdra and I used Perish Song in hopes it would defeat Kingdra instantly. Unfortunately, I discovered the AI knows what Perish Song will do, and just before the turn it would've knocked Kingdra out, Clair switched Kingdra out, fortunately I had already switched Lapras out and this baited one of her Dragonair right into my Gyarados's Ice Fang which resulted in a clean win. I sent Lapras in once more after she sent Kingdra out again and used Perish Song to ensure it would go down in a few turns: I ended up not needing it anyway, though, because Lapras and Gyarados combined with Dragon Rage and a critical hit Ice Beam took it down anyway.

 

[Mango Smoothie]

Using weaker moves to damage the Elite 4's pokemon enough that you can KO them next turn but not to the point that they Full Restore away all your hard work always made me feel super smart. Stupid item-using trainers.

Also bamboozled Ultra Necrozma with Zoroark Illusion because Foul Play + Leer will do massive damage.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Instead of getting a well balanced team to deal with N at the league I focused almost exclusively on Krookodile so that when the time came to fight his dragon, I could 1 hit it with Outrage. It worked.

I know you'd have the move with that strategy, but the neat thing you can do with Krookodile in those games is that if you are patient enough to hold off Krokorok from evolving 8 levels (long time) you'll get Earthquake at level 48, unlike Krookodile who learns it at 54 which is typically post-credits.

So now you have a STAB EQ user who gets Attack boosts every time it kills (assuming Moxie) right before the final battles. It rips everything apart and handily avoids Cofagrigus's Mummy. Krokorok can take care of Brycen and Drayden decently if you do this and our very own tier list recommends holding off.

Very handy for what was already a mon close to the big 3 S tiers. Though Krokorok's 60 / 45 / 45 bulk is hilarious lategame.

 

[Magnus0]

I just remembered a consistent setup you can do for beating Clay in B/W using Archen. You have to equip it with a persim berry because Krokorok always leads with swagger. If you use agility on turn 1 you end up with a +2 atk +2 spd Archen, and you will also boost the power of acrobatics because swagger consumes the persim berry. Excadrill resists acrobatics, but you can take it down with dig instead. Excadrill would actually be able to hit you underground with bulldoze (I think), but the AI never picks bulldoze of course, because Archen is a flying type. It's very satisfying how every little detail matters. This strategy is also great for nuzlockes and other challenge runs because it takes minimal effort to perform.

 

[Hugin]

I just remembered a consistent setup you can do for beating Clay in B/W using Archen. You have to equip it with a persim berry because Krokorok always leads with swagger. If you use agility on turn 1 you end up with a +2 atk +2 spd Archen, and you will also boost the power of acrobatics because swagger consumes the persim berry. Excadrill resists acrobatics, but you can take it down with dig instead. Excadrill would actually be able to hit you underground with bulldoze (I think), but the AI never picks bulldoze of course, because Archen is a flying type. It's very satisfying how every little detail matters. This strategy is also great for nuzlockes and other challenge runs because it takes minimal effort to perform.

I'm not sure about specific gens, but Bulldoze/Earthquake do NOT hit flyers who are currently underground in at least some games. Which does make certain amounts of game mechanic sense, even if it's nonsense logically.

 

[lucariomaster2]

I used Lopunny in Ultra Sun and gave it Z-Splash + Baton Pass.

Was it ever useful? Well... no. But it was a ton of fun, at least!

 

[Siggu]

I can only think of two, both used in USUM, both involving the same Pokémon.

The first was constantly swapping Arbok in and out against the Totem Marowak as I had nothing even remotely physically bulky, so I had to spam Intimidate.

The second one was giving Arbok a Focus Sash so it can tank one of Ultra Necrozma's attack, Haze away its boosts, and then sacrifice it so Decidueye could 2HKO Ultra Necrozma with Sinister Arrow Raid + Sucker Punch.

 

[bdt2002]

I can think of two examples of strategies off the top of my head.

The first one is a Double Battles strategy that is honestly best off being practiced on a battle simulator like Pokémon Showdown, although if you have the components in-game in a game like ORAS you can certainly try this there, too. It involves a Spinda with the Ability Contrary and the move Skill Swap and a Rayquaza with several stat-lowering attacking moves. This strategy works with many other Pokémon, but I like Rayquaza for it since many of its best options are stuff that Rayquaza specifically has access to, such as Draco Meteor for Dragon-Types, the signature move Dragon Ascent, and the event move V-Create. This strategy isn't foolproof, though, and it doesn't even work in Sword & Shield since Spinda was cut from the games. If you ever find a format that isn't VGC 2016 or VGC 2019 where this strategy could be used competitively, I would highly recommend giving Spinda a Choice Scarf and equipping your team with various techs to handle anti-stat boost mechanics like Haze, Topsy-Turvy, Imposter, et cetera.

The second one is much more single player friendly and works with any bulky Pokémon with access to Flash and a paralysis move. I once placed both moves onto an Ampharos and used it as a psuedo win condition to beat half of Red's team in SoulSilver by cycle healing into Ampharos and paralyzing his overlevelled Pokémon with Thunder Wave, and then stacking Flash bonuses for good measure since in-game AI is notorious for not switching out at full HP unless a move like U-Turn or Volt Switch is used. Is this very disgusting? Yes. But did my team in the high 50s going low 60s need this to beat the most overlevelled Trainer in the main series for the first time? Yes.

 

[Scorpio]

Less something I’ve used myself and more something the AI uses that I’ve taken advantage of, Amelia’s Clefairy in the Max Dens in SWSH likes to use Follow Me, which, when combined with its Focus Sash, lets it take at least one hit that would’ve wrecked my Pokémon or a more important teammate.

 

[CTNC]

I'm not sure if this counts as in game because it's post game stuff, but when doing Ditto Raids for Exp Candies and seeing if I could get a 31/0/31/0/31/XX Ditto (haven't got one but that'd be stupidly lucky.) I have a strategy that's very effective, use a Level 100 Magikarp that knows only Splash. Imposter always makes Ditto copy your Pokemon if it has Imposter and AI Pokemon are good enough to win as a team but bad enough for Ditto to lose if if copies one of their Pokemon instead of Magikarp, so you win if you have AI teammates that attack. If you don't, soft reset. For 3 and 4 Star Raids, I can use a Choice Scarf Taunt Carvanha instead and I can Taunt the AI after taunting Ditto. Sometimes Ditto speeds things up with Struggle and sometimes it says Ditto couldn't use Transform.

 

[Magnus0]

A great strat for beating the double battle with Mars and Jupiter is to quickly defeat Barry's Munchlax so he sends out a better Pokemon.

 

[PokePoindexter]

Behold my most recent Champions Tournament-winning team in the PWT:


With a combination of Storm Drain, Tailwind, Psych Up, Ice Beam, and Water STAB, it turns out Lumineon makes a great partner for Volcarona in this tournament (and the PWT as a whole). Storm Drain blocks Water-type attacks from hurting Volcarona, Scald is nice for thwacking opposing Rock-types that Volcarona hates, and Psych Up allows Lumineon to copy QD boosts and take matters into its own hands when necessary. As for the rest of the team, Garchomp and especially Eelektross also appreciate Tailwind and can spam DisQuake together all day if the first two mons can't carry the load themselves.

Movesets

Lumineon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Tailwind
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Psych Up

Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Protect

Garchomp @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop
- Rock Slide
- Fire Fang

Eelektross @ Flying Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Discharge
- Acrobatics
- Crunch
- Flamethrower

 

[The Mind Electric]

Behold my most recent Champions Tournament-winning team in the PWT:


With a combination of Storm Drain, Tailwind, Psych Up, Ice Beam, and Water STAB, it turns out Lumineon makes a great partner for Volcarona in this tournament (and the PWT as a whole). Storm Drain blocks Water-type attacks from hurting Volcarona, Scald is nice for thwacking opposing Rock-types that Volcarona hates, and Psych Up allows Lumineon to copy QD boosts and take matters into its own hands when necessary. As for the rest of the team, Garchomp and especially Eelektross also appreciate Tailwind and can spam DisQuake together all day if the first two mons can't carry the load themselves.

Movesets

Lumineon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Tailwind
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Psych Up

Volcarona @ Life Orb
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quiver Dance
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Protect

Garchomp @ Dragon Gem
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Dual Chop
- Rock Slide
- Fire Fang

Eelektross @ Flying Gem
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Discharge
- Acrobatics
- Crunch
- Flamethrower

May I suggest giving this a try in the Battle Subway?

 

[Bug Maniac Aydon]

Bide + Leech Seed is pretty cool in RBY for Ivysaur. Leech Seed lets it recover the repeated hits it's going to take and the damage helps it not be completely passive. But then again, why not just sell the TM for $1500?

 

[girazard]

Runerigus vs Bea's Hawlucha in the Champion Cup. It can only touch Runerigus with Bounce, so of course it uses Bounce. Bounce paralyses Runerigus, but also activates Wandering Spirit, switching Runerigus' ability with Hawlucha's Limber...immediately curing him.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

I beat Maylene in BDSP last night with a Skorupi, a Misdreavus, and more strategy than I needed in any gym battle in a Pokémon before now.

Skorupi knocked off Meditite’s Light Clay immediately because the extended Light Screen screwed me out of a Lucario KO at +6 on a previous try, then set up Toxic Spikes to guarantee the OHKO on Machoke. Misdreavus came in on Light Screen being set up, and since Meditite can’t hit Ghosts it had to switch to Machoke who had a super-effective Knock Off, giving me a free Nasty Plot. +2 Spooky Plate-boosted Hex OHKO’d the Poisoned Machoke through Light Screen. Meditite came back in and Flashed me when I went for another Nasty Plot for safety against Lucario and to burn a turn of Light Screen, and then +4 Hex OHKO’d Poisoned Meditite through Light Screen and OHKO’d Lucario after Light Screen went away and it Screeched instead of attacking. It’s not much of a strategy, and if I’d missed the Hex on Lucario I would’ve lost to Metal Claw since it outsped my whole team and I didn’t really have anything else that could handle it, but OHKOing Lucario for the win after it had ended every previous attempt felt nice.

 

[Siggu]

There's a "big brain combo" I intended to use in BW2 but ended up dropping the combo part because one of the components was really good on its own.



The plan was really simple. Use Power Split to turn the opponent into a sitting duck, use Toxic to wear them down (and potentially waste a Full Restore), then switch out to have one of my sweepers setup.

Then Shuckle showed me that, by itself, with Rock Slide, it was enough to cause a big mess.

 

[adman2]

Using weaker moves to damage the Elite 4's pokemon enough that you can KO them next turn but not to the point that they Full Restore away all your hard work always made me feel super smart. Stupid item-using trainers.

Also bamboozled Ultra Necrozma with Zoroark Illusion because Foul Play + Leer will do massive damage.

It's not the same thing as your Full Restore example, but my Solo Sudowoodo challenge in Crystal involved using Mud Slap on Bruno's Machamp to dodge a Cross Chop, since Return wouldn't knock it out in one turn. That worked!

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Klinklang with Shift Gear, Gear Grind, and Magnet Rise proved a great way to defeat Iris's Haxorus. Granted, I already had set up on Archeops beforehand, but my Klinklang used Magnet Rise to avoid Haxorus's Earthquake, and then from there Haxorus couldn't hit Klinklang hard at all, and Klinklang's boosted Gear Grind has the potential to bypass Haxorus's Focus Sash and cleanly KO. A very fun way to defeat one of Iris's most formidable Pokemon.

 

[rickdrw424]

A very fun way to defeat one of Iris's most formidable Pokemon

I'm glad it worked

A klink with charge beam helped with the flying gym

Just curious, has anyone used a Milotic with Coil and a low accuracy move like Blizzard?

 

[Wukong]

I remember doing a run of Pokemon Yellow in like middle school where I tried to simulate Red's GSC team as best I could. So I had Pikachu, Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Snorlax, and...Mew.

My team was super underlevelled heading into the champion fight (like around level 38) because I just wanted to get there as fast as I could. So with my rival's Pokemon in their 60s I had to get creative.

In Gen 1 the bosses always send out their Pokemon in a fixed order unlike later gens. So I remember whittling down my rival's Magneton to minimal HP with my Mew before using Transform so it could take out his Cloyster quickly with more firepower (higher Special + STAB on Thunderbolt). Then I think I paralyzed his Flareon before Blastoise took it out.

Anyway, a kind of neat strat I remembered from way back in the day.

 

[Ironmage]

Relatively recently, I went back to BDSP to fight the gym rematches with my underlevelled team of mons that all learn Toxic. Highlights include:

Trapping Wake's Perish Song Politoed lead with Shuckle's Wrap.
Using Protect + Pressure on Vespiquen to PP stall.
Getting Breloom poisoned elsewhere to have a free item slot while still benefiting from its ability.
Defog+flamethrower Skuntank to win the lead matchup against Skarmory.
More Toxic Spikes abuse than is reasonable.

Edit: misremembered which partial trapping move.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Using Starmie to Toxic + Recover stall that OP Espeon that Red's got.

 

[TheMantyke]

Back in USUM, I felt pretty smart going out of my way to do the battle for Scope Lens. I put it on my Super Luck Murkrow so I could have 50% crits on everything, and 100% crits on night slash! Ultimately though, I was a fool because I forgot I could step things up another level with the affection crit buffs and get truly 100% on everything.

I turned the story fights of my first SV playthrough into total jokes by assembling Chilly Reception Slowking + Belly Drum Cetitan together. Thank you Gen 9 egg move mechanics!

 

[Imperial Magala]

My Gallade keeping its Fairy Tera-type from being a Ralts lets me bait out moves from CPUs, specially Larry's Staraptor into Aerial Ace and Hassel's Baxcalibur into Tera Glaive Rush. Surprised there isn't a Wild Tera Fighting Gallade in the overworld like how every Eeveelution has one that matches their type to make up for Eevee always having Tera Normal.