Black & White Battle Subway Records (now with gen. 4 records!)

this is a set I’ve always had fun with because of how little setup there usually is

Jolteon TIMID Choice Specs
Ability: Volt Absorb
IVs: 27/23/16/31/18/31
EVs: 252 Sp Attack, 252 Speed

Lv. 50 stats: 138/72/72/162/109/200
Flash
Volt Switch
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball

I wish I had a beneficial hidden power move, but mine is dragon :/ That’s why Flash is there, but I really don’t know any other move that could fill the fourth slot.

Whimsicott CALM Focus sash
Ability: Prankster
IVs: 25/x/31/30/31/27
EVs: 252 Def, 252 Sp. Def

Lv. 50 stats: 128/137/97/139/134
Giga Drain
Stun Spore
Memento
Taunt

Gyarados JOLLY Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
IVs: 6/31/30/27/31/30
EVs: 88 HP, 248 Attack, 4 Def, 172 Speed

Lv. 50 stats: 169/176/100/70/120/134
Earthquake
Waterfall
Substitute
Dragon Dance

Jolteon and Gyarados work great together because you can easily switch out on ground-attacking opponents. And its weakness to electric makes switch-ins to Jolteon really great because of volt absorb.

I kinda wish I had a Dragonite with Multi Scale, but I don’t have a copy of b2 to get it from... is it worth it to breed a Dragonite with Inner Focus?
I think it’s still worth breeding even if you are missing out on Multiscale. The stats and moves are still there along with Dragonite’s decent bulk. I had an Inner Focus Dragonite I used in a few of the fourth generation facilities. Similar spread and move set as the one I posted above.
 
I have reached 203 wins in a row in Black 2 / White 2 Super Singles in the Battle Subway to procure Lansat and Starf Berries. With gen 8 being nonconsecutive I decided to go back to the past, and give the Subway a shot.

As is tradition, I used a variant of Truant Durant. And here's video proof.

Durant (M) @ Choice Scarf
EVs: 252 HP / 18 SpD / 240 Spe
Ability: Truant
Level: 50
Jolly Nature
- Entrainment
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Iron Head

Frida (Smeargle) (F) @ Focus Sash
IVs: 24 Atk
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Ability: Own Tempo
Shiny: Yes
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Shell Smash
- Hone Claws
- Baton Pass

Dekunda (Cloyster) (F) @ White Herb
IVs: 24 HP
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Skill Link
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Razor Shell
- Ice Shard


As you can see, the secret to this party is to combine standard Durant cheese with an unique twist in Cloyster Skill Link. Usually, Cloyster is the one Shell Smashing, but I decided to deviate by having a Smeargle Baton Pass it instead so I have an extra offensive move slot! Having Ice and Rock type multihit means most things cannot keep up with it. Any stragglers typing wise are dealt with as a result of Razor Shell, and Ice Shard handles priority moves.

The only real thing that broke my streak a few times in the early 20s was Quick Claw shenanigans by the AI. If the Quick Clawer is a physical attacker, Cloyster can usually survive because of the White Herb resetting stats, but only AFTER all Shell Smashes are Baton Passed. You can also see Hone Claws is on this list-- the AI is downright scummy with Double Team legendaries such as Regigigas. The game can Double Team as much as it wants, I am able to simply Protect and Hone Claws to match.
 
Hello Guys,
I am just reporting another streak with a variation of my Scarf-Spore/Cloyster Team. It was just 72 or something, unfortunately one cannot see this after one loses?

Breeloom @ Choicescarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
-Bullet Seed
-Low Kick
-Mach Punch (never used)

Cloyster @ Focus Sash
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 28 Atk / 252 SAtk / 228 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Icicle Spear
- Surf
- Protect

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 20 HP / 236 SAtk / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Dark Pulse
- Psych Up
- Protect

Metagross @ Life-Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Bullet Punch
- Protect

I gave Rotom his Lefties back and Meta got Psych Up over Bullet Punch, but more importantly I replaced Breloom with

Smeargle @ Choicescarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SDef / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Spore
-Spotlight
-Fake Out
-Rain Dance

It was supposed to deal with stuff that gives the team big problems with Breloom. These include:
Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, etc, in short these special moves that bring Cloyster to the Sash and induce status.
Enemy Fake Out.
Faster Mons than Smeargle, especially stuff like Scarf Eruption.
Chesto/Lum Berry users or also Bright Powder, Lax Incense.

These mostly only give trouble if paired. Smeargle was designed to deal with these. I drop the ability of Breloom to hit fast and hard, and also some nice resistances, but I think it is worth it, although I could not reach my former record.
With that special defense investment Smeargle would live most of these special moves like Flamethrower, which also often are carried by fast Mons. So in a problematic setup where Spore may not work, I consider Spotlight next. Quite often it goes like this: Smeargle is hit by said special move, survives barely, and then gets killed, or maybe even some status. Then I have a completely healthy boosted Cloyster, and a Spotlighting Smeargle, or the Mon of choice to Psych Up on Cloyster. This usually is a winning game.
Enemy Fake Out can be treated the same way (Smeargle however dies to Ambipom3 Fake Out), or with Fake Outing on my own, which was favorable in some situations.
Faster Mons, which means other Scarfers can also be dealt way better with Spotlight or maybe Fake Out. For Eruption I considered Wide Guard over Rain Dance. While Rain Dance was chosen in order to get rid of Sash Destroying Sand, while removing the SDef boost on Stone Mons and boosting Surf, I did not use it a single time. So Wide Guard may come in handy in some situations. Just a shame that in this Gen it fails with repetition, otherwise this would be a quick choice.
Against Chesto/Bright Powder etc Spotlight also is sometimes way better/safer. I remember for example a battle against Tangroth + Lilligant, which can have both, and Spore is very risky. But with Spotlight this problem almost nullifies, and puts me easily in the before mentioned situation (given I don't miss too much after that).
After Spore, Spotlight was used second most, as it was always worth considering and simplified many battles.

Rotom enjoyed the Lefties more than Rindoberry I think. For Meta, sometimes I dearly missed Bullet Punch. Way more often however I made use of Psych Up. I don't know what has more benefits, maybe still Bullet Punch. Meta does not work as good with Cloyster as Rotom does, and often when I came to Psych Up Meta, the battle was won anyways. It may have been game saving at times though.

The losing battle again involved some bad misplay:
I faced Regirock and Zapdos. Not so easy because of potential Bright Powder. I spored Regirock and Protected Cloyster. Thunder goes into Cloyster. That means no Bright Powder, and the battle was so much in my favor now, but... I was not conentrated, and somehow thought I already boosted Cloyster. So I replaced Smeargle with Rotom, and wanted to kill Zapdos. I was not boosted and Zapdos brought Cloyster to the Sash + Paralysis. At least Closter still killed Zapdos. Somehow Cloyster died and I bring Smeargle back in, but I just get worn down. Don't even exactly remember how it went on, next came scarfed Landorus and I didn't even see the last Mon.
Had I just Spored the Zapdos and boosted, the battle would most likely be won. Case 1: Regirock wakes up and attacks. Either Cloyster is unharmed, or I can spore it again next turn. Case 2: Regirock still sleeps. Switch Smeargle out, kill Zapdos, and I am there with boosted Cloyster, probably unharmed. Very favorable positions, and when Landorus came in it is Surf + gg. But I wasn't concentrated.
It was a very lucky run though, I once lost Cloyster and Smeargle turn 1 without doing any damage xD
I would like to see how this team performs in a later generation with improved Wide Guard on Smeargle (and a more competent player xD). But I am not gonna lie, it took several attempts to get back to just 70, so yeah, I now have to admit this team really is not too good (but I mostly lost due to bad play). But it is much fun nonetheless!
 
It was just 72 or something, unfortunately one cannot see this after one loses?
You can see your exact streak if you go to Bag--> Key Items --> Vs. Recorder --> Battle Subway. This was posted by Smuckem a few pages back as well, although that was three years ago, yay for this thread somehow still being alive and not closed despite the inactivity! If you saved the Battle Video, it can be found in the Vs. Recorder as well.

Also, the move Spotlight doesn't exist in Gen 5. I'm guessing what you were actually using on your Smeargle was either Follow Me or Rage Powder?

As for me, I'm trying to beat the Subway as well and the only thing I have left at this point is Super Multi. In all four games. Which isn't too fun since it is my least favorite format. But I'm going to complete it. Currently trying to beat it in B/W and I lost at battle #44 today, a bit of an annoying loss as I could have won if I had played better. Guess I'll just have to try again.
 
And yes, I meant Follow Me. Got confused, because in German this attack has the english name Spotlight^^
What do you mean with beating the subway? 50 wins, or the Starf Berry?
I see, I understand why that made you mix up the names.

By beating it I mean winning 49 in a row on all the Super Lines and 203 in a row on at least one line to get the Starf Berry. I have already beaten the Super Single and Double line as well as won 203 in a row and gotten the Starf Berry on all four of my games, so the only thing I have left now is the Super Multi line. Once that is done, I have beaten the Subway once and for all (by my own standards, at least).
 
Not yet. I'm planning to make a big post about all my recent adventures in the Subway (and I have started making a very rough first draft for that post), but I'm going to wait with completing it until I am done with everything I have planned (basically, only Super Multi left). Though getting on the leaderboards isn't exactly going to happen since they have been dead for more than seven years. The Subway is the only major facility without active leaderboards here on the forum, which is a bit sad to see. Though I would have been very interested in getting on a "Three Trophies Hall of Fame" if something like that had existed here like it does for the Maison thread.

That said, if you really want to know about my teams right now, feel free to send me a PM and I can tell you about them.
 

Inflikted

Orco2
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
For some reason I recently felt like making some attempts at a streak in the Battle Subway so I dusted off my old Black 2 cartridge.

After some runs with standard mons (and a streak of 142 wins in a row with the old reliable combo of Politoed / Toxicroak / Gastrodon / Ludicolo), I decided to use Galvantula, an all around crappy pokemon that I thought could do fairly well in the Subway for a number of reasons. The team I put together features Galvantula supporting a Scarf Togekiss and two heavy hitters in Metagross and Landorus-T. It worked out pretty well, getting me 141 wins in Super Doubles Train, just 1 shy of my previous record.

Togekiss @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
Level 50 stats: 160, 52, 103, 189, 135, 131
- Air Slash
- Aura Sphere
- Heat Wave
- Trick

I love using this guy. Flying is a great offensive typing already, and thanks to Serene Grace he can bullshit his way out of some tricky situations, even though I try not to rely on hax too much. Even if the opponents break out of flinch hax, Togekiss is bulky enough to take most hits and try again next turn. Aura Sphere and Heat Wave offer coverage against most steel and rock mons. Trick cripples annoying bulky mons such as Bronzong, destroys the evasion based Blissey set in conjunction with Aura Sphere, and makes Curse and Calm Mind users a non issue. Apparently it's missing either an IV or some EVs in speed, but I don't recall this ever coming into play during my streak. Incredible pokemon all around.

Galvantula @ Focus Sash
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Level 50 stats: 160, 52, 103, 189, 135, 131
- Thunder
- Electroweb
- Energy Ball
- Protect

I chose Galvantula because:
1) I noticed electric is a fantastic offensive type in the subway and spamming Thunder fairly reliably is fun. It also has the benefit of a high paralysis chance;
2) it gets access to grass coverage for those annoying Quagsire / Swampert / Gastrodon that usually counter electrics, without having to try RNG abuse for the perfect Hidden Power IVs;
3) it learns Electroweb. It is not as good as Icy Wind as there are immunities to this move, but it works great in most situations. In particular it screws over fast and frail pokemon like Gengar and Froslass by breaking their sash while slowing them down. It also never misses thanks to Compound Eyes which is awesome.

Turns out I was more or less right. Galvantula doesn't hit hard at all even if Thunder kind of compensates for the low stats, but this pokemon doesn't feel like a burden either. I do not have Bug Buzz on this guy because Togekiss takes care of grass-types. It would hit psychic-types hard but slow psychics such as Musharna don't usually give me trouble, while faster ones such as Espeon and Alakazam are ruined by Electroweb. Galvantula is also super frail so he gets targeted often by the AI, which I can abuse with Protect to gain free turns for its partners.
Metagross @ Steel Gem
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Level 50 stats: 185, 205, 149, 103, 110, 81
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Protect

Pretty straightforward in what it does: it takes hits like a champ and hits back hard. Its gem-boosted priority is also a blessing to have against ice-types and fast frail pokemon such as Aerodactyl (which outspeeds everything else and gets flinches with Rock Slide). Bullet Punch also makes me more comfortable with HP evs over speed. I recently changed Meteor Mash to Iron head because I was tired of misses, which risked to cut my streak short a couple of times. I tend to slap this mon on almost every team, it's just so good.

Landorus-Therian @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
Level 50 stats: 172, 216, 110, 112, 100, 136
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fly
- Protect

My heaviest hitter and #1 speed control abuser, it also brings utility to the table in the form of Intimidate. As can be seen from the stats, it is my only pokemon with perfect IVs. I got it way back in 2012, probably from pokecheck, and I don't know whether it was obtained via RNG abuse or via hacks. Anyway I'm more interested in the Subway "experience" rather than the dead leaderboard.
I could probably remove those HP EVs and dump them into speed to outrun Articuno 4, Moltres 1 / 2, and Lucario 1 / 4.
battle 119: roughneck Ganymed: I hate this trainer so much. He has OHKO moves on everything. He led with Whiscash and Cryogonal. Cryogonal didn't flinch to Air Slash and got an Icy Wind off while Whiscash hit me with Muddy Water. I managed to save my slowed down Togekiss for later by switching him to Metagross while protecting with my low hp Galvantula, expecting another Icy Wind. Turns out I probably should not have done that, as Cryogonal went for Blizzard but thankfully didn't freeze Metagross. He had the infamous Scarf Guillotine Pinsir, and Quick Claw Donphan with Fissure, but thankfully Pinsir locked itself into X-Scissor, while Lando is immune to Fissure so I wasn't too scared in the second half of the match and eventually won.

battle 142: lost to a psychic. Air Slash missed on a Froslass who came out after Galvantula went down, so I couldn't lower her speed. Froslass proceeded to eat Bullet Punch with Focus Sash, freeze Metagross with Blizzard while taking down Togekiss, and then outspeed and OHKO Lando, while never missing Blizzard once. Gg and fuck Froslass.
One type of trainers was consistently annoying: the workers with Tyranitar / Excadrill / Hippowdon / Custap Gigalith; I always managed to play around those (and ended up losing to a psychic, of all things) but my terrible lead matchup against these teams made the battles tricky as it's not pleasant to switch Landorus into a potential STAB Stone Edge crit, or worse, into the Ice Beam that one Tyranitar carries. Excadrill is also immune to Electroweb, resists Bullet Punch, and is quite busted under sand, but Landorus keeps it in check.

I had a fairly good time with this team so I'm looking to replicate its concept with different pokemon. For example I was thinking of using a bulky Gyarados with Icy Wind for speed control, a Fake Out user, and / or Garchomp over Landorus for more speed at the expense of power. I also borrowed another DS from a friend so I could transfer some pokemon that cannot be found in Black 2 from my copy of White. So far I sent over Hitmontop, Kangaskhan (Scrappy Fake Out sounds great because once again, fuck Froslass) and I finally evolved Gengar and Scizor. I'll probably post an update in a while if I manage to put together a decent team without losing interest once again.
 
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is it possible to get Landours in pokemon white with sheer force? I am very curious why landours (sheer force) is not even on the top record teams. I want to build a OP landours with sheer force team. please share your wisdom with me. thank you.
 

Light Sanctity

The Usurper
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
is it possible to get Landours in pokemon white with sheer force? I am very curious why landours (sheer force) is not even on the top record teams. I want to build a OP landours with sheer force team. please share your wisdom with me. thank you.
You can trade one to White / Black. But the caveat is that you need Dream Radar + Black 2 / White 2, as you can only move the Pokémon to those games first prior to trading to Black / White. Furthermore, All Pokémon will have a HA, minus Rotom as it has no HA.
 
It is finally time.

I have beaten the Battle Subway in Gen 5. Yes, I have actually beaten it. For real this time. I wanted to make a long post about all of my new experiences with the Subway from this year, like I usually do for battle facilities. Here we are. There is a lot I want to say and I decided to include everything except for some things I didn’t find relevant enough. But this is still going to be quite long. In fact, it became so long that I couldn’t include everything in just one post, I had to split it in four different ones. I’ll make all of these four posts directly after one another.

I’m posting here and not an any other thread because this is the Subway thread after all, it feels like the best place to post about the Subway even if the leaderboards have been dead for more than seven years. Which is a very long time. But even if the leaderboards were still maintained, I’m not sure if I would have wanted to be added to them for most of my streaks since the teams I used for my best streaks aren’t original, and I’m not sure if I want to be on the leaderboards with unoriginal teams.

Before I begin, I want to give a big thanks to turskain for the Battle Facility damage calculator. I found it incredibly helpful during my adventures in the Subway, both during theorymon and in actual battles. I know that there is a newer version of this calculator by Eisenherz, it can be found here. I haven’t used that one very much, though. Either way, both of you deserve a big thanks. I have more to say about the calculators further below, but I wanted to give my thanks to the two of you as early as possible.

As said, most of the teams I used aren’t original, and as usual, I will give credit to the people who originally created the teams. I will also give credit to those who inspired me regarding my somewhat more original team. But as I have been doing lately, I will not tag anyone else in these posts.

That’s my short intro this time. Now, let’s begin with everything.
The fifth generation is my favorite. B/W and B2/W2 are not only my favorite Pokémon games, but also some of my all-time favorite video games.

I also like battling in battle facilities. Ever since I got started with it in 2006 thanks to the Emerald Battle Frontier, it has been one of my favorite things to do in Pokémon games, and my favorite type of challenge in Pokémon. I have battled seriously in almost every battle facility that exists, and I have beaten most of them (in some way) as well.

Despite this, I had never really beaten the Battle Subway for real.

In 2018, I made several big posts where I summarized my experiences with the Battle Facilities in Gen 2-5. The one with info about the Subway can be found here. In that post, I went over everything that I found worth mentioning from my previous Subway experiences (which happened during 2011-2015), as well as my thoughts on the Subway in general. When I was writing that post and working on my Battle Facility project, I realized that I hadn't actually "beaten" the Subway for real. Unlike in Gen 6 & 7, I had not beaten the Super Multi line on any of my games. I hadn't won 200 battles in a row on all of my games either, only on one of them (Black 2). And I realized that I wanted to do all of that in order to truly consider myself done with the Subway, like how I could consider myself done with the Maison in Gen 6 and the Tree in Gen 7. So, when I was working on the project during 2018, I got the initial idea for a potential return to the Subway in the future. Afterwards, I thought about it from time to time. I felt that it could be fun to go back to the Subway. It would give me yet another reason to return to my favorite generation, which would be great as I otherwise had no real good reason to play B/W and B2/W2. In 2019, when I made my post about the Ultra Tree, I mentioned that I had decided to go back to the Subway in the future. At that point, I had made up my mind. But I had still not decided when it would be done.

Earlier this year, after I was done with Sword (for the time being, before the DLC was released), I had planned to take a break from Pokémon for a while. I wanted to take a break and play some other games instead. But then I decided to start gathering ideas for my return to the Subway, so I went to the Subway thread here on Smogon. First of all, I started reading old posts to get some inspiration. I had initially decided to take it easy with this, but after reading some old posts here and seeing great teams made by other players, I managed to hype up myself to extremely high levels. Once that was done, I couldn’t control it anymore. There was no way to turn back. I became so interested in going back to the Subway that I had to get started on it. I kept telling myself that I didn't need to rush it, that there was no time limit and that I should take it easy, but it turned out that the whole thing was so much fun that I couldn't keep myself away from Gen 5 and the Subway. The more I read and thought about it, the more my interest rose. After the initial spark of inspiration had ignited, I knew that I had to get started on the Subway as soon as possible. So that’s what I did.

In my documents, I had written that this whole thing started on February 15th, the same day as I made my post in the Gen 8 Tower thread (where I also mentioned that I had started doing some planning for the Subway). But now that I look back, I think it actually started even earlier. I know for sure that I had started looking for inspiration in the Subway thread here before making my Tower post. Though I guess you could say that it technically started even earlier if we stretch things a bit, but I’d like to think that it all started at some point in the first half of February.

But if we look at this from a different perspective, when should I have been done with the Subway? I usually like to complete the Battle Facilities in the games (and preferably also the games on the whole) before the next main series games are released. So if we look at it from that perspective, I should have been done with the Subway in B/W before the release of B2/W2, and with the Subway in B2/W2 before the release of X/Y. But that did not happen.

Back during the days when Gen 5 was the newest, my original goals for the Subway were to unlock all the Super Lines and then beat the Super Single and Double lines. I did this in B/W in order to get a Trainer Card upgrade, then I did the same thing in B2/W2 because I wanted to have done the same thing on all four games. I also managed to win more than 203 battles in a row on Black 2 as a random bonus. Getting high streaks back then was even more of a bonus to me than it is now, and my streak of 276 on Black 2 was my highest overall streak for several months.

In a way, I was technically done with the Subway in B/W before the release of B2/W2 if we go by my original goals. However, I was not done with the Subway in B2/W2 before the release of X/Y. I remember that I played B2/W2 alongside X/Y for several months after Gen 6 was released. I wasn’t done with B2/W2 until in February 2014 (and even so, I returned to them once more during June-August that year). Battling in the Subway was one of the many things I did in B2/W2 when I played them alongside X/Y.

My new goals for the Subway during my return to it this year were to win 203 battles in a row on the three remaining games, as well as to beat the Super Multi line on all four games. As said, high streaks were just a bonus for me in the past (especially during the Gen 5 days) and I was unsure if I wanted to try to get any high streaks back then. While I honestly wanted to get on the Subway leaderboards here on Smogon, contribute to the thread and be a part of the community, I never had the skills to do it. Or time, for that matter. When Gen 5 was the newest, I ended up focusing on so many on other things in the games instead of the Subway. I also didn’t I feel that I had the skills to make original teams that worked well, and that is something I still struggle with. The reason for 203 wins is that you get a Starf Berry after winning that many battles in a row at the Subway, you also get a Lansat Berry for winning 105 battles in a row. In Gen 6/7/8, the requirements are exactly 100 and 200 wins instead, they are different from the Subway because battles at the Subway are always in rounds of 7 so you get the berries after completing the nearest round after 100 and 200 wins, respectively. The Starf Berry in itself isn’t anything special though, it is a sort of gimmicky berry which I have never even considered using for anything. No, the real reason is the challenge of actually winning 203 battles in a row. I had won 200 in a row on all of my Gen 6 and Gen 7 games, so I wanted to do it on all of my Gen 5 games as well. Regarding Super Multi, I never wanted to beat it in Gen 5 because I think it is a very frustrating format. I have many issues with it, I have stated before them in various posts so I’m not going to do that again.

In retrospect, I should have been completely done with the Subway in B/W before the release of B2/W2, and done with it in B2/W2 before the release of X/Y. But that didn’t happen. Instead, it happened now, in 2020. Two phrases that I like which I also think are appropriate here are these: better late than never, and it is never too late to have fun!
I have said this before, but I’ll say it again. I think the Subway is really hard. If you ask me, it is among the most difficult standard battle facilities. I would say the other hard ones are the Tree in Gen 7, the Emerald Tower and the Crystal Tower.

I’m not completely sure why I find the Subway so hard, but there are a few reasons I can think of, I have listed them below:
  • You don’t have many advantages over the opponent, the only real one is that you can use Hidden Abilities while they won’t.
  • You can face trainers with legendary Pokémon very early, the earliest possible is in battle #28. I don’t think that is possible in any other facility, not sure though.
  • You can still face any opposing Pokémon set (1-4) even after battle #50.
  • In addition to that, there are many trainers who use set 1234 of a Pokémon as opposed to a specific set.
  • The AI is a bit smarter than in Gen 4. For instance, they will switch if they get locked into a non-attacking move.
  • I don’t have any basis for this other than personal experience, but it feels like the Subway relies more on strategy and less on hax to beat you compared to the facilities of Gen 3 & 4. At the same time, it feels like it relies less on strategy than the facilities of Gen 6-7. It is sort of in-between, which I think makes it a bit harder.
Some other things I have noticed about the Subway is that you can sometimes face the same Pokémon species multiple battles in a row. I think I have seen this in the Maison and maybe the Tree as well, but I can’t recall it ever happening to me in the Gen 3/4 facilities. I don’t know why this happens but I don’t really mind, it is just something I have observed and I thought I’d mention it.

One thing I did for the Subway which I don’t usually do for battle facilities (even if it is something I always should be doing) is that I used PP Ups for almost everything in case of stall battles. And that proved to be useful since I got into several stall battles during 203 wins, I di fortunately not get into any during Super Multi though. The only move I didn’t use PP Ups on was Memento since it will pretty much always only be used once every battle. And why does it have 10 PP to start with? 5 would have been enough. That said, I accidentally used PP Ups on one the Memento of one of my users of the move since I wasn’t paying enough attention, a bit of a waste but that doesn’t really matter.

Another thing I did now (but that I don’t always do) is that I looked up opposing movesets during battles. I didn’t do this during Gen 6/7 and I haven’t always done it during past generations either. But I decided to do it now since I really wanted to know exactly what I was facing in every situation. Though I only did it for 203 wins, not for Super Multi. The site I used most of the time was Psypokes, I think it is really great as it lists all Subway trainers and all the Pokémon they can have. They also list everything all the trainers say before and after battle, the most notable is what they say before battle since that means you can identify a trainer before the battle has started, going by what they said. There are some that are a bit tricky though. For instance, there are three Pilots who all say almost the same thing before battle, so be wary of such opponents. That said, I think one of these three only appear during the early rounds. And from what I can remember, the Pilots are the only ones who say things that are this similar.

Psypokes have an issue though. Their EV listings for Sp.att, Sp.def and Speed are wrong. I think there’s just something wrong with the formula/coding on the site. So when using their site, a correction must be done. What they have listed as SA is actually Speed, their SD is Sp.att, and their Spd is Sp.def. Basically, it needs to be corrected like this:

SA = Speed
SD = Sp.Att
Spd = Sp.Def

So that’s a little annoying, but it still works.

I think they also have some EV spreads displayed wrong, such as Muk-3 which is listed as having 510 HP and Magmortar which is listed as having 510 Speed (listed as SA). Neither of them can have these EV spreads (or shouldn’t be able to, at least). In reality, they only have 255 EVs in the respective stat. I guess it is a bit strange how they only have EVs in one stat, but there are some things in the Subway that are a bit weird and this is one of them.

I also used Psypokes list of Subway Pokémon at various occasions, I found it very useful if I wanted to look up various information about an opposing Pokémon in the Subway without looking at a specific trainer and which sets they used.

There was another issue too. Psypokes didn’t always work for me. At least it didn’t always work early on when I battled in the Subway and looked up opposing sets. Nowadays, it seems to always work just fine. During the times when Psypokes didn’t work, I used Serebii instead. Their page is similar to Psypokes, it lists all the trainers in the Subway and which Pokémon they can have. But I believe there are a few minor mistakes there too, don’t remember them in exact detail though. That said, I don’t think any of them affected anything major regarding the Subway. However, Serebii doesn’t list the Natures or EVs for any of the opposing Pokémon in the Subway, so I used this list from the main site here on Smogon as a complement since it lists the details for all opposing Pokémon in the Subway, including Natures and EVs.

Then there’s the damage calculators. I linked to them before, but here they are again:
Battle Facility damage calculator by turskain
New Battle Facility damage calculator by Eisenherz

But as I also said earlier, I mostly used the one by turskain, so I will generally only talk about it. I found it incredibly useful, but I had trouble getting some calculations right in the beginning. Since it auto-defaults to Double and I played Single for 203 wins, it gave me wrong calculations for spread moves at first. It took me quite a long while before I noticed this. At first, I thought something was wrong with the calculator first (since the games couldn’t be wrong), but it turned out I was the one doing things wrong! I wish I had noticed this from the beginning, but I did at least notice it after a while instead of never finding out about it.

I have noticed that there are some things missing from the calculators. The most notable is that neither calculator have the Subway sets for Porygon-Z. I created importable versions of those sets, find them below:
Porygon-Z Set 1 (Porygon-Z) @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave

Porygon-Z Set 2 (Porygon-Z) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Hyper Beam

Porygon-Z Set 3 (Porygon-Z) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Signal Beam
- Charge Beam

Porygon-Z Set 4 (Porygon-Z) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Adaptability
Level: 50
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Tri Attack
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
It also seems that some moves are not displayed and have to be added manually, such as High Jump Kick and Extreme Speed. I guess this is because they got a name change in Gen 6, and that this also happens for all other moves which got a name change in Gen 6. Some Abilities are not displayed at all either even if they exist in Gen 5, such as Rough Skin. There might be more things, but those are some of the missing things that I noticed. turskain and Eisenherz, if either or both of you read this, do you think these things can be fixed? As awesome as your calculators are, I would love to see them become even better.

Another resource I used (but not very much) was turskain’s trainer list for the Subway. Very useful to get a quick overview for what Pokémon all the Subway trainers past battle #28 use. But I did not use it that much since I found Psypokes trainer list to be more useful most of the time.

Next, I should say something about battle videos. The Gen 5 games allows the player to save a battle video in the games, but only one video can be saved at a time. Now that Wi-Fi has closed down, it is no longer possible to upload battle videos to the internet either. I have saved and manually recorded some battle videos though, 5 in total. I know that I could have saved and recorded more videos, but I didn’t have enough interest or time to do that. The videos I have saved and recorded will be found at various points in these posts. But I have also written a lot of battle logs for battles I thought were worth including for one reason or another. These logs might not always be super detailed, and some details were lost in the process, but I thought those could be seen as a replacement for of all the battles I didn’t feature as videos.

Regarding 203 wins, I decided to go for Single instead of Double even if I generally prefer Double over Single for battle facilities. The reason was that I didn’t feel like there are any truly “unbeatable” strategies for Double like in Gen 4/6/7. No level 1 Endeavor, no Talonflame, no Greninja, no Megas, no Z-moves, no Surge Abilities (or even terrains) no Soulblaze Kommo-o... there’s nothing in Gen 5 that feels as unbeatable as those. The closest would probably be HAs, one of the best being DrizzleToad which I had previously used to great success. Notably on Black 2, but also on White and White 2. But I didn’t want to use it again, I’d rather try something new and different. Also, two of the teams I had previously decided on for 203 wins were Single teams, and I eventually decided that the third one I used would be for Single as well.

When I got started, I decided to do 203 wins first and Super Multi afterwards. The reason being that I expected 203 wins to be harder. After all, I had to win 203 battles in a row three times on three different games as opposed to only 49 in a row for Multi. And I only needed to do Super Multi two times on two pairs of games. Also, when I started planning and looking for ideas in the beginning of my return to the Subway, 203 wins was the format where I had actual ideas as for what to use, which I didn't have for Super Multi at the time. And as said earlier, I am not a huge fan of Super Multi, so 203 wins felt like it would be more fun to begin with. That’s why I started with it.

Also, something that is mostly unrelated to everything, but that I thought I’d include here just because I feel like it. The battery lives of my 2 DS lite is just so good! I always use my 2 DS lite instead of my 2 3DS when I play DS games, and it felt like I rarely had to charge them even if I used them quite a lot. Their battery life is far better than that of my 2 3DS, I always had to charge those a lot when I used them even if I always played with 3D turned off, the background light at the lowest level, and usually with wireless turned off (unless I had to use it). And my 2 DS lite are still in fairly good shape on the whole even if I have had my first one since 2006 and my second one since 2008.

Alright. With this intro out of the way, let's begin! First out is with 203 wins.

203 wins (Part 1)
For 203 wins, I decided to my three remaining games in order. First out was Black, which is the first game I got from Gen 5. Despite that, I had never even won 100 battles in a row in the Subway on it, even if I had tried (more or less) a few times.

There was one Subway team I really wanted to use somewhere. I had wanted to use said team for a very long time, and I decided to use it on Black.

Here are the details for it:

1605342974785.png

Whimsicott (M) @ Focus Sash ** Prankstar
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Def / 252 Sp.def
IVs: 31/0/31/15/31/31
Nature: Calm
- Taunt
- Charm
- Worry Seed
- Memento

1605343009772.png

Mesprit @ Choice Scarf ** Empathizer
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/7/31/31/31/31
Nature: Bold
- Trick
- Thunder Wave
- Charm
- Flash

1605342994951.png

Dragonite (F) @ Leftovers ** Revelation
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Att / 20 Def / 28 Sp.def / 6 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/15/31/31
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Roost

Streak: 203 (ongoing)

I started battling with this team on March 27th and I won 203 battles in a row on May 9th.

This team is originally created by Jumpman16, his post about it can be found here. The only difference from his team and mine it is that my Whimsicott has a Calm Nature and a 0 IV in Attack in order to minimize confusion/Foul Play damage. I usually try to have the lowest possible Attack IV on any Pokémon that won’t use Physical attacks just for the sake of this. It is minor, but it can make a difference. Here, it felt better during the few times Whimsicott got confused or was up against an opponent with Foul Play.

Jumpman needs no introduction, he is one of the most well-known facility players here on the forums, maybe he’s even the very most well-known. Basically, a living legend. Over the years, he has been an inspiration to many other players, myself included. At times, he has inspired me to create teams of my own and try them in various facilities. And at other times, he has gotten me interested in giving a try at various facilities with teams he has created. Like with this one.

As said, this was a team I had wanted to use for a long time. I had originally planned to use it during the B/W days, I even RNGed a Cottonee and Dratini on Black which were going to be two of the members of this team. But I couldn’t use the team back then. Because I didn’t have a Mesprit with the right Nature and IVs. I couldn't get one on my own at first either since I didn't know how to RNG in Gen 4 (I later learned it in early 2012). But that didn’t help since I had already caught Mesprit in all of my Sinnoh games and I didn’t want to restart any of them. I suppose I could have tried to get one through trade, but that meant I would probably not be able to nickname it. I don’t remember if I ever got a Bold Mesprit through trade, but if I did, I didn’t use it for this team. I later bought a second copy of Platinum which I was planning to RNG a Bold Mesprit in, but I didn't play through it until 2015. And when I did, I caught my Mesprit there with a Timid Nature instead.

Later on, in 2012, B2/W2 were released and it was possible to catch the lake trio in them. I RNGed myself a Bold Mesprit with perfect IVs in Black 2, which I had planned to hopefully finally use for this team in the future. It meant I had all three members for the team. Still, I didn't get around to using the team since I was focusing on other things, I also took the Dratini I had planned to use for it and used it on another team. But now in 2020, I finally got around to using the team.

How does the team work? This is a crippling team with only one damaging move. The main idea is for Whimsicott to cripple the opponent, then for Mesprit to cripple it even more to the point that Dragonite can set up 6 Dragon Dances and a Sub, then sweep the entire opposing team with +6 Dragon Claws.

Whimsicott’s moves are simple. Taunt to stop the opponents from using any non-damaging moves. Charm to lower the Attack of Physical attackers. Worry Seed to remove annoying Abilities. Then Memento to lower their Attack even more, and Special Attack for Special attackers. It also gives me the chance to safely bring in Mesprit (or sometimes Dragonite). Whimsicott has priority on all four moves thanks to Prankster, it will always move before the opponent unless they are faster and also use a move with increased priority. The Focus Sash allows Whimsicott to always survive at least one move.

In reality, Whimsicott might not always be able to use all the moves it wants to. Sometimes, it only gets the chance to use two moves even if it wants to use three or all four. In such situations, I have to put priority on the moves that are the most important. It usually works but it isn’t always the easiest. Plus, sometimes I make the wrong decision and use the wrong moves. Regarding the EVs, I just used Jumpman’s EV spread. But I’m not sure if it is optimal. I did some calculations after having played with the team, and it seems like a more HP-focused spread of 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 Sp.def allows Whimsicott to take hits better. I think such a spread a might be better, but I’m not sure. Also, maybe Jumpman had some super-secret and very smart reason as for why he focused on Defenses instead of HP. I don’t know. But this worked.

Either way, after Whimsicott has softened the opponent a bit, Mesprit continues on the same route. TrickScarf to lock the opponent into one move, which should be an attacking move since they should be Taunted at this point. The Subway AI is a bit smarter than the Gen 4 AI as Subway opponents will switch out if they get locked into a move that deals no damage. Therefore, Taunt is essential. I knew from previous experiences with another TrickScarf team that the strategy isn’t as great in Gen 5 as it is in Gen 4, it needs support here. Anyway, Mesprit continues with Thunder Wave to paralyze and slow down the opponent (unless they are immune to it), then Charm to lower the Attack of Physical attackers if they weren’t already at -6 from Whimsicott, and finally Flash to lower their Accuracy. But like with Whimsicott, Mesprit might not be able to do everything before it goes down. I usually put the highest priority on Trick, followed by Thunder Wave, then Charm (against Physical attackers) and finally Flash if possible.

I’m not sure if Mesprit’s Nature and EVs are the best possible either. An alternative would be to use a Timid Mesprit with an EV spread of 252 HP / 86 Def / 172 Spd. This gives it 2 stat points less in Defense but 2 more in Speed, giving it a stat of 201 with a Scarf. This allows it to outrun max speed base 130s (Jolteon, Aerodactyl and Crobat). This would be very helpful against them as they are now rather annoying since they will be faster after Trick, allowing them to lock themselves into a non-damaging move and then switch out. I’m not sure if 2 less points in Defense make a difference either, and doing mass calcs is tricky since the opponent might be anywhere between 0 and -6 Attack and 0 and -2 Sp.att against Mesprit.

Another alternative is to use Uxie instead of Mesprit. It is similar to Mesprit but is faster and has higher Defenses. It has slightly lower HP though, and it doesn’t get Charm, but it gets Memento instead which allows it to lower the Sp.att of Special attackers even further, and to always let Dragonite come in safely. Some damage calculations afterwards showed me that Uxie takes hits better than Mesprit on both sides of the spectrum. But this is just theory and maybe Mesprit is the superior choice after all, I can’t say.

Lastly, there’s Dragonite. After Whimsicott and Mesprit has crippled the opposing lead, it is time for Dragonite to set up and sweep. Sometimes I don’t even need both Whimsicott and Mesprit, Whimsicott might be enough against some opponents. One good example is Weezing-4. Against it, I just Taunt, switched to Dragonite, use Sub, and then the Weezing can’t touch me as I set up and destroy it. Those leads are tons of fun. But most leads aren’t that easy. Depending on what move the opponent is locked into, I either set up a Sub first (mostly to block moves that cause status or stat drops, as well as to PP stall really powerful and dangerous moves) or just DD right away instead, recovering with Roost when necessary. If all goes to plan, Dragonite should eventually get to +6, at full HP and behind a Sub. And then, it is time to sweep. But it will not always be able to get to that, sometimes I will have to settle for less than +6 and/or not being at full HP. But I always try to keep it behind a Sub as the first opponent falls. Once Dragonite is at +6, most opponents will fall to a Dragon Claw. Those who survive or has a chance to do so are several Steel-types and a few others who are very bulky: Regirock, Suicune, Shuckle, Cresselia and Rhyperior. As well as those with Sturdy or a Focus Sash. But if Dragonite is behind a Sub, it means it gets 2 safe hits, which is enough to take down almost any opponent. There are only a few opposing sets that aren’t 2HKO’d by a +6 Dragon Claw. And since I am nearly guaranteed to get a safe KO on the opposing lead, only the backups are worrisome. Fortunately, far from all opponents that survive a +6 Dragon Claw can threaten Dragonite back.

Regarding the EVs, it has max Attack to hit as hard as possible while the HP EVs gives Dragonite an even number that is divisible exactly by 4 (192), allowing it to Sub three times (four with Leftovers). 6 (or at least 4) EVs in Speed gives it a Speed stat of 101, letting it outrun other neutral base 80s without any investment. It also allows it outrun max speed base 130s after two dances, the entire unboosted Subway apart from Manectric-4 after three, and the entire unboosted Subway after four. The rest went in Defense and Sp.def. Multiscale is the obvious Ability, it gives Dragonite pretty crazy bulk at full HP. It is great together with the other moves too. Roost temporarily removes several of Nite’s weaknesses while also getting it back to full HP and re-activating Multiscale, while Substitute benefits from Multiscale as some attacks can’t even break Nite’s Sub when it is at full HP.

So that’s the team and how to play it. What weaknesses does it have? There were a few I noticed when playing with the team. The first and the biggest one is not anything related to the team itself but rather related to the player: misplay. I felt that the biggest mistake one can make is to do something wrong during the set-up which puts the team in a bad position. Some examples are: not crippling the opponent enough (or in the wrong way) as well as Dragonite getting hit by status or getting its stats lowered. Looking back on my losses with the team, most of them were caused by misplay. Another weakness is Ice-types and Ice-type moves. Both Whimsicott and Dragonite are weak to Ice, and there’s the risk of getting frozen as well for all three team members. Potential troublesome backups can be annoying too, notably ones which survive a +6 DClaw and can damage Nite or break its Sub. There are also backups with annoying Abilities like Flame Body, Static or Effect Spore, which gives Dragonite a risk of getting struck by status.

Before I started battling with this team, I thought it was going to be awesome. After all, Jumpman had won 300 battles in a row on his first try with this team, and his overall record with the team was 962 (which I didn’t know about at the time, I thought it was 896 and potentially still ongoing). But the team didn’t work that well for me at first. I needed ten tries before I made it to 203 wins. My first nine attempts gave me streaks of 48, 1, 64, 51, 14, 31, 33, 176 and 91. It was the usual, more or less. I lost against Ingo on my first try, in the second battle on my second try (feel free to laugh, I deserve it), and then in seven other situations. And during those tries, I only managed to get past 100 wins once.

After these nine tries, I got tired of trying. I felt that the team had potential, especially since I got to 176 wins on one of my attempts. But I felt that I kept misplaying during which is what lead to my losses, so I was losing interest and my self-confidence was falling as well. I was considering starting to write a “how-to-play”-guide against every possible lead, which I would have mostly for personal preference while playing with the team, but I ended up not doing that. Instead, I decided to try one more time. If I didn’t make it on my tenth try, I would not quit, but take a break and try to win on White instead for a bit, then go back to Black and make more tries again in the future. But on my tenth try, I made it all the way to 203 wins!



I was so happy when it happened because it meant I had completed the first of my new goals for the Subway, and I could move on to the next game.

Looking back at this team now, what do I think of it? Sad as it is to say, I didn’t feel that this team was very fun to use. It felt like the battles generally took a long while to get done. First, I had to cripple the opposing lead with Whimsicott and Mesprit, then set up Dragonite fully. This had to be done in every single battle (with some exceptions). It always took a while to get the battles done. It was still okay in the end, but this is definitely not the most fun team I have used. I’d say this team required a bit more skill to battle with than I had expected before I started battling with it. Skill that I did clearly not have at first, and while I did get to 203 with the team, I still feel that some parts of my skill with using the team can be improved.

Below are the battle logs for this team. Those are all the battles that were scary, close, or that I felt were worth including for any other reason, as well as all my losing battles with the team.
Streak 1:

Battle #33, vs Veteran Hecate. Lead Glaceon, I TrickScarfed it into Blizzard and it ran out of PP too fast, it was followed by a Steelix I misplayed against as Nite hadn't set up enough against the Glaceon. I let the Steelix set up too many Curses and I couldn't hurt it much with DClaw. I managed to win by stalling it out of PP for Payback and Gyro Ball, but it was close. It also used Swagger even if it had PP left for Gyro Ball, the AI is fortunately still a bit stupid sometimes. The last opposing Pokémon was a Gyarados, it was instantly defeated by DClaw.

Battle #45, vs Waitress Roe. Lead Ursaring with Toxic Orb, it defeats Mesprit and then faints to poison the next turn, leaving me with a Dragonite that isn’t at full HP (as I had used Sub to shield it from a potential Critical hit) naked against the next Pokémon. Fortunately, it is Flareon. It uses Protect as I Sub, it is then slower than me and the only damaging move it has is Flame Charge, so I can set up Nite easily. The last opposing Pokémon is Snorlax, it was instantly defeated by DClaw.

Lost in Battle #49, against Ingo. He leads with Chandelure. Taunt + Worry Seed, Whimsi dead. Trick with Mesprit, dead to Shadow Ball before it can do anything more. Dragonite's Sub breaks after just one Shadow Ball, I want to set up but it is risky since Nite is slower than the Chandelure. It gets 2 Sp.def drops and Nite starts taking too much damage, then the Chandelure eventually gets a Crit as well when Nite is not at full HP and not behind a Sub. Nite faints from the Crit and I lose. The mistake I did here was that I used Worry Seed instead of Memento. I should have gone for Taunt + Memento, then Trick, TWave and Flash until Mesprit faints, then set up Nite. I would risk a burn from a possible Flame Body but that would be worth it as I am quite sure I would have beaten both Ingo’s Haxorus and Excadrill afterwards anyway. This was how I handled lead Chandelure on subsequent encounters and it always worked.

Streak 2:

Lost in Battle #2 against Preschooler Zaid. Lead Weezing. Taunt and then Charm, it explodes. In comes Escavalier. Taunt, Megahorn, Whimsi dead. Trick, Megahorn, Mesprit dead. I then shift between Sub and Roost as I try to set up Nite but I made a mistake and subbed a little too much without Roosting in-between as Nite got quite low on HP and was forced to continually Roost, eventually fainting to a Megahorn which I think got a Crit. Oh well. I should have used Charm on the Escavalier with Whimsi instead, that could have given me a better chance of winning. Now this became my new most embarrassing loss in the Subway. And it seems like Escavalier continues to give me problems in the Subway.

Streak 3:

Battle #26, vs Psychic Zaya. Hilarious battle as her Claydol and Exeggutor both exploded on Whimsi, I then taunted her Cofagrigus and crippled it with Mesprit, allowing Dragonite to set up. I could have continued and forced the Cofagrigus to Struggle itself to death, but I decided to spare it from its misery and used DClaw to beat it before it got down to Struggling.

Battle #51, vs Fisherman Fird. Lead Seismitoad, tricked into Muddy Water but I forgot that it could have Poison Touch (thought it was Seismitoad’s HA, stupid mistake) so I didn't use Worry Seed and it later poisoned Nite with Struggle! I only had one DD and a Sub up once it went down. Next is Slowking, DClaw, Ice Beam which breaks my sub, DClaw, Slowking dead. Last is Swampert. It starts using Curse, I send in Mesprit but only manage one Charm before it goes down to a Waterfall. After that I get into a long stallwar as I try to set up Nite but is forced to constantly use Roost and Sub (due to the poison) while the Pert gets fully set up. It eventually runs out of Waterfall PP but doesn't use Quake even if I have Roost. Which I'm happy about. I manage to set up Nite fully and then 3HKO with DClaw while it is sleeping after having used Rest.

Lost in Battle #65 against Veteran Ponta. Lead Jolteon. Taunt + Memento, it is faster than Mesprit and uses Signal Beam, which unfortunately causes confusion. Mesprit hits itself in confusion, then uses Trick on the next turn, and the idiot Jolteon locks itself into Fake Tears after being Tricked. It gets switched out for a Snorlax. I paralyze the Snorlax and try to lower its Attack with Charm, but it defeats me with Double-Edge after using Belly Drum. I try to do something with Nite, but at this point, a DE is strong enough to break Nite’s Sub. I decide to run a damage calc and see what the best option is, a +4 DE does not kill Nite at full HP unless it gets a Crit. I use a Roost and the DE does not Crit but Nite is at too low HP to Roost back to full again afterwards. DClaw does 31-37% and it seems like the Lax is at less than that at this point so I decide to attack in order to hopefully defeat it, which happens. Out comes Weavile. Nite is at less than full HP and not behind a Sub. Ice Punch, game over. Not sure what I could have done to win here, maybe if I had tried to stall even more with Nite and hope that the Lax would get fully paralyzed, but I would have gotten low on HP eventually if that hadn't happened, and the Lax would have died from recoil sooner or later anyway. This was one of the battles that made me wonder if a Timid Mesprit might be the better alternative since it would probably have won me this battle as it would have been faster than the Jolteon.

Streak 4:

Lost in battle #52, against Veteran Colombo. Lead Articuno, unknown set. Taunt, it tries Mind Reader but fails, confirming set 2. Memento next turn, it uses Ice Beam but fails. I had a bit of a suspicion here that it might try Sheer Cold, but since it used Ice Beam against Whimsi, I thought that it would hopefully do that again. So I Trick, and it uses Sheer Cold, which fortunately misses. Still unfortunate that it got locked into it though, and now it is faster than me. Next turn I go for TWave but I am slower and Sheer Cold hits, Mesprit down. In with Nite, I try to go for a Sub, but the bird is still faster and Sheer Cold hits again, Nite goes down and I lose. This was a very unfortunate matchup, I’m really unsure about the best way to play against lead Articuno-2 with this team. I guess I could go for TWave right away instead of Trick, but it has a Lum Berry which means I need to hit it twice, and then it has Ice Beam as well which means it might be hard for Nite to set up afterwards.

Streak 5:

Battle #7, vs Cyclist Amhed. Lead Nidoking, Taunt + Memento. In with Mesprit, Trick + one Flash was all I got since Mesprit got poisoned and the Nidoking’s Black Sludge. The Nido is locked into Sludge Bomb, in with Nite. I am slower and Nite does of course get poisoned. I still manage to set up and beat the Nido and the Alakazam that was after it, but the last opposing Pokémon is Bastiodon. Which is the idiotic set with no damaging moves, but it has Iron Defense and ChestoRest. It would have been an easy victory… if Nite hadn't been poisoned. I still manage to win by stalling it out of PP for Rest and then I get an 8HKO with DClaw, I had exactly 8 PP left before I started to attack. I did not get a single Crit with DClaw from all of these hits, which should have been 21 in total.

Lost in battle #15, against Gentleman Boyce. Lead Tangrowth, Taunt + Memento, tricked into Wring Out and TWaved, I set up Nite easily. Next is Gigalith. Nite is not at full HP and I realize too late that the Gigalith has Sturdy and a Custap Berry. DClaw, Stone Edge, Sub breaks. Custap activates, Stone Edge, Nite down. Mesprit couldn't do anything from there, the Gigalith exploded and the last opponent was an Exeggutor which beat Mesprit.

Streak 6:

Lost in Battle #32, against Nursery Aide Evelyn. Lead Leafeon, Taunt, it tries Swords Dance but fails, confirming set 1. I then make a mistake and try to Charm it instead of switching out (or using Memento) and locking it into X-Scissor while it is Taunted. I manage to Charm twice, then Whimsi goes down. Out with Mesprit. Trick, the Leafeon chooses to lock itself into Grasswhistle. It puts Mesprit to sleep and then does not switch out until Mesprit wakes up. In comes Glaceon. Not good. One TWave and one Flash, then Mesprit falls to Blizzard, meaning it can be either set 1, 3 or 4. It should be safe for Nite since I can just stall the Glaceon out of Blizzard PP and then set up. Or so I thought. Sub, Blizzard, Sub breaks. Sub, the Glaceon is fully paralyzed. I go for Roost on the next turn, but the Glaceon’s Quick Claw activates, confirming set 1. Not good. Quick Claw activates again on the next turn and Nite falls at full HP to a Blizzard (guaranteed OHKO according to the calculator), so I lose. I should have played better against the Leafeon, that's what led to my loss this time around.

Streak 7:

Battle #22, vs Gentleman Dover. Close and scary battle. Lead Flygon, Charm+Memento, Trick and then Charm, it is locked into Draco Meteor. I send in Nite as the Flygon was out of PP for Meteor. I start setting up Nite and manage to get to +2 behind a Sub. Out comes Blissey. DClaw for 95%, Ice Beam, Sub breaks. DClaw again, dead. Out comes Rhyperior. It has Avalanche, Horn Drill and Focus Sash, not fun to face. I switch to Mesprit as it uses Avalanche, then Trick to remove the Sash, but it kills Mesprit with Payback. Guess I should have used Charm instead. Then I stall for a long while with Nite, being forced to shift between Sub and Roost, it is scary when Nite is not behind a Sub as Horn Drill can defeat me at any point during those situations. I only manage to set up one DD and get a hit with a +1 DClaw as the Rhyperior uses Horn Drill once but misses against my Sub. Nite’s DClaw does around 40%, which is not enough. Fortunately, the Rhyperior focuses on Avalanche and Payback instead of Horn Drill, but those moves are too strong and keep breaking my Sub when I'm not at full HP, which I'm mostly not. Horn Drill only hits once, which is when I am behind a Sub. In the end, it misses with Horn Drill when I'm behind a Sub once more, so I DClaw twice more to bring it down.

Lost in battle #34, against Veteran Hecate. Lead Haxorus, Taunt as it goes for Dragon Claw, which does around 40%. I then make the big mistake and switch to Mesprit instead of using Memento (or Charm), it does way too much damage to Mesprit. The second mistake was that I used Trick instead of TWave, Haxorus is now super-fast and locked into Dragon Claw. Back to Whimsi, I use Worry Seed since this one was Female with Rivalry, my Dragonite is also Female which means a Female Haxorus with Rivalry does extra damage to it. I should have gone for Charm instead, though I’m unsure if it would have made a difference. Then it seems like I used Charm, at least. But Whimsi faints. Out with Mesprit, but it is slower and dies to DClaw. Out with Nite. I Sub but the Haxorus uses DClaw which combined with the Sub does way more than 50%. Using Roost won't put me back at full HP. It breaks my Sub as I go for a DClaw which kills and hope for a kind follow-up, but nope. It is Gardevoir. Out of all possible Pokémon, I am forced to lose against my least favorite. A Psychic Gem-boosted Psychic takes down Nite.

Streak 8:

One scary battle in the early 90s against a socialite with legendaries. Lead Moltres, Taunt, Memento, Trick, locked into Heat Wave. TWave and Flash to -6, in with Nite but I only manage to set up 3 dances and a Sub before the Moltres faints from Struggle. Out comes Suicune. DClaw for about 70% or so, Sitrus recovery, Ice Beam, Sub breaks. DClaw, dead. Out comes Regice. DClaw does not kill, Ice Beam does more than 50%, DClaw again, dead. If the Regice had gotten a Crit with Ice Beam, or if Nite had gotten frozen, I would have lost.

Battle #99, vs Pilot Chand. Lead Articuno, Taunt+ Memento, it uses Blizzard. It is not set 2, fortunately. Trick and TWave with Mesprit, then Charm until it is out of PP. Out with Nite and I start setting up, but I only manage to set up 4 Dances and a Sub. Arti down, out comes Skarmory. DClaw does not kill, it uses Roar to bring Mesprit back into the battle. TWave, Brave Bird, Mesprit dead. I try to set up Nite but only manage to get 2 Dances before the bird goes down to BB recoil. In comes Moltres. I run a damage calc just to be sure. None of the Moltres in the Subway has EVs in HP or Def, and a +2 Claw is a safe kill, so I use that and win.

Battle #114, vs Scientist Lotte. Lead Manectric. Worry Seed, Switcheroo, Whimsi is now Scarfed. Memento, in with Mesprit, Trick, the Manectric uses Volt Switch, in comes Toxicroak. Something goes wrong in my head as I think I have Whimsi out and not Mesprit, so I use Trick instead of TWave, giving it Whimsi's Focus Sash (lol). It 2HKOs Mesprit with Gunk Shot. Fortunately, it does not hit Nite unless I am behind a Sub, nor does it use Taunt, it keeps trying with Gunk Shot/Sucker Punch instead, allowing me to set up fully and be behind a Sub. I then defeat the Toxicroak, the Manectric and the last mon which was a Weezing. This battle featured a bit of misplay from my side but I got lucky and managed to win despite that.

Lost in battle #177, against Veteran Risha. Lead Heatran. Taunt, it uses Lava Plume, confirming set 1 which is good. Memento, Trick, TWave, Flash to -6, then set up Nite to full. Unfortunately, the Heatran runs out of PP as I have just set up fully, it uses Struggle which breaks my Sub. Nite is now at full HP but not behind a Sub. That was more important than I thought. The Heatran faints, out comes Regirock. One of them is a Custap Set which is not fun. I count on +6 DClaw for the kill, but it lives with just a sliver of HP! It uses Curse. I do a damage calc just to check:

+6 252+ Atk Dragonite Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Regirock: 168-198 (89.8 - 105.8%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

The more you know. Either way, since it is set 1 which isn’t the Custap Set, I have nothing to worry about. One more DClaw and the Regirock goes down. Out comes Cobalion. Since there is a Metal Burst set and Coba tends to survive a DClaw, I go for Sub. It uses Psych Up, which means it is now at +6 Att/Speed. Not good. Iron Head, sub breaks, DClaw for like 90%. Iron Head, Nite down. Mesprit could obviously not do anything and fell to an Iron Head. Decided to run another damage calc afterwards:

+6 252 Atk Cobalion Iron Head vs. 204 HP / 20 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 108-128 (56.2 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Interestingly, it would not have KO'd through Multiscale. Oh well. This loss was very sour since I had won 7/8 of my way to the goal. I should have played better against the Regirock here, I should have set up a Sub after it used Curse, hoping it wouldn't attack so that I would have a Sub up when the Cobalion came out afterwards, giving me better chances of winning.

Streak 9:

Battle #68, vs Cyclist Margit. Scary and close battle. Lead Zebstrika, Taunt, Charm, switch to Mesprit, the zebra uses Volt Switch. In comes Accelgor, it gets hit with a TWave that was meant for the Zebstrika (in retrospect, I forgot about the fact Zebstrika is immune to TWave due to always having either Lightningrod or Motor Drive, which means I must use Worry Seed first). Switch to Whimsi, it dies to the Accelgor’s U-Turn, Zebstrika comes back in. Trick, it gets a Crit with Wild Charge and Mesprit dies before it can do anything more. I try to set up Nite but Wild Charge does too much damage, it is also faster than me and gets a Crit, I only manage to set up one DD before it faints to recoil. Nite is not at full HP nor behind a Sub. Out comes Nidoking. It has Icy Wind, and a +1 DClaw does not KO. Sub, Icy Wind, Sub breaks. I do a quick calc and see that I can Sub once more and then Roost to full HP, so I Sub again, IW, Sub breaks. Next turn Roost, IW, not much damage but Nite is now at +0 Speed and slower than the Nido. I do another calc and see that a +2 DClaw has a guaranteed KO so I go for DD and the Nidoking practically gives me the win by using Protect! KO on the next turn, Nite got poisoned but it doesn't matter at this point. The paralyzed Accelgor is easily 2HKO’d by DClaw.

Battle #69, vs Maid Anguile (two hard battles in a row!). Lead Blaziken, Taunt to scout, it uses Flare Blitz, confirming set 3 or 4. Both of them only have attacking moves, one is Banded, the other has a Shuca Berry. Charm, Whimsi dies. I'm not sure if I want to gamble against the possible Band set (wasn’t sure how it would work if I used Trick and got another Choice item, and I did not want to test it) so I go for TWave, then I let Mesprit stay in and it is KO’d eventually. Out with Nite, Sub, Blitz, Sub breaks? This more or less confirms the Band set. I then make the mistake and use Roost instead of Sub, which leads to Nite getting burned. I still somehow manage to set up 4 Dances while the Blaziken dies to recoil. Next Pokémon is Charizard. It uses Rock Slide, which means it is set 2 or 3. Likely 3 (Scarf) since set 2 has DCLaw which will do more damage. A Burned +4 DClaw does not KO, so I shift between Sub and Roost until it runs out of PP and uses Struggle (meaning it was the Scarf set), letting me set up 2 more Dances and then defeat it. The last opposing Pokémon is Torterra. It isn’t KO’d by a Burned +6 DClaw, but it uses Stockpile, which means it is the safe set 4. It is easily KO’d by a few Dragon Claws.

Battle #85, vs Hiker Jorge. Lead Excadrill, crippled and locked into Poison Jab, it poisons Nite as I switch it in. I set up fully and beat it as well as the Hippowdon that was afterwards. The last opposing Pokémon is Steelix. Nite didn't have a Sub up so I did that to scout, the Steelix uses Curse. DClaw for less than 50%, Nite is taking constant damage from both Poison and Sandstorm, which is not good. I switch out for Whimsi and Mesprit as both were still alive, I lower the Steelix's Attack with Charm. Then out with Nite again, Payback was now doing very little damage. I set up Nite a little and even get two Crits with DClaw, giving me the win.

Lost in battle #92, against Ace Trainer Palm. Lead Salamence, I make an instant mistake as I go for Charm and not Taunt, it uses Dragon Dance. Taunt next, then Memento. However, it is faster than Mesprit thanks to the Dance it did. DClaw, Trick, the idiot Sala locks itself into DD. I use TWave and then I decide to switch out for Nite, but that was a mistake as my opponent switches out the Mence for an Arcanine. It has Intimidate, but that matters less. It is faster and goes for Flare Blitz despite knowing both Crunch and Extremespeed. Setting up is risky so I switch back to Mesprit but it gets defeated by two Flare Blitzes. I start setting up Nite but it gets burned, followed by a Crit which puts me at very low HP. It then finishes me with ESpeed. The mistake I did here was to not Taunt the Salamence, I should have done that instead. This battle taught me to always Taunt Salamence first, unless I know it is set 3 or 4 from the start.

Streak 10:

Battle #28, vs Veteran Jeune. Lead Regice, Worry Seed, it uses Amnesia, confirming set 3. Taunt, Ice Beam, Whimsi frozen. Out with Mesprit, it also gets Frozen and doesn't thaw as I try to Trick. Out with Whimsi again, it doesn't thaw either and faints. I then stall with Nite which does fortunately not get frozen when I am not behind a Sub. The Regice runs out of IB PP and I start setting up, it starts using Charge Beam but I manage to stall it out of PP for that too, getting to +6 and at full HP behind a Sub. The Regice is then easily OHKO’d, the same goes for the Articuno and Zapdos that appeared after it. If Nite had been frozen or hit by a Crit when it was not behind a Sub, I would have lost this battle.

Battle #192, vs Pilot Chand. Lead Crobat, Taunt, then Memento. It is set 1, so I go for Trick and then hope for TWave, but it locks itself into Hypnosis. Mesprit is asleep, the bat switches out, in comes Moltres. It uses Heat Wave and Air Slash, confirming set 4. Mesprit does not wake up and is defeated, out with Nite. I am slower and Air Slash might flinch, but I manage to set up 6 dances. Heat Wave still breaks my sub though, so I attack without having a Sub. Moltres and Crobat faint, the last mon is Mandibuzz which also goes down. In retrospect, I shouldn't have used Trick against the bat, should have gone for TWave immediately instead. It could still have used U-Turn to switch out, but I feel that my chances of victory would have been quite good even with that.

I saved Battle #203, mostly as proof of actually making it all the way. Video below:


Battle summary and comments:
My opponent is Maid Fesan. She uses starters, any set. She leads with a Typhlosion which I confirm to be set 2 as it uses WoW followed by Inferno. Whimsi does it’s magic with Taunt+Memento, Mesprit uses Trick, TWave and then Charm to lower Attack since the Typh will quickly run out of PP anyway. I do not send in Nite since it will get burned if it gets hit by Inferno, which I can’t afford. Unfortunately for the Typh, it does not hit with Inferno a single time! Once it is out of PP, I send in Nite and manage to set up 4 Dances and a Sub before the Typh falls to Struggle recoil. It was followed by an Infernape-4 and an unknown Blaziken set, both went down easily. This was an easy battle; this opposing trainer has no real dangerous Pokémon for the team on her roster. The closest would be Empoleon, but Nite at +4 should be able to handle all Empoleon sets without major issues. That said, I still think I could have played a bit differently here and not Tricked the Typh. I could have gone for TWave, then switched to Nite and then back to Mesprit and used Flash instead in order to get Nite to +6. But even so, it went easy and without issues.

Looking back, I only had two tough battles on the streak that got me to 203. I think that at this point, I had learned how to play the team correctly in most situations. Or maybe I just got lucky and didn’t face as many problematic leads/situations. Or maybe it was a combination of both these things? Either way, I made it all the way!
And that’s it for Black. After winning 203 in a row here, it was time for the next game.
 
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203 wins (Part 2)
After I had decided which team to use for Black, I had to decide on a team for White as well. I looked through the leaderboards here on Smogon for inspiration, and I quickly found a team that I really wanted to give a try. I had sort of planned to use this team in the past just like with Jumpman’s team. But like with Jumpman’s team, I never got around to using this team either. There was a very good reason as for why I used this team now and why I wanted to use it in the past, but we’ll get to that later. I bred and trained the members of this team alongside the team I used on Black, but in order to not overwhelm myself too much, I didn’t start battling with this team at the Subway in White until I had won 203 in a row on Black.

Here are the details for the team:

1605343137043.png

Cloyster (M) @ Focus Sash ** Frostburn
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Att / 6 Sp.att / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
Nature: Naughty
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Surf
- Shell Smash

1605343154739.png

Garchomp (F) @ Choice Scarf ** Stormspire
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Att / 100 Sp.def / 158 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/28/31/31
Nature: Adamant
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Aerial Ace

1605343167956.png

Suicune @ Leftovers ** Velvet
Ability: Pressure
IVs: 31/17/31/31/31/31
EVs: 238 HP / 244 Def / 28 Spd
Nature: Bold
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Rest

Streak: 203 (ongoing)

I started battling with this team on May 10th. Then I took a break on June 4th and started again on June 15th. But I took another initially unplanned break pretty much immediately and started again on June 21st. After that, I finally won 203 battles in a row on July 9th.

This team is originally created by Peterko, his post about it can be found here. The only difference between his team and mine is that my Garchomp has Rough Skin instead of Sand Veil.

Peterko is one of the great facility battlers from the past, he was in charge of both this Subway thread and the Gen 4 Tower/Frontier threads before it. However, he hasn't been online here on the forums for over 7 years now. And going by the last posts he made here at the forums, he hadn't played Pokémon for several months before that either. My guess is that he simply just quit Pokémon. Which is a bit sad to see, but also understandable. Playing too much comes with the risk of getting burnt out and losing interest, I know that feeling very well, both from the past and the present… I kind of miss Peterko these days. He is similar to Jumpman in that he was an inspiration for me and many others. He was a really great facility battler during the Gen 4/5 days (and maybe Gen 3 too?), that's for sure.

Back to the team and everything about it. Unlike Jumpman’s team, this is more of a goodstuffs team. So why did I decide to use it when it wasn’t obvious how to play with it in every situation? As I said earlier, there’s a reason, but we’ll get to it later. One thing at a time.

Peterko had made two versions of this team. He made it to 623 wins during his best streak with the first version, and his record with the second version is 461 wins. I decided to go with Version 2 of the team. Because as Peterko himself put it: "This team felt better/more solid than version 1, despite achieving a lower streak." I believed he was right regarding that. 100% accurate Surf over 95% accurate Razor Shell as well as a Garchomp that can beat Magnezone without issues (unless it gets hit by a Flash Cannon crit) and has more SDef to tank special hits better. My Garchomp also has Rough Skin to punish attackers who make direct contact. This felt like it should be solid.

Since this is a goodstuffs team, how I played depending on the opponent I was facing. I could either set up Cloyster and sweep, attack directly with Cloyster, switch to Garchomp for a direct KO, or go to Suicune and set up/stall.

Cloyster would usually Smash once and then attack, it is faster than almost the entire Subway after a Smash (the only ones that outrun it at +2 are Manectric-4 and Entei-3). But it could also attack right away or I could switch it out for Garchomp/Suicune depending on what I was facing. Cloyster is strong enough to defeat or put a serious dent in most opponents after a Smash. Icicle Spear is the main move, it deals a ton of damage thanks to STAB and the fact that it always hits five times thanks to Skill Link. This also allows it to break Sturdy, Focus Sashes and even Substitutes. Rock Blast was for coverage even if it is unreliable due to 90% accuracy. I disliked that but I still used it when I had to. I always hoped it wouldn't miss against important matchups where it "had to" hit or I would lose or at least be in a very bad situation, notably against Regice. Surf was for coverage, secondary STAB, it also allowed Cloyster to become a mixed attacker. Peterko did an analysis of whether Surf or Razor Shell was the better option and came to the conclusion that Surf was better in general. Razor Shell is still better against some opponents, but Surf is generally the better alternative on the whole. Lastly, there’s Shell Smash which is obviously for boosting. The Focus Sash lets Cloyster always survive at least one move. A Naughty Nature to boost Attack without lowering any important stat (basically, Sp.att or Speed). Cloyster still has great Defense even without any investment thanks to a base Defense of 180. But its Sp.def is terrible, so it can live with a Naughty Nature that lowers its Sp.def even further. The EVs are obvious, maxed Attack and Speed in order to hit as hard as possible and to be as fast as possible, the rest goes in Sp.att to give a little extra boost to Surf.

Garchomp is next. It is Scarfed in order to outrun as much as possible, it is also immune to Electric-type moves which is necessary as both of the other members of the team are weak to Electric. Outrage hits super hard and is one of Garchomp’s most used moves, Earthquake for secondary STAB and to take down Electric-types. Fire Fang for coverage, it is helpful against Steel-types that aren't weak to Earthquake, like Scizor or Skarmory. Aerial Ace is mostly for having a 100% accurate move, it was useful during a few occasions but it was the least used move on the team. I think I mostly used it when I just couldn’t afford to miss, I also recall that I nuked a Heracross with it once which was fun. Rough Skin is the best Ability for Garchomp, it punishes any attacker that makes physical contact. And it always works compared to Sand Veil which only works during Sandstorm, and even then, it only raises evasion a bit. I don’t find that very useful since I'd rather not rely (too much) on luck to win, and this team doesn't use on Sandstorm either. I can't always expect to face a Hippowdon/Tyranitar or any other opponent with Sandstorm. I am fully convinced that Rough Skin is the better choice and that the only reason Peterko didn't go with it was because HA Garchomp hadn't been released when he first made this team. Because of Rough Skin, I’d like to consider my version of this team to be V3, even if it is just a minor difference.

As for the EVs, Garchomp has maxed Attack and an Adamant Nature to hit as hard as possible. The Speed EVs and a Scarf gives it an effective Speed stat of 213, which lets it outrun all but 11 unboosted opponents in the Subway. The remaining 100 EVs goes in Sp.def in order to let it survive 2 Flash Cannons from Magnezone, which the team otherwise has issues with. That said, Magnezone still has a 6.3% chance to OHKO with Flash Cannon if it gets a crit, the same goes for Steel Gem Klinklang. But the line has to be drawn somewhere. The chance of a Crit (6.25%) combined with a 6.3% chance of the damage being high enough is pretty small. Besides, dropping Garchomp's Speed even more means it will be outrun by even more Pokémon (notably Electrode), which it can't afford. And lowering Attack means it will deal less damage which is not good either, not sure if it misses out on any important KO’s though. It will at least deal less damage on the whole, and that’s not good. So these EVs feel like they are the best possible for it.

Lastly, we have Suicune. The main goal for it was to set up on or stop Pokémon that the others couldn't handle, or to waste the opponent’s PP. I had used Suicune before, but never really as much as a PP staller to the extent that I used it as on this team. It worked extremely well as PP staller. Scald is the only attacking move, it deals damage and has a chance of burning opponents if they don't faint, it can also thaw Suicune if it gets frozen. And the Burn chance is very useful against powerful Physical attackers, in order to lower the damage they deal. Calm Mind to raise Sp.att and Sp.def, making Suicune almost invincible once it has set up fully. Substitute to protect from status, stat drops, Crits and OHKOs as well as to force the opponents to waste more PP. Then Rest which is used to restore HP and cure status. Leftovers is the obvious hold item for Suicune as it allows it to restore HP at the end of each turn. The EVs lets it use Substitute 5 times (as long as it has Leftovers) and still live with 1 HP left afterwards, letting it use Rest to get back to full. The Speed EVs gives it a Speed stat of 109, which is an empty Speed tier. It also let’s Suicune outrun uninvested Base 85s. The rest goes in Defense to tank Physical hits better, the Bold Nature also helps with this. It has no way to boost its Defense like it can boost its Sp.def with Calm Mind, so it needs the extra investment in Defense.

This might sound crazy, but Suicune was honestly my favorite Pokémon to use on this team. I really liked setting up Suicune even if it meant that the battles took longer compared to sweeping with Cloyster or Garchomp. The reason is that Suicune felt like the safest option for this team. At +6, full HP and behind a Sub, very few things can stop Suicune. The only ones I can think of that has a chance of beating it at that point are bulky Grass-types with a hard-hitting Physical Grass-type move (like Leaf Blade Leafeon), or Pokémon that are immune to Water thanks to having Water Absorb/Dry Skin/Storm Drain. But they aren’t that bad. While Suicune can't hit them, not all of them can hit it back either. The major issue is Poliwrath with Water Absorb (which is also a big problem for the team in general), but also possibly Gastrodon/Quagsire with Curse, Lapras and Politoed. And extreme hax, of course. But on the whole, if Suicune manages to set up fully, it is basically unstoppable. It is my favorite Johto legendary by far, even more now after using it successfully on this team.

As for obtaining the members of this team, I already had Suicune ready to go as I had trained a Suicune like this for another Subway team in the past. I just had to max the PP for all of its moves, then it was done. I also RNGed a Shellder and a Gible, then I trained them and the team was ready!

So that's the team. Now, let’s get back to what I talked about earlier. Why did I use this team to begin with? The reason is that Peterko had written a "how-to play" guide for it, which settled things for me. Knowing how to play in every situation is always great. But that’s not how it was in reality. The guide he had written was made for V1 of the team, so not everything in it could be used for this version 2 (or 3) of the team. Before I started with the team and as I was playing with it, I went through his guide and edited it, factoring in all the changes that has been made for the team (as well as some other changes based on my own experiences). Below, I have included my version of the guide. It is adapted for a Naughty Cloyster with Surf as well as a Garchomp with boosted Sp.def over Speed and Rough Skin.

Some of these have been written by me, some by Peterko, and some are the combination of both his and my experiences with the team. Some are based on my own or Peterko’s experiences in practice, others are purely based on theory. This might not be 100% accurate and there might be mistakes. If you notice any mistakes or anything that looks wrong, please let me know and I'll correct it! Also, feel free to tell me if you have any suggestions for improvements, like if there are any approaches to various Pokémon that you think are better than the ones written here or if something should be rewritten/reformatted. This guide is technically still a WIP, there’s always room for further improvements!

The ones in bold are opposing Pokémon that are dangerous, potentially dangerous, or just annoying.

Here we go!
Abomasnow - Potential danger.
Set 1/4: Switch to Cune and set up, just make sure you don’t get seeded when you are up against set 1.
Set 2: Smash + Spear is a safe KO; Double Team can be annoying though.
Set 3: Spear, then sacrifice Cloyster, send out Chomp and KO.
Unknown: Spear and see what it does, then either set up Cune, or sacrifice Cloy and finish with Chomp depending on the set. If an unknown Aboma set comes out later in the match when Cloyster is at 1 HP: switch to Cune, Sub once (to figure out the set) and then sacrifice Cloy to safely bring Garchomp (set 2 & 3) or stall with Cune (set 1 & 4). Note that set 3 has a Sash so it needs to be damaged first in order for Chomp to finish it, hopefully Wood Hammer recoil should do just that.

Absol – Smash + Spear or Spear right away. Set 1/2/3 are pretty much set up bait, set 4 can be annoying with Swagger/WoW but Suicune sets up on that pretty easily unless you get really unlucky.

Accelgor – Smash + Spear.

Aerodactyl – Smash + Spear while hoping it's the CB set 4 that uses Stone Edge, not the ones using Rock Slide. If it flinches you, you still have a 100% OHKO with Outrage and Cune as back up if anything goes wrong.

Aggron – use Surf for a 2HKO against set 1/3/4, finish with Chomp's Quake if Cloyster falls, or set up Cune. Smash is a bad idea because of Sturdy/Sash. Against set 2, set up Cune directly. If you are scared of TWave and getting flinched to death while paralyzed, send in Chomp first to absorb the TWave, then go to Cune and set up. Unknown set: Surf first, then set up Cune if it is set 2, finish set 1/3/4 with Cloy/Chomp.

Alakazam – Spear right away if you don't know the set or if it is set 4 (almost always). Why? Because it will TrickSpecs. Smash + Spear should be safe against set 1/2/3 though.

Altaria – Smash + Spear. You should be able to Smash even if it flinches you with Sky Attack, but if Cloyster falls, just take it down with Chomp’s Outrage.

Ambipom – Smash + Spear. You should be able to tank a FO + BB from set 3 unless it gets a Crit, then set up as your amazing 200 defense allows you to survive those two hits even if Ambi holds a LO. Set 4 might Taunt you.

Ampharos – Garchomp, KO with Quake.

Arcanine – Smash + Surf. Set 4 might KO with Close Combat + Extremespeed if it gets high enough damage rolls, but it never used Extremespeed against me. Set 3 will Overheat and is set up bait, but don't forget that Intimidate lowers your Physical damage output. For what it's worth, Suicune should beat Arcanine almost every time, just watch out for the 5 Sunny Beams (set 1 and 3).

Archeops – same as Aero, Smash + Spear and hope it won't flinch. Set 4 tends to Protect turn 1, which makes it one of the safest things to Smash against.

Armaldo – Smash + Spear.

Articuno – Smash + Spear. Set 1 has a small chance to survive but can’t do much back to you, set 2 will almost always survive as +2 Spear only has a 6.3% chance to KO unless you get a Crit. Set 3 and 4 will fall though. Set 2 might beat Cloyster if it hits with Sheer Cold followed by an Ice Shard, not sure if it will do that though. If Cloyster falls, Cune should be able to set up on every Articuno, just make sure to stay behind a Sub against set 2 so you don't get hit by Sheer Cold.

Bastiodon – Smash + Surf. It will likely survive, it can't get through Suicune if Cloy falls, and Chomp has a 4x SE STAB Quake to destroy it with.

Beartic – Potential danger. Smash + Rock Blast. It's annoyingly bulky, plus Lax Incense/Snow Cloak. Cune should be able to handle it if Cloy falls. Just watch out for the boosting sets.

Bisharp – Surf or Smash + Surf against set 1/2, depending on what you feel like. They will all live a +2 Surf or 2 regular Surfs though. You can also switch to Chomp and Quake. Yes, it's got Taunt, but it's slower than you and you don't mind being taunted after you Smash, right? Set 4 will use Taunt, Iron Head and then Sucker Punch, which beats Cloyster. Either switch to Chomp immediately or use Surf first and then switch. Set 3 might also beat Cloyster, so do the same thing against it. Unknown set: Surf and see what it does, then either finish with Cloy or Chomp.

Blastoise – switch to Cune and set up. If you feel like it, Smash + Rock Blast against set 1, but set 1/2/3 are really Cune set up bait. Set 4 could potentially annoy with Focus Punch (46-55 damage against your 51 HP Subs).

Blaziken – Smash + Surf.

Blissey – Depends on the set.
Set 1/2 will likely Thunder Wave, so switch to Chomp and 2HKO them with Outrage.
Set 3/4: Smash + Spear. Set 3 might survive, but if it does and beats Cloy, you can just beat it with Chomp or set up Cune. A +2 Spear will KO set 4, but it might annoy you with Toxic, Mud Bomb or Minimize. Just set up Cune if Cloy falls or if you start missing too much.
Unknown set: Switch to Garchomp and see what it does. Outrage set 1 and 2, set up Cune on set 3 and 4.

Bouffalant – Smash + Spear. Set 3 has a Sitrus so it will survive, set 1/2/4 also has a small chance of living but set 1 and 4 should always fall if they use Head Charge. If set 1 used Scary Face, Smash twice or even three times.

Braviary – Smash + Spear, Smash twice if it uses Tailwind.

Breloom – Danger! Spear right away! Set 2 & 3 have a faster Spore than you (134 speed), you're better off piercing this on sight with your Spears. On the other hand, things generally like to tighten their focus in the Subway only to lose it. Garchomp can also OHKO set 1/2 with Aerial Ace, set 3 will live because of the Sash while set 4 has a chance to survive. Watch out for Effect Spore.

Bronzong – Potential danger.
Set 1/3/4: Set up Cune, no way to lose against set 1/4, set 3 might break your Sub if it uses Explosion or gets a Crit but it should be easy otherwise.
Set 2: Switch to Chomp and use Fire Fang. You'll do minimal damage if it has Heatproof and sets up Rain Dance and/or Light Screen, but it can only damage you with Grass Knot which will cause recoil thanks to Rough Skin, so that means you should be able to win in the end. You could also go for a Surf before switching to cause some extra damage, not sure if it is worth it though.
Unknown: Surf to scout which set it is, then switch to Chomp (set 2) or Cune (set 1/3/4).

Carracosta – Depends on the set.
Set 1 will probably always lead with Smash, so you should also Smash and then 2HKO with Surf. If Cloy falls, just finish it with Chomp.
Set 2/3/4: Suicune.
Unknown set: Smash+Surf (it outdamages Spear against all sets) and then either go to Cune or KO with Chomp if Cloy falls.

Chandelure – Smash + Surf. You will KO set 1/2/3 and have an 81.3% chance to KO set 4. You can Rock Blast that one instead but it is not recommended.

Charizard – Smash + Spear. If the Scarf one burns you (it will Heat Wave), just set up Cune.

Claydol – Smash + Spear.

Cobalion – Potential danger. Surf and see which set it is, then either set up Cune (set 1 & 3), bring in Chomp and finish with Quake (set 2) or sacrifice Cloy to bring in Chomp and KO with Quake (set 4). Beware of Psych Up Coba (set 3) that isn't leading, it can use Psych Up to get the same boosts as you. But don't panic, that one only has Iron Head to hurt Cune so you should be able to finish it off with Scald.

Cofagrigus – Smash + Spear if you don't feel like stalling, otherwise use Cune. Set 2 could be dangerous with Nasty Plot and Energy Ball though. In general, Suicune is the safer option here (except against set 2) since Cofagrigus 1/2/3 have a big chance to survive a +2 Spear, set 4 will always survive unless you get a Crit. They might also annoy with WoW, Cloyster does not like being burned.

Conkeldurr – Danger! Spear right away against set 2/4 because Superpower/Hammer Arm + Mach Punch beats you. After the initial Superpower Atk drop from set 4, Suicune should be able to set up most of time, but it's far from easy. Set 2 will probably be even harder so maybe the best way is to sacrifice Cloyster against it and then defeat it with Chomp. Smash + Spear should be safe against set 1/3 though, set 1 will be 2HKO'd but may paralyze with Force Palm, and you KO set 3 unless it uses Bulk up.

Cradily – Smash + Spear. Despite Toxic+2 Protects, you should be able to sweep or at least beat 2 & ½ of the opponent's team and finish off something with Chomp/Cune.

Cresselia – switch to Cune and set up, no way to lose against this one leading.

Crobat – Smash + Spear. Watch out for Hypnosis and Taunt, but Bat can't hurt you much.

Cryogonal – Smash + Spear.

Darmanitan – Smash + Surf is the general approach, but Rock Blast set 1 (Passho) or an unknown set which could be set 1 if it didn't use Belly Drum.

Dewgong – Smash + Rock Blast set 1/4, go to Cune against set 2/3 or unknown since set 2 will KO Cloy with Signal Beam + Ice Shard while set 3 will do the same with Fake Out + Surf + Aqua Jet. If Rock Blast misses and Cloy falls, Cune sets up easily on all of them anyway.

Donphan – Spear right away against set 4 or unknown since set 4 has a QC, Smash + Spear against set 1/2/3. You're better off at low health without a boost than feeling sorry for losing to QC Fissures later.

Dragonite – Spear right away against set 2/4 or unknown, Smash + Spear against set 3. Go to Cune against set 1, it will probably use TWave or Toxic but can’t hurt you much with Rock Slide. Set 2 is faster and will Bolt (potential para), set 4 might QC hax but is Cune set up bait after the Superpower drop.

Drapion – Smash + Spear. Set 1 will survive a +2 Spear but it went for Taunt or Toxic Spikes instead when I faced it (it is slower, so Taunt won't matter) and even if it should attack, neither of its moves should hurt Cloy that much.

Drifblim – Danger! Smash is safe against set 1, you might even Smash 2 or 3 times. Set 1 can't hurt you but it can Baton Pass out to something worse, though at that point you should be at 2 or 3 Smashes so it should be safe. And it will only get to set up 2 times in the best case, which will probably not be enough for it to win. Spear directly against set 2/3/4 or unknown, they might paralyze with Bolt though. In a worst-case scenario, Cune should be able to set up on them (I successfully did it once, but it was far from easy, so be careful).

Druddigon – Smash + Spear.

Dugtrio – Smash + Spear.

Durant – Smash + Surf. You will KO set 1/2/3. Set 4 has a Sash so it will survive, but it probably won't 2HKO while you can safely 2HKO back. It might use Entrainment though, which is annoying since Cloyster doesn't like losing Skill Link.

Dusknoir – Suicune, no way to lose against this.

Eelektross – Depends on the set.
Set 1/unknown: Chomp, 2HKO with Outrage.
Set 2/4: Smash + Spear, you should still win even if set 2 goes for Coil on turn 1.
Set 3: Spear twice for a KO since it has a Sitrus Berry.

Electivire – Potential danger.
Set 1/2: Smash + Spear, Smash twice if set 1 uses Dig. If Cloyster got flinched by Rock Slide, switch to Chomp and KO with Quake. Set 2 might burn you if it uses Fire Punch. If that happens and Cloy falls, finish it with Chomp.
Set 3/4: Chomp, KO with Outrage since set 3 has an Air Balloon and set 4 a Shuca.
Unknown: Go to Chomp and Outrage unless you know it is set 1, in that case Quake is a safe KO.

Electrode – Garchomp.

Emboar – Smash + Surf. Set 1 will survive a +2 Surf though, so either Smash twice against it (since it will likely start with Curse) or just 2HKO with Surf after smashing. Watch out for QC hax from set 2 and 3, but you have Cune and Chomp as backups.

Empoleon – Suicune. Set up fully. It takes a little longer, but you want to win, right?

Entei – Smash + Surf (set 2/4) or Rock Blast (set 1, it is Sashed). Set 2 might survive though. If it is the Scarf set 3, switch to Cune, set up a few CMs and a Sub as it Struggles.

Escavalier – Danger! A big pain. Either Smash + Surf or Surf right away and maybe Smash afterwards, depending on what it does. You could also take the risk and Rock Blast if you feel like it. It will survive 2 Surfs and a +2 Surf though, so you'll probably have to sacrifice Cloy and finish with Chomp. Watch out for set 2 which has Quick Claw and set 4 which has a Custap Berry. Garchomp is awesome because it straight up 2HKOs all sets with Quake and doing so doesn't activate Swarm, Custap, Liechi and all that stuff. Note that Fire Fang is not a 100% OHKO, only a 31,25%. Plus, you don't want to miss against this. If something goes wrong, Cune should be able to stall set 1/2/4 out of Megahorn PP and set up, set 2 will be harder since it has X-Scissor and Swords Dance.

Espeon – Smash + Spear.

Excadrill – Smash + Spear. Smash twice against set 2 if it uses Dig. Surf can be also used against set 1 if it uses Iron Defense.

Exeggutor – Smash + Spear against set 1/2/3, Spear directly against set 4 or unknown since set 4 has Trick Room.

Exploud – Smash + Spear.

Feraligatr – Potential danger. Smash + Spear/Rock Blast, depending on if you are willing to take the risk of a miss or not. Blast does more damage but will not KO (unless it is set 2 and it used Superpower). You should be able to get off some attacks thanks to your defense. Don't let it DD too much against you.

Ferrothorn – Depends on the set.
Set 1: Go to Cune directly against this one since it has TWave. Or go to Chomp first to absorb the TWave, then send out Cune.
Set 2/3/4: Smash + Spear. Set up Cune if Cloy falls. But try to Burn Ferro in order to avoid taking too much damage after it sets up too many Curses.
Unknown: Go to Cune and see what it does, set up but try to Burn it with Scald if it is one of the Curse sets.

Flareon – Smash + Spear against the Sash set 1 and Surf against the others, they should fall. Set 2 and 3 can be annoying if they use WoW though. You have Cune as back up, also Chomp. Smash twice against set 1 if it uses Dig.

Floatzel – Smash + Spear. If Cloy falls, this can’t get through Cune at all.

Flygon – Smash + Spear.

Forretress – Smash + Surf. It will survive but there's a big chance set 1/2/4 won't use any damaging move, giving you a chance to 2HKO them.

Froslass – Smash + Rock Blast/Spear. Spear KOs if you get a CH among the 5 hits (27,58% chance). The most frequent set 4 is Cune set up bait. If you're scared of set 1 which has Bolt, use Spear and then finish off with Chomp. You've got a Scarf and Aerial Ace, questions?

Gallade – Smash + Spear.

Garchomp – Smash + Spear.

Gardevoir – Danger! Worst Pokémon ever, but fortunately not the worst opponent for this team.
Set 1/3: Smash + Spear. Set 1 might annoy with faster Taunt and Hypnosis but can't hurt you back, just spear it if it Taunts you. Set 3 it is annoying with Brightpowder but Chomp has a 100% KO with Outrage on set 3 if Cloy misses against it.
Set 2: Switch to Chomp and KO with Outrage.
Set 4: Either Spear right away or risk a Smash + Spear, you'll KO if Cloy doesn't get paralyzed or if it used Psychic. Clean up with Chomp if Cloy falls, Outrage has a 100% KO here as well.
Unknown: Either Smash + Spear or Spear right away depending on what you feel like.

Gastrodon – Smash + Spear.

Gengar – Danger! The general strategy is to Spear right away as an unboosted Spear will OHKO all sets. Spear directly against set 1/3/4/unknown, but set up Cune against set 2. Set 1 potentially HypnoEats your team apart because of the Sash. If Cloy gets fully paralyzed against set 4, just defeat it with Chomp afterwards.

Gigalith – Depends on the set.
Set 1/2/4: 2HKO with Surf, it will succeed even if it goes for Sandstorm.
Set 3: Spear + Surf, because of Custap. It might survive if it uses Sandstorm though.
Unknown: Spear + Surf, guaranteed KO on set 1, set 2/3 might survive if they use Sandstorm, set 4 might survive anyway. Other than that, both Chomp and Cune can beat this.

Glaceon – Smash + Rock Blast, Suicune beats them all if anything goes wrong.

Gliscor – Smash + Spear.

Golem – Smash + Spear.

Golurk – Smash + Spear.

Gothitelle – Smash + Spear. Cune should handle set 4 easily if you manage to lose Cloy to Flatter confusion hax + Psychic. Note that after a few CMs, the opponent will only use Psych Up.

Granbull – Potential danger. Smash + Spear against set 1/2/3 or unknown, set 1/2 might fall if they don't have Intimidate or if set 2 doesn't use Bulk Up or Charm (if so, you should Smash twice), set 3 will fall even if it has Intimidate. Against set 4, set up Cune.

Gyarados – Smash + Spear. Set 1 is annoying since it leads with TWave. Set 2 and 3 fall to a +1 Spear (you only get to +1 because of Intimidate). Set 4 can take the Spear most of the time thanks to Intimidate and max HP, but it can't do much in return. If you feel like it, use Rock Blast. But Gyarados is generally too dangerous to give it a shot. You can also Smash twice against set 4 if it starts with Dragon Dance (which it likely will).

Hariyama – Danger! THICK FAT fighter with priority! Be sure to take note of how much damage it takes from Spears to check whether it has Thick Fat or Guts.
Set up Cune against set 1, go for Spear and then either Surf or Spear again against set 2/3/4 depending on if it has Thick Fat or Guts. Unknown: Spear and see which set it is, then continue according to the plan. Just be prepared to lose Cloyster against any Hariyama that isn’t set 1.

Haxorus – Smash + Spear.

Heatran – Potential danger. Switch to Cune. Set 1 hits hard with Earth Power and always breaks your Sub with it. You need at least 1 CM, then PP stall Earth Power and Dark Pulse. Watch out for SD drops. Set 2 is much more manageable as it will try to WoW Cune most of the time and you're behind a Sub. Set 3 SunnyBeam is even worse than set 1, it also survives a Quake 50% of the time. You can win, but it will not be all easy. Set 4 might open with Magma Storm which means an instaKO on Cloyster, that's why you should switch to Cune. It still hits like a truck and once got 2 CHs out of the 3 hits with Storm against Cune. Hope you won’t get to face many lead Heatran in your streak.

Heracross – Smash + Spear.

Hippowdon – Smash + Spear but it's possible to lose Cloyster against Hippo if set 1 CHs you with Quake. Also watch out for Yawn.

Honchkrow – Smash + Spear against set 1, Spear immediately against set 2/3/4 or unknown. Set 2 has Sucker Punch, while you don't want to risk set 3 Snatching your boosts or getting hit by a TWave from set 4.

Houndoom – Smash + Spear or Surf. Set 2 has a Sash, so spear it. The others will fall to either Spear or Surf, go for Spear if it used Sunny Day turn 1 (probably not) or Surf if you got burned and survived. Otherwise, either should work.

Hydreigon – Smash + Spear. Don't be surprised if set 4 flinches you with Dragon Gem Dragon Rush. Set up Cune if you lose Cloy, or Outrage it with Chomp.

Infernape – Potential danger.
Set 1: Smash + Surf, it can't KO you even if it uses Fake Out turn 1.
Set 2: Smash + Surf, it has a small chance to live if it uses CM but that means you get 2 hits so you win anyway.
Set 3: Might beat you with FO+CC but maybe it will CC right away and give you a shot. Smash and see what it uses.
Set 4: Smash + Rock Blast. It will likely use Fake Out turn 1 and Encore turn 2, don't be surprised if it Flare Blitzes/CCs though.
Unknown: Smash and then either Surf or Rock Blast depending on the set. If Cloy falls, send in Chomp to beat it, you'll survive a CC unless it crits.

Jolteon – Garchomp. Outspeeds and OHKOs all sets.

Jynx – Smash + Spear. Set 2/3/4 tend to go for the KO with Psychic, set 1 has no damaging moves but can annoy with Lovely Kiss and Attract (if your Cloyster is Male), but have some fun and Smash three times against it even if it might take a little longer.

Kangaskhan – Smash + Spear. They will always FO turn 1 and then Sub or attack turn 2. One +2 Spear hit does at least 25,5% dmg so it should always KO even through the Sub. You should survive the 2 hits thanks to your Defense.

Kingdra – Smash + Spear. The Sitrus set 3 will sometimes survive, so don't be surprised.

Klinklang – Potential danger. Switch to Garchomp and KO with Quake. Chances are you'll have to eat a Steel Gem Flash Cannon from set 4. It has a 6.3% chance to OHKO Chomp if it gets a Crit, same as Magnezone. The others might also annoy with strong Gear Grind or other moves.

Krookodile – Smash + Spear. You’ll OHKO all sets even if they have Intimidate.

Landorus – Smash + Spear. You can outright KO it with Spear, but it's quite important to be at +2 against Legendary trainers. Rock Slide might flinch you.

Lanturn – Chomp, Quake. You only have a 62,5% chance to OHKO set 4, but you should survive the Ice Beam unless it crits. If that happens, set up Cune. All other sets fall to Quake.

Lapras – Potential danger. Brightpowder, BoltBeam and possibly Water Absorb, a real nightmare for this team.
Set 1: Go to Suicune, stall it out of Thunder PP (you will need to switch-stall between Chomp and Cune a little if it uses Rain Dance, which it probably will pretty quickly), then set up Cloyster, hope it won't use Confuse Ray, though there's a chance it wasted all of the PP for that against Cune. Or just waste it out of PP for Confuse Ray and Ice Shard as well before setting up Cloy (or just plain defeat it with Cune if it doesn't have Water Absorb). Or just set up Cune anyway and let Lapras struggle to death if you don’t mind spending the extra time and really feel that it deserves to suffer.
Set 2: Suicune, stall it out of PP for Ice Beam and Surf, then send in Cloyster, Smash x3 and nuke everything in sight.
Set 3 The worst one as it is a SPIT set with Brightpowder. Switch-stall it out of PP for Ice Beam, then use Outrage which is a safe 2HKO. Surf or Psychic won't do that much in return, they can't KO even with a Crit.
Set 4: Perish Trapper. Smash + Rock Blast and hope it hits.
Unknown set: I’d say either Rock Blast, Smash + Rock Blast, or switch to Chomp, all depending on what you feel like. See what it does if you choose to stay in with Cloy, then act accordingly.

Latias – Spear! Set 3 will TrickSpecs and then proceed to beat your team, so Spear any Latias right away.

Latios – Smash + Spear. No TrickSpecs set here, but Thunderbolt/Thunder mean paralysis danger.

Leafeon – Danger! Spear right away against set 4 or unknown, Smash + Spear against set 1/2/3. Dangerous one that might beat the whole team if you get unlucky, Leaf Blade hits like a truck and has a high Crit rate, Chomp can't OHKO any of them with Outrage.

Lickilicky – Danger! A normal type that survives a lot. Set 1 might paralyze you with Bolt, set 2 and 3 survive a couple of Spears and set 4 paralyzes you with Body Slam, avoids your attacks with Lax Incense and then Explodes. Smash + Spear against set 2/3, Spear directly against set 1/4 or unknown.

Lilligant – Smash + Spear against set 1/3/4. You outspeed and OHKO set 2 which has annoying moves, so Spear it right away. Spear right away against unknown sets too in order to hopefully get rid of them. Lilligant might annoy with Teeter Dance, Leech Seed, Sleep Powder and the like, but it will hopefully go for a direct attack instead.

Lopunny – Smash + Spear. If you get a Flame Orb, set up Cune.

Lucario – Smash + Spear or Surf. Annoying because you'll likely lose Cloyster against set 1 and 4. A +2 Spear only has a 6.3% chance to OHKO unless you get a crit. Surf has a 25% chance to OHKO but it only has one hit as opposed to five from Spear (meaning five times the chance of a crit compared to Surf, and if you get a Crit, you'll defeat it). Set 2 and 3 should fall if they use Close Combat (which they will, they have no reason not to). You can't send in Chomp because it can fall if they get a Crit. Most of the time against set 4, you will damage it with Cloy and finish with Chomp.

Ludicolo – Danger! Smash + Spear against set 1/3. Spear right away against set 2/4 or unknown. It likes to open with FO. Set 4 beats Suicune and speed ties with your Cloyster (FO+GK KOs you), but you have Outrage.

Luxray – Garchomp. Watch out for set 4 with the Balloon, it survives an Outrage. A possible strategy against set 4 is to first switch to Chomp to absorb the Electric move, then to Cune, Sub as it TWaves, Scald to break the Balloon, then back to Chomp and KO with Quake. I never got to test it in practice but it should work in theory unless Lux doesn’t use TWave against Cune.

Machamp – Smash + Spear if it's not the Scarf set 3. You should Spear that one and hope for no confusion hax. It will only get at most 2 more DynamicPunches against Cune and Struggle afterwards, you should be able to handle it somehow. Outrage doesn't OHKO.

Magmortar – Smash + Surf against set 2/4, Rock Blast set 1/3 or unknown because of Passho.

Magnezone – Switch to Garchomp and KO with Quake unless it uses Magnet Rise, go for Fire Fang instead in that case. Fire Fang will only 3HKO but you should be able to take it down. Quake will KO if it doesn't have Sturdy except against set 2 (Shuca) which might survive anyway. It has a 6.3% chance to OHKO Chomp with Flash Cannon if it gets a Crit, otherwise Chomp will always survive 2 Flash Cannons unless the first one gets a Sp.def drop. If Chomp falls, finish it with Cloy or Cune.

Mamoswine – Smash + Spear. Don't be surprised if it Hails and avoids all your hits.

Mandibuzz – Somewhat annoying one. Set 1 is faster and has Flatter and Taunt, it is better to hope for no Confusion hax and Spear that one right away for a KO. Smash + Spear against set 2/3/4. Set 4 could be annoying with Swagger, but it always started with Substitute against me. Suicune should be able to set up on set 4 easily if Cloy should fall.

Manectric – Chomp. This will often Overheat, but also TrickScarf. But your Chomp holds one as well, so you're fine. You’ll have to Outrage the Balloon set 3, beware of Static.

Marowak – Smash + Spear.

Medicham – Danger! You’ll generally want to Spear it and then finish with Chomp if Cloy falls.
Set 1/3/4/unknown: Spear, finish with Chomp if Cloy falls.
Set 2: Smash + Spear.
Set 2/3/4 are OHKO'd by Chomp's Outrage, set 1 will live but it can't OHKO in return unless it gets a Crit. Set 2/3/4 may be OHKO'd by an unboosted Spear, but may also survive.

Meganium – Smash + Spear. Set 4 will Seed you.

Metagross – Danger! Takes Surfs like a Champ, hits hard, TrickOrbs, Explodes and survives a Quake sometimes.
Set 1: Smash, then Surf until Cloy falls.
Set 2: Switch to Cune and set up.
Set 3: Smash and then Surf unless it used Explosion, which it did immediately against me once when I had used Surf, leaving Cloyster at a huge disadvantage against the Gyarados that appeared afterwards.
Set 4: Smash twice (it will use Trick followed by Protect), then Surf, you will beat it if you manage to get 2 hits. If you think you are smart by switching to Chomp to give it a Scarf, it can backfire if Meta decides to Protect next turn which results in a switch afterwards. The Scarf is generally very important on Chomp (that's why you use it). Another possible strategy is to Surf first, then switch to Cune and set up after Cloy has been given the Toxic Orb. It can’t damage Cune too much unless it gets a bunch of Attack boosts with Meteor Mash.
Unknown: Smash and see which set it is, then act accordingly.
Most of the time you'll lose Cloyster and finish off with Chomp’s Quake or set up Cune.

Mienshao – Danger! Fighting priority user. I attack with Spear because HJK + Feint or FO + HJK will KO Cloy. You can save Cloyster with a switch to Chomp on the supposed Feint or FO, but don't be surprised if you get hit by a HJK. Smash + Spear should be safe against set 1, Spear right away against set 2/3/4 or unknown.

Milotic – Suicune. Long stallwar.

Miltank – THICK FAT! Annoying one. Smash + Spear, follow with Surf if Spear does too little damage (which means the cow has Thick Fat). Set up Cune if Cloy falls, or just finish with Chomp.

Mismagius – Danger! Set 3 knows Bolt, Icy Wind, Shadow Ball and Destiny Bond. You should Spear that one right away or Smash and risk the 10% paralysis chance if you feel like it. Smash + Spear against set 1/2/4, though set 1 might Taunt you. Set 4 can be annoying, but it can't touch you unless you hurt yourself because of Confusion hax.

Moltres – Smash + Spear. Burns happen, also CHs and flinches.

Mr. Mime – Set 1 will TrickScarf, so Spear right away against it or an unknown set. Smash + Spear against set 2/3/4.

Muk – Garchomp. Don't be surprised to get to eat a QC Explosion.

Musharna – Danger! Spear this. If you get a CH/10, you will 2HKO this. Set 3 also has a small chance to be KO’d even without a CH. Against set 4, it's OK to Smash, but set 2 will beat you most of the time. You can also set up Cune against set 1, it can't touch you once you are behind a Sub.

Nidoking – Smash + Spear. You might get poisoned, but Chomp’s Quake OHKOs in that case.

Nidoqueen – same as Nidoking, but set 2 may paralyze you.

Ninetales – Smash + Rock Blast or Surf depending on the set. Blast against set 1/4 (since they have Passho) or unknown, Surf against set 2/3. Quake if something goes wrong.

Pinsir – Smash + Spear. You will like set 4 as lead, but not set 3. Lax Incense. Evil item. It's possible to lose a couple of Pokémon against this one.

Politoed – Potential danger. Smash + Rock Blast/Spear. Maybe you get lucky and set 4 doesn't hit with its 84% accurate Focus Blast, but Cune stalls that one badly. Set 3 is somewhat dangerous with the Belly Drum and Water Absorb, but Outrage KOs (min 87% damage) after the Drum. Suicune should be able to stall set 1/2 as well.

Poliwrath – Danger! Probably top 5 or even top 3 worst Pokémon to face for this team. Water Absorb Wrath beats Cune 1on1 with Focus Punch, which is annoying. It is much more manageable as a lead, because it will often go for Focus Punch. Cloy can use Icicle Spear to KO it in like 5 turns. Spear does a minimum of 50 damage, which means it always breaks the Sub. Set 2 knows Belly Drum, but you should damage it enough for an Outrage finisher. Even if you don't, Outrage KOs set 2 after the Drum/Shell Bell recovery. Cloyster can beat set 1 too - I did it once through the following: Smash and then Spear twice as it used Work Up followed by Psychic.

Porygon-Z – Danger! Smash + Spear is safe against set 2/3, Smash twice against set 2 (Specs Hyper Beam), while set 3 is naturally slower and will start with Charge Beam. Spear right away against set 1/4 or unknown, finish with Chomp if it survives.

Porygon2 – Danger! If Z is dangerous, this one's even worse. Much bulkier, but hits almost as hard. Set 1 can be switch-stalled between Chomp and Cune until it runs out of PP for Zap Cannon, then Cune can set up and beat it. Spear against set 2/4, then finish them with Chomp’s Outrage when Cloy falls. Set 3 holds a Specs, you might be able to set up Cune or force it out with Chomp depending on which move it locks itself into, but Spear first to scout. Spear right away against unknown sets.

Probopass – Potential danger. Switch to Chomp and KO with Quake. You might get to eat an Explosion from set 3, which will KO if it gets Crit. Set 1/2/4 can't do much though.

Quagsire – Smash + Spear.

Raichu – Chomp, KO with Quake. The Focus Sash sets shouldn't be any problems, both of them will fall thanks to Rough Skin - if they even choose to attack you in the first place. If they don’t, they will be safely 2HKO’d.

Raikou – Chomp. Outrage against the Ballooners or if it used Magnet Rise, otherwise Quake. Can't hurt you much with Shadow Ball or Extrasensory.

Rampardos – Smash + Spear.

Rapidash – Smash + Surf/Spear. Set 1 holds a Passho and will survive a Surf, Spear is not a guaranteed OHKO either but it is your best bet against this one. You can Rock Blast instead if you feel like it and risk a miss. Set 2 falls to both moves unless you get burned (use Surf) or it uses Sunny Day (use Spear). Set 3 holds a Sash but will fall to a Surf if it uses Flare Blitz. If it somehow doesn't use Blitz, go for Spear instead for a potential KO. Set 4 will fall to a Surf. Unknown: Smash + Surf or Spear depending on which move it used on turn 1.

Regice – Danger! One of the worst opponents for this team. Either Smash + Rock Blast (KO on all sets if you hit) or Rock Blast right away (if you want 2 chances). Set 1 takes 61-72% damage from Outrage, but it can survive 2 hits thanks to Sitrus, obviously OHKOing Chomp back with Ice Beam. If Cloyster falls, you could potentially switch-stall set 1 out of Ice Beam PP, then Outrage it. Set 2 will be considerably harder since it has both Icy Wind and Ice Beam. Suicune can successfully set up on set 3 (I did that once) but it is not all easy. Suicune should be able to set up on set 4 as well since it has inaccurate moves with low PP, but I have fortunately never needed to try it in practice. You will face many legendary trainers (1 out of 10 in general) hope they don't use Regice very often.

Regigigas – Danger! More like annoying piece of garbage... It can't get it going but takes hits like a champ, plus uses DT and parafusionflinch hax. Yes, it is possible to lose to Regigigas. It will surely hurt. Smash + Spear and hope for the best. If Cloyster falls, Suicune should be able to set up on it unless you get really unlucky. It will get both faster and stronger once the Slow Start is over though, those 5 turns might go by quickly.

Regirock – Smash + Surf. You'll OHKO set 2/3/4, Set 1 will survive but it will always start with Curse so you can still 2HKO it, and you still have Chomp with Quake as a backup in a worst-case scenario.

Registeel – Suicune. You should be able to stall/set up even if it's the Rock Polish set 2 with Thunderpunch (max 50 dmg doesn't break your 51 HP Sub).

Reuniclus – Danger! This is similar to Musharna. It's very bulky and survives a +2 Spear. You're better off using Spear twice, hoping for some CHs. Set 4 will TrickOrb so you only get 2 turns.

Rhyperior – Smash + Spear or Surf. Set 3 will survive a +2 STAB SE Spear if it has Solid Rock, not many other Pokémon can do that. Set 1/2/4 will die to either Spear or Surf at +2. Set 3 is holding a Sash, so Spear is needed against it.

Roserade – Smash + Spear against set 1/2/4, Spear set 3 or unknown right away because Sludge Bomb might poison. It might use Leaf Storm instead, but better safe than sorry. The others should be safe to Smash against, set 2 might annoy with Attract if it is the opposite gender your Cloyster, but it will hopefully go for Energy Ball instead.

Salamence – Smash + Spear. Set 1 has Scary Face, set 2 RS with the chance of a flinch...but Sala is overall a good and safe Smash candidate. You’ll KO all sets even at +1 because of Intimidate. Smash 2 or 3 times if it uses Scary Face.

Samurott – Suicune. A bulky water = a job for Cune. Set 4 knows Grass Knot but you should have plenty of CMs under your belt by the time it starts using that. It seems like the AI doesn't consider GK 100 base power against Cune and uses other attacks first.

Sawk – Smash + Spear. Set 1 might Taunt you, but shouldn't be any problems despite that.

Sceptile – Smash + Spear against set 2/3/4, Spear right away against set 1 or unknown. Set 1 has Leaf Storm + QA which beats Cloy. A fast grass type with strong STAB attacks, the team doesn't like that, get rid of this ASAP.

Scizor – Danger! I'm not really sure how to play against it to be honest. But the general strategy is to either Smash + Surf or Surf right away.
Set 1: It started with Swords Dance against me and has no priority moves. Surf for a 98.9% chance to 3HKO this one.
Set 2: This started with Agility and was 2HKO'd by a +2 Surf, so Smash + Surf. It might defeat you if it uses X-Scissor and then Bullet Punch after you Smash.
Set 3: Either Smash + Surf or Surf, finish with Chomp if Cloy falls.
Set 4: Surf once or twice, then either sacrifice Cloy or switch to Chomp and finish with Fire Fang. The Occa Berry means it will survive the first Fire Fang, unless it is heavily damaged already. It is also possible to set up Suicune if it has Swarm.
Unknown: Surf and see what happens.
Scizor is one of those Pokémon that Cloyster can and will often lose to. When Cloy falls, just finish with Chomp.

Scrafty – Potential danger. Very bulky plus STAB fighting attacks. Smash + Spear, Garchomp will have to finish it off if Cloy falls.

Seismitoad – Smash + Spear. Set 1 Sludge Wave poisons, but it is set up bait for Cune.

Serperior – Danger! Similar to Sceptile, but worse because of Powder set 3. Serp can take a hit and Leaf Storm hurts. Spear if unknown or set 1/2/3 because of Leaf Tornado/Brightpowder. Smash + Spear is safe against set 4 (Specs Leaf Storm). You also outrun set 2 and have a 93.8% chance to KO it with spear.

Shiftry – Smash + Spear.

Shuckle – Annoying. I think Suicune is the best option here. You set up easily on set 1 and 4, just be careful so you don’t get an Encore from set 1. Set 3 has Power Trick but only Gyro Ball (3 PP against Cune) so you'll beat it. Set 2 is worse since it has both Bug Bite and Rock Slide as well as Encore, but if it used Power Trick, it should auto-die to any attack from Cloy or Chomp unless Sturdy lets it live.

Skarmory – Potential danger. Smash + Spear. A +2 Spear is not a sure KO on the WW or Roar sets, but you KO the Scarf set. If it phazed out to Cune or Chomp after being hit by a Spear, just KO it with Scald or Fire Fang.

Skuntank – Smash + Spear. Can be annoying though. Don't underestimate LO Foul Play and Taunt.

Slaking – Smash twice + Spear.

Slowbro – Suicune. You should fully set up on each set.

Slowking – Suicune. Set 3 Specs Psychic hurts like hell though. Not sure which attack it uses against Cloy. You have to stall with Cune and set up on Struggle (with Cloy).

Snorlax – Danger! Thick Fat and max Defense on all sets means it won't be taking much damage. 3 of them also hold a Sitrus Berry. Spear first and see how much damage it does, set 1/2/3 take 21.2 - 27.6% with Thick Fat, 44.6 - 53.1% with Immunity. Set 4 takes 19.1 - 25.5% with Thick Fat and 38.2 - 46.8% with Immunity. Follow up with Surf if it has Thick Fat against set 1/2/3, otherwise continue with Spear. Spear outdamages Surf against set 4 independent of the Ability. You could Rock Blast but it is not recommended since it can miss, I once lost a battle because Blast missed against a Snorlax. Garchomp will do 49.7 - 58.7% with Outrage against set 1/2/3, 45.1 - 53.6% against set 4, which means it is not a safe 2HKO... which doesn't matter anyway because of the three Sitrus Berries. Lead Snorlax is a pain, you will beat it but just be prepared to lose Cloyster against it.

Spiritomb - Suicune. You should be able to set up on set 1 and 4 without issues. Set 3 can annoy with Swagger and Psych Up but you should be able to beat it. Set 2 might annoy with Taunt and QC, consider a switch to Chomp if Cune is about to lose against it but watch out for QC WoW in that case.

Staraptor – Smash + Spear.

Starmie – Danger! Or rather a big pain. If it is set 1/2/3, switch to Cune and set up, or go for a Smash + Blast and hope you hit. Cune is the recommended alternative though. If it is set 4, switch to Chomp as it uses Bolt (though sometimes it will use Psychic instead, which is annoying), then switch to Cune as it uses Ice Beam, repeat until it is out of Beam PP and use Outrage with Chomp for a 75% chance to OHKO, though it might still 2HKO you with Psychic in return or possibly even OHKO if it gets a Crit. If it is an unknown set that might be set 4, switch to Chomp and then to Cune, at this point you should know the set, so act accordingly. Set 4 once got a Crit on my Chomp which left it at so low HP that it chose random moves afterwards, making me unable to switch-stall it out of Ice Beam PP. I had to gamble and use Outrage, but I was lucky and got a KO.

Steelix – Smash + Surf. You’ll OHKO if it hasn't got Sturdy, 2HKO otherwise. Watch out for set 3 which has QC and Explosion.

Suicune – Suicune. There's no way that your Cune loses to the AI's. If you PP waste the attacks, you can set up Cloy to +6. One of the very rare occasions.

Swampert – Smash + Spear. Set 1 might survive, set 2 and 4 will survive if they use Curse. But that means you get 2 hits, so you win anyway. Clean up with Chomp if Cloy falls.

Tangrowth – Danger! Physical defensive Grass type. Similar to Leafeon and just as dangerous. Smash + Spear against set 1/2/3, Spear set 4 or unknown because it has a Lax Incense. It might survive, but if it does, you can defeat it with Chomp if you manage to hit it with Spear first.

Tauros – Smash + Spear, but it'll probably survive because of Intimidate. Finish it with Chomp if Cloy falls, or set up Cune on set 4.

Tentacruel – Danger! Set 4 has max Defense, so Rock Blast won't do much. You should definitely do some damage either way. Set 3 is Sashed. Chomp is a good check with Quake. Smash + either Rock Blast or Spear and finish with Chomp if Cloy falls. Suicune should be able to set up on set 4 and possibly set 1 as well (just be sure to not get poisoned too much). Set 2 opened with Swords Dance against me (it is faster than Cloy before a Smash) and was KO'd by a +2 Rock Blast. Set 3 will also fall to a Smash + Rock Blast (it used Giga Drain against me), but Spear might be the safer option, then KO with Chomp afterwards.

Terrakion – Smash + Spear or Surf, both will KO all sets at +2. You outspeed the Scarf one (240) after the Smash (244), Spear always KOs even through Sitrus. Sacred Sword having a higher base power than Slide means Smashing is safe.

Throh – Smash + Spear, set 4 will fall, set 1 will always live unless you get a Crit, while set 2/3 has a chance to survive. It isn't as dangerous as Hariyama or Conkeldurr, but don't underestimate it.

Thundurus – Potential danger. Switch to Garchomp. Set 1 is 2HKO'd by Outrage but can only Toxic in return, the others have a 12.5% chance to survive an Outrage. Set 1 might annoy with Prankster ChestoRest. If it comes down to that, set up Cloy after it has rested a second time and used up the Chesto Berry. Set 2 is Choiced and will probably switch out if locked into Bolt but can only 3HKO with Focus Blast unless it gets a crit or a SDef drop (but if Chomp falls to Focus Blast, it means setting up Cloy is safe). Set 3 is physical and can't hurt Chomp much, but it might U-Turn out into something worse. Set 4 is similar to set 2 but isn't Choiced and it knows Taunt so it isn't safe to set up Cloy on it if Chomp falls, better to Spear right away and hope for the best in that case.

Togekiss – Danger! Set 1/3/4 use Thunder Wave. Set 2 does surprisingly much damage with ExtremeSpeed if Hustle. Switch to Chomp against it and Outrage for a 2HKO against set 1/2/3. Set 4 is nasty thanks to Sitrus and it survives a Spear as well. Its Air Slash does 33.3% max to Chomp so it can’t 3HKO unless it gets Crit or gets extremely lucky. Sacrifice Cloy and use Spear against set 4 or unknown, otherwise go to Chomp right away.

Tornadus – Smash + Spear. Don't be surprised if Hurricane confuses you. It will hopefully use Focus Blast most of the time.

Torterra – Smash + Spear. Smash twice against set 2 (Scarf) if it locks itself into Tickle, which it did against me once and it was hilarious!

Toxicroak – Smash + Spear against set 2/3/4, switch to Chomp against set 1 since it will beat Cloy with Fake Out + Brick Break + Sucker Punch. Sludge Bomb might poison, set 4 also has Taunt and Sucker Punch. If Cloy falls to set 2/3/4, destroy them with Chomp. Spear right away against an unknown set.

Typhlosion – Smash + Surf or Rock Blast. You'll outspeed the Scarf Eruption set after a Smash. Set 1 holds Passho, so it will survive a Surf, go for Rock Blast against it. Set 2/3/4 will fall to Surf though. You should know the set after you Smash. Set 1 uses FThrower, set 2 Inferno (if it hits Cloy falls, either finish Typh with Chomp or set up Cune) or Focus Blast, set 3 uses Eruption and set 4 uses Power Herb SolarBeam. If Cloy fails, Cune sets up on set 2/3/4 easily, the SunnyBeam set 1 could be troublesome though. Chomp's Quake OHKOs all of them though. Chomp will not outspeed the Scarf set but you should be safe against it unless it uses Heat Wave and gets a burn (which is unlikely since it has Focus Blast and Eruption, it will probably use either of them instead).

Tyranitar – Potential danger. Switch to Chomp. Set 1 Thunder Waves and then either Flings or Stealth Rocks as it survives your Quake. Set 2 knows Ice Beam, but it obviously won't use it on the switch, plus it's Hasty with 0 HP / 0 def which means Quake always OHKOs. You should OHKO set 3 as well, unless you roll absolutely minimum damage (you have a 93.8% chance to OHKO). Chomp will still be faster against it even if it lives and uses Dragon Dance, and if it attacks, it won't do that much either, Crunch can't 2HKO unless it gets a Def drop or a Crit but that means nothing since at that point it will be dead already. Set 4 likes Superpower but it's Sashed. What you can do against set 4 is set up Cune after the initial Attack drop. After a few CMs it will try to Dragon Tail you out, which does laughable damage and you should be always behind a Sub. I'm not sure if it will use Superpower against Rough Skin Chomp though, I don't think it did that against me.

Umbreon – Smash + Spear. You will need a couple of Spears. If Cloyster falls for some reason (such as Confusion hax), set up Cune.

Unfezant – Smash + Spear. Tailwind, Sky Attack, Sky Attack and Powder/Toxic/Detect/Fly. Don't be surprised if you flinch or miss. Smash twice against the Tailwinder. If set 2 or 3 flinches Cloyster before it can Smash, consider a Spear on the next turn. It seems like it will either Sky Attack again (set 2) or U-Turn out (set 3), but I'm not sure.

Ursaring – Danger! Obligatory normal type that can take a hit and dishes out pain as well. Actually, the only set to look out for is set 4 because of QC Cross Chop. Spear this one directly and lose Cloyster turn 2 if QC activates. Smash + Spear should be safe against set 1/2/3, set 2 might be annoying if it uses Yawn, and you should Smash 2 or 3 times if it uses Scary Face.

Vanilluxe – Smash + Rock Blast. If anything goes wrong, Cune sets up on each set. Watch out for set 3 which has Sheer Cold, always hide behind a Sub.

Vaporeon – WORST STALLWAR OF ALL! Yeah, you will face Vaporeon way too many times. Don't try to be the hero with Cloy and always go to Cune and PP stall. You will have to go all the way to Struggle KO with set 4 since it has 4 attacks. If the other sets have no more direct damaging moves, you can set up Cloy to +6. Facing Vappy at every point in a battle prolongs it horribly. Patience is the key here.

Venusaur – Smash + Spear. It should be safe against set 1/2, unsure about 3 and 4 though. Not sure if set 4 starts with Sludge Bomb, it might go for Leech Seed instead. You should be able to set up. Watch out for Overgrow, mostly from set 3, which can also use Sludge Bomb. Use Aerial Ace instead of Quake or Outrage with Chomp. It's a safe 2HKO that doesn't activate Overgrow.

Vespiquen – Smash + Spear.

Victreebel – Danger! Maybe this should be said for Venu as well. 3 out of 4 Vicy sets speed tie with Cloy. It's better to Spear it, you don't like Sludge Bombs flying around. You are faster than set 1, it is set 2/3/4 that are dangerous because of the Speed tie. Still, Spear right away no matter the set, set 1 has Leaf Tornado and Gastro Acid which Cloyster doesn't like.

Vileplume – Spear right away for a KO. You outrun and KO all of these with an unboosted Spear, so do that. They have annoying moves but none of them have hax items, so it is better to just KO them right away.

Virizion – Smash + Spear.

Volcarona – Danger! It's Volcarona, after all. It can burn you with a Fire move or confuse you with Hurricane. Rock Blast doesn't always hit. Quake doesn't always 2HKO set 3 and 4 (46-54%) so watch out. Smash + Surf will KO set 2 if it doesn't use Calm Mind, but if it does, you still 2HKO afterwards. Against the others, Smash + either Rock Blast for a KO (if it hits) or Surf for a 75% chance to KO. Another strategy can be to just Rock Blast right away and hope it hits, you downright OHKO set 1/2 and deal massive damage to set 3/4.

Wailord – Smash and see what set it is. Yes, it's a Water type and Cune handles all sets (well, with difficulties if they get too many Curses), but there's still the small risk of switching into a Fissure (set 4). That one used Hyper Beam most of the time though, so Smash twice and Rock Blast KOs.

Walrein – Smash + Rock Blast. Cune stalls and beats all sets though. Try to burn the Ice Ball set 2, just in case. And be sure to always stay behind a Sub against the OHKO set.

Weavile – Smash + Rock Blast/Spear. They will almost always Fake Out turn 1. Two sets are Sashed, Spear has a good chance to KO if you get average damage rolls or a CH. Watch out for Taunt. A +2 Spear will KO set 1 while the others might survive. They can't damage you that much in return, Night Slash will only 3HKO even if you are at -1 Def. They may also annoy with Taunt or Torment.

Weezing – Danger! Set 3 knows Thunder and Sludge Bomb, so if it hits and causes status, Cloy falls. You should use Chomp against set 3. Set 1 knows Haze and will use it against your Cune. Cune should be able to handle set 2, set 3 is rather difficult due to Thunder, but set 4 is set up bait. Set up Cune against set 2 and 4, go for Chomp on set 3, go for Cune against set 1 as well but stay behind a Sub (Explosion won’t hurt much, but better safe than sorry). Unknown: Spear and see what it does which will also semi-sacrifice Cloy, then go to either Cune or Chomp.

Whiscash – Smash + Spear. Muddy Water lowers accuracy sometimes, set 4 can beat Cloy. Cune sets up, but stay behind a Sub because it knows Fissure.

Yanmega – Smash + Spear. You could lose badly if they used Detect turn 2 with Speed Boost, but they never did that against me. Fortunately, they tend to go for Bug Buzz/Giga Drain and not Air Slash.

Zapdos – Potential danger. It's Zapdos, after all. Go to Chomp and Outrage. They can't do much to Chomp, but set 1 once got a CH Air Cutter which wasn't very cool. Suicune should also be able to stall and set up on set 2 despite Charge Beam (it's only 10 PP, 5 against Cune)

Zebstrika – Chomp. They can't really touch you, but two hold a Sash and one a Balloon, so act accordingly.

Zoroark – Danger! This can mess you up depending on which Illusion it does, mostly if you switch. Chomp beats it 1on1. Just be wary of set 1 and 4 which has Counter and a Focus Sash/Band.
Continued in the next post.
 
203 wins (Part 3)
So that’s the team and how to play it. When I used it, how did my attempts go? Similar to how it went with Jumpman’s team on Black. At first, things didn’t go very well. I was very optimistic in the beginning, I even thought I would be able to make it to 203 wins in a row on my first attempt thanks to the guide… but that didn’t happen. It took me seven tries before I made it to 203 in a row, less than the ten I needed on Black but still quite a few. My first six streaks ended at 77, 191, 41, 93, 23 and 111. I made it past 100 wins twice here, and I almost made it on my second attempt where I was only 12 wins away from the goal! That was a really sour loss. And it was not my first sour loss on White either since I had lost a streak after 197 wins in a row on Super Double in White in the past.

Like on Black, I was considering giving up or taking a break, all of these losses made me lose faith in the team and in my ability to play it despite the guide. I had two short breaks along the way, but I still decided to keep going. Since I had needed 10 attempts on Black, I decided to try at least 10 times here on White as well. If I couldn’t make it after 10 tries, I would start thinking about trying with a different team. Fortunately, that didn’t happen as I made it on my 7th try.



Just like on Black, I was really happy when I made it because it meant I could move on to the last game I had to win 203 in a row on, which was White 2.

Regarding this team, I have to say that it was the most fun team I used for 203 wins in Super Single at the Subway. I loved the situations where Cloyster could set up and sweep the entire opposing team. Garchomp was reliable as always, and Suicune was amazing as explained earlier. This team wasn’t as formulaic as the teams I used on Black and White 2 since every battle had to be played differently depending on the opposing lead. And for me, that made this team the most fun to play with.

Like on Black, I have saved the logs from the most notable battles I had with the team. Find them below.
Streak 1:

Battle #25, vs Black Belt Enpi. Lead Infernape, Smash, but it fails as Cloy gets hit by Fake Out and flinches. The Ape goes for Encore on the next turn which fails, I Smash successfully then MISS with RB. Cloy dies to CC, out with Chomp. EQ brings the Ape down to Sash, it uses CC for over 50% and dies from Rough Skin damage. Out comes Machamp. I switch to Cune, the Machamp uses CC and gets Burned from the Flame Orb. Next turn Sub, Champ Protect. CM, CC, Sub breaks. Scald, it survives with a sliver of HP, CC kills Cune and the Machamp faints to burn damage. Out with Chomp, hoping for something I can defeat easily. Fortunately, it is Skarmory. Fire Fang 2HKOs as it uses Toxic.

Battle #36, vs Veteran Leron. Lead Tornadus. Hurricane, Cloyster gets confused and hits itself in confusion, fainting. Out with Cune. I try to set up but I only manage 2 CMs (and lost one Sp.def boost due to a Focus Blast lowering it) before being Taunted after using Rest, I am now forced to attack. Rain is up though, and the Tornadus faints to a Scald. Out comes Latias. It starts using CM, confirming set 1 which is also a ChestoRest set. I manage to set up to +6 and get behind a Sub as well as full HP while the Latias runs out of PP for Dragon Pulse, then I eventually get a Crit and it faints. Out last is a Suicune which is set 2, it goes down after a couple of Scalds.

Lost in battle #78, against Cyclist Margit. Lead Feraligatr, I Smash as it goes for EQ, Spear for about 60%, then Cloyster dies to Waterfall. Out with Chomp, KO with Quake. In comes Shiftry. It is a SunnyBeam set. I switch to Cune, the Shiftry uses Sunny Day. I switch back Chomp, Solarbeam does more than 50%. Outrage for about 90%, Chomp faints to another Solarbeam. A damage calc afterwards shows that Fire Fang in Sun would not have KO'd either. Out with Cune again, I am pretty much screwed now. Rest, but why I am faster? Because Shiftry can have two Abilities, Chlorophyll and Early Bird. With a Speed stat of 100 vs Suciune's 109, this one must have had Early Bird. Shame I forgot about that, I could have used Sub and tried to stall it out of PP for Solarbeam. Now it leaves me at slightly less than 50 HP, but Leftovers recovery brings me back to above 51. Sub, Solarbeam, Cune at 2 HP. Rest, Solarbeam. Sleep, Solarbeam, Cune faints. I suppose I could also have tried to attack with Scald and hoped that it would KO and that the last mon would be something I could beat with ease, but a Scald would not have been a guaranteed KO so I’m not sure.

Streak 2:

Battle #57, vs Black Belt Unsu. Lead Rapidash, it uses Flare Blitz, Smash + Spear for a KO. Out comes Poliwrath. Spear, it is at about 60% after Sitrus Recovery and defeats Cloy with Circle Throw. Out with Chomp, Outrage for a KO. Out comes Magnezone. Outrage, Flash Cannon. Outrage and Flash Cannon again, Chomp at 30-ish HP. It is also confused so I switch to Cune and tank a Tri Attack. Scald, Zone at a sliver of HP and KOs Cune with Thunderbolt. Back with Chomp, KO with Aerial Ace just because. This was a rather unfortunate battle, getting locked into Outrage for 3 turns here was bad. If the Zone had gotten a crit with one of the FCs, or a SDef drop with the first one, I would have lost.

Battle #74, vs Ace Trainer Palm. Super annoying battle. Lead Mandibuzz, I try to Smash but it uses Flatter, Cloy hits itself in confusion. It goes for Taunt next, I use Spear and snap out of confusion, getting a KO. Out comes Scrafty. I try to Spear as it sets up, but it uses Bulk Up and Drain Punch, though it eventually falls because I get a Crit. Next is Ferrothorn. I go for Smash hoping it will use Curse, but it KO's Cloy with Payback. Out with Chomp and Fire Fang, but I miss TWICE IN A ROW! I then start hitting but the Ferro has many curses under its belt at this time, it manages to ChestoRest and then beat Chomp. Out with Cune for a long stallwar as I stall it out of PP for Gyro Ball, Payback and Rest, set up 6 CMs and defeat it with Scald.

Battle #89, vs Battle Girl Flush. Lead Emboar. Smash, Focus Blast, Surf, dead. Out comes Magnezone. I wasn't sure if switching to Garchomp instantly was the right decision here since Cloy was at 1 HP, but I decided to do so. I shouldn't have. It uses Tri Attack as I send in Chomp, paralyzing me. It is faster than me on the next turn but I KO with Quake, it did not have Sturdy. Out comes Hariyama. SitrusDrum set, not good. It finishes Chomp with Ice Punch and takes damage from Rough Skin. I send out Cloy, who instantly dies to Bullet Punch. Out with Cune. Sub, and the Hariyama uses Brick Break. I got very lucky here. It keeps using Brick Break, 2 hits break my Subs. I hit it with Scald, it loses its Sitrus and then gets under 50%, meaning it can't use Drum. I get a Burn and it starts doing more damage which means it has Guts. I use Rest as it dies from burn damage, it did fortunately not get any crits along the way.

Battle #106, vs Fisherman Fird. Lead Starmie 3 or 4, so I risk a Smash. It uses Psychic, leading me to think it is set 3. Rock Blast, miss, it uses Surf to finish Cloyster, so I still think it is set 3. Out with Cune. I go for a CM, but it uses Thunderbolt? What the heck? This means it was set 4 after all. Really annoying. Bolt only does about 1/3 to Cune though, so that's good. But I feel that setting up is still way too risky, so I switch-stall it out of PP as usual and then KO with Chomp's Outrage. But Suicune takes ton of damage from the Ice Beams in the process, including a Crit, and it is at about 50 HP once I am done. Either way, Chomp KO's the Starmie. Out next is Dewgong. It survives the Outrage with almost no HP left and KOs with Ice Beam, confirming set 3 (both it and 4 should be easy for Cune to set up on though). I set up Cune on the Dewgong and KO it, hoping the last one is something that isn't immune to Water. It is Tentacruel. Set 3 might be dangerous with Giga Drain and Mirror Coat, but it is set 4, so I beat it easily.

Battle #153, don't remember this one exactly and I only decided to write it down because of the next battle since this one wasn't super close. I think I faced a Cyclist who started with an Unfezant. Power Herb Sky Attack, Cloyster flinched. Next turn it uses U-turn, defeating Cloyster. I should have switched to Chomp to take down the Unfezant with Rough Skin. In comes a Drifblim. I send out Suicune. It is Drifblim 3, annoying bastard with Thunderbolt. I managed to fully set up Suicune but it was far from easy, also very risky. But once I am done, I manage to defeat the Drifblim, the Unfezant, and the third and last Pokémon (can’t remember what it was).

Battle #154, vs Artist Hacikan. Lead Klinklang, switch to Chomp. It tries Volt Switch, so it is either set 1 or 3. I Quake and Shuca reduces damage, confirming set 1. It uses Gear Grind which damages Chomp but Rough Skin damages the Klinker. One more Quake and it goes down. Next is Drifblim. Not again! I can't quake here, so I switch to Cune to scout what set it is (sets 2/3/4 knows Thunderbolt but they won't use it against Chomp). It uses Icy Wind, confirming set 3 (the same annoying one I just faced in the previous battle!). I switch back to Chomp and absorb the Tbolt. Not sure how to continue from here, so I decide to go for Outrage and see what happens, Chomp is damaged but should hopefully survive. Outrage for about 70%, Icy Wind, Chomp lives but is slower on the next turn and falls to another Icy Wind. Out with Cloyster. Smash, TBolt, 1 HP. Spear, dead. I hope the last mon is something that a 1 HP Cloyster and Suicune can handle. It is Magnezone. Not good. Surf for about 70%, it uses Flash Cannon to defeat Cloy. I send out Cune, ready to run a damage calc if necessary. Sub first to scout, but it uses Magnet Rise, practically giving me the win! Scald, it lives with a sliver of HP but gets burned. It uses TBolt, meaning it was set 1. It then dies from the burn. That was close.

Battle #186, vs Fisherman Fird again. Lead Starmie, can be either set 3 or 4 again, so I smash as it uses Psychic. Hopefully it is set 3 for once? Rock Blast, MISS of course, it defeats Cloy with Surf. In with Cune. Bolt as I CM, it is set 4 of course. Switch-stall it out of IB PP but Cune gets frozen and takes a bit of damage in the process, is at about 70% or something. Chomp KOs with Outrage, out comes Carracosta. Outrage for about 70%, it uses Rain Dance, Chomp gets confused. In with Cune, it tanks a Waterfall which doesn't do much. Scald, Cune thaws and kills the Costa. Out comes Floatzel. Could be bad if it is the Damp Rock set with Swift Swim, but fortunately, it is not. Rest as it uses Waterfall and takes LO damage, then I KO with a couple of Scalds and gets a burn, it goes down in the end. This and Battle #106 on this streak made me reconsider my strategy if I am up against an unknown Starmie set that can be set 4, which got reflected in the guide.

Lost in battle #192, against Backpacker Wald. My longest streak with the team so far, and I lost against one of my favorite trainers. It was sad, but that’s just how it is. The reason was misplay. Lead Lapras, not fun. Rock Blast for a ton of damage, it uses Thunder + Ice Shard to kill Cloyster. I send in Cune and use Sub but it keeps using Confuse Ray instead of Thunder. I use Scald to see if it has Water Absorb, which it of course has. I then make the mistake of switching to Chomp. This was because of the damage calculations:

252+ Atk Garchomp Outrage vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Lapras: 103-123 (50.2 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Lapras Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 88-108 (48 - 59%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO


It was at around 60% after Rock Blast + Water Absorb recovery so I thought I could get it done with an Outrage. It uses Rain Dance as I send in Chomp. Outrage does not KO but it 2HKOs Chomp with Ice Shard. Out with Cune. Unfortunately, rain is up and Thunder now has 100% accuracy. I try to stall it out of PP for Thunder but I don't succeed and it 2HKO's Cune when I am not behind a Sub as I had to use Rest. I could possibly have gone for the last Sub as well, but then it might have used Ice Shard for the KO when Suicune was at low HP. This was a very sour loss; I was so close to 203 during this attempt. What I should have done was to keep stalling with Cune instead of switching to Chomp, I also shouldn’t have used Scald to check the Lapras’ Ability. There were many ways I could have won this battle. This battle made me change my approach against lead Lapras, which is also reflected in the guide.

Streak 3:

Lost in Battle #41, against Clerk Bank. Lead Snorlax, not fun. Spear, but it uses Protect, which means I could have Smashed for free if I wanted to. Spear again, no Protect this time. It does around 1/4, which means this Lax has Thick Fat. Double-Edge and LO recoil adds to the damage though. Rock Blast next turn but it misses, Cloyster falls while the Lax takes more damage from recoil. Out with Chomp. I consider EQ here (and I guess that's what I should have gone for in retrospect), but I use Outrage for a safer KO. Out comes Luxray. I don't think it had Intimidate, but that doesn't matter. Outrage does not KO, it uses Ice Fang which does a ton of damage, but Chomp lives with 15 HP or something, and the Luxray takes Rough Skin damage. Outrage lasts three turns this time so I KO it on the next turn. Out comes Leafeon. Not good at all. I switch to Cune as it uses X-Scissor. Why in the world did it use X-Scissor and not Leaf Blade? I guess it was because Chomp was at low enough HP for either move to KO. A quick damage Calc shows that Chomp has no chance to OHKO this bastard. I go for Scald with Cune, hoping for a burn, but the Leafeon is faster and uses Sunny Day which lowers my damage, it does not get burned either. I guess I should have tried a Sub instead, but I’m not sure if that would have made a difference. Leaf Blade KOs Cune next turn. Out with Chomp. The Leafeon is at around 90% HP left, Outrage does 54.2 - 64.2%, Fire Fang in the Sun does 58.5 - 70%, while the Leafeon obviously has a guaranteed KO on me. I need a Crit to win this. I go for Fire Fang; it hits but I don't get a Crit, and Chomp falls.

Streak 4:

Battle #84, vs Scientist Charis. Long stall battle. Lead Milotic-4, so I switch to Cune and set up fully, wasting the Milotic’s PP for Surf, IB and Rest, using Rest myself as often as possible to save PP for the other moves. But as I start attacking, she switches out the Milotic for a… Vaporeon-4! More stalling! I do the same with this one, stall it out of PP. But unlike Milotic, this one can actually break Suicune's Sub after a few hits, so I use that to my advantage to make a new Sub and Rest immediately afterwards, saving even more PP. It eventually runs out of PP and starts to Struggle. Once it faints from the recoil, Gardevoir is next. It traces Suicune's Pressure and uses a Psychic Gem-boosted Psychic, but that isn't even enough to break my Sub! It goes down to a +6 Scald, 102.7 - 121.6% damage according to the calculator, nuking my least favorite Pokémon into oblivion always feels good. Now there's only the Milotic left, and since it only has PP for Sleep Talk left at this point, I take it down without issues. I even get a Crit along the way. While this wasn’t a hard battle since I had practically auto-won already on turn 1, it was definitely one of the longest stall battles I have had with the team.

Lost in battle #94, against Cyclist Birgit. Lead Cofagrigus-3, I go for Suicune against these bastards so that’s what I switch out for. I start setting up but the Cofagrigus gets at least 3 Sp.def drops with Shadow Ball along the way, meaning I'm not really set up at all. A Crit follows, Suicune is at 17 HP without a Sub and Trick Room is up, so it goes down the next turn. I send out Cloy, Smash, Shadow Ball, Trick Room ends. Spear, it lives and recovers with Sitrus, uses Trick Room again. Next turn it uses Destiny Bond as I attack, both faint. I only have Chomp left now against two unknown opponents, not good. Jynx comes out. I go for Outrage for the KO... except I'm slower because of Trick Room, so Chomp faints to Blizzard. This was not a fun battle, there was quite a lot of hax here which led to my loss.

Streak 5:

Lost in battle #24, against Nurse Kikuri. Lead Mr. Mime, Smash as it uses Psychic, then Spear for the KO. Out comes Poliwrath. Not good. I meant to use Spear against it, but I accidentally select Rock Blast and it misses! Cloyster falls to a Waterfall. I send out Cune and try to stall the Poli out of PP for Focus Punch but it has 10 PP (because of Pressure) and it breaks my Sub every time, I am eventually forced to Rest and it does a ton of damage when I am not behind a Sub. I switch to Chomp but it gets 2HKO'd as I can't stop the Poli from using Focus Punch since it is behind a Sub. It then defeats Cune with another Punch. I guess I should have sent in Chomp after Cloy fainted, I should have tried to beat the Poli with either Quake (76.2% chance to 2HKO because of Leftovers). But it should have been a safe 3HKO assuming it uses Sub, and if not, I should still have been able to win since Chomp can tank a Waterfall or two, not to mention Rough Skin recoil damage. The Poliwrath wouldn't have been able to attack if it had used Focus Punch without using Sub first, and Encore wouldn't have done anything since Chomp doesn’t care about being Encored.

Streak 6:

Battle #37, vs Pokémon Breeder Janet. Lead Donphan. QC set, so I Spear right away. QC activates, Stone Edge brings Cloyster to about 50 HP, Spear kills. In comes Snorlax. SitrusDrum set, not fun. I use Spear which does minimal damage, meaning it probably has Thick Fat. It uses Belly Drum. I go for Rock Blast next, but I miss and the Lax kills Cloyster. It is at less than 50%. I send out Chomp and go for Outrage, decided to not run a damage calc since it seemed unnecessary, but the bastard survives with a small amount of HP and defeats both itself and Chomp with Double-Edge. Only Cune left against an unknown Pokémon. It is... Rapidash! And not the Horn Drill variant. I got very lucky here, I easily defeat the horse with Scald.

Battle #72, vs Pokémon Ranger Terran. Lead Miltank, Smash + Spear, it lives with a little HP left and KOs Cloy. Out with Chomp, EQ for the KO. Next Nidoking, EQ for another easy KO. Out comes Poliwrath. Not fun. Or actually, never fun. It does not have an Ice move at least, so I attack with EQ again for about 50%, it uses Sub. Next turn it charges a Focus Punch, I EQ to remove its Sub, but it gets a Crit with Focus Punch and KOs Chomp. A non-crit would not have KO'd. It takes some recoil from Rough Skin, but it doesn't matter. This is very bad, if it has Water Absorb, then I will very likely lose. Out with Cune. It charges another FP, Scald, and it does not have Water Absorb! One more Scald and it goes down.

Battle #98, vs Worker Hayes. Semi-close battle. Lead Tyranitar, any set, I switch to Chomp. It uses Rock Slide, which means it is either set 1, 2 or 4. I use EQ and get a KO, meaning it was set 1 or 2, doesn't really matter though. In comes Hippowdon. Not good, but I use EQ to see what happens, it does a little less than 50%. The Hippo uses Yawn, which means it is set 1 or 3. None of them have Curse, so that's good at least. I switch to Cune, the Hippo uses Slack Off, confirming set 3. I use Scald but that's a mistake, should have gone for Sub instead. It takes damage and recovers with Sitrus, then uses Yawn. I decide to go for another Scald to force it to use Slack Off while I sleep, but it gets switched out for a Gastrodon which absorbs the damage thanks to Storm Drain. I then play badly and try to stall with Suicune, but it doesn't really work and the Gastro gets a Sp.Def drop on Cune, eventually KOing with Surf (when Cune is at low HP) after it had run out of PP for Earth Power. I thought I could set up Cloy, but I realize that I can't because of the Sandstorm. So I send in Chomp. The calculator shows that I can only 2HKO with Outrage, while Chomp should survive a +1 Surf unless it gets a Crit (and even so, I should hopefully be able to KO with Cloy afterwards. Outrage, Surf, no Crit. Outrage, dead. Hippo comes in. Outrage again (got locked into three turns), it uses EQ to take down Chomp. Out with Cloy, Spear for the KO.

Battle #105, vs Policeman Bobemon. Not super close but worth a mention. Lead Cradily, Smash as it uses Giga Drain, confirming the second set out of the 2 it can be. Spear, dead. Out comes Ludicolo. Not fun. Can be any set, will likely use Fake Out... which is just what it does. Cloy faints. Out with Cune. I know it won't use Grass Knot from the start, what I'm worried about is Leech Seed. Which it of course uses, and it is faster so I can't Sub first. I set up a few CMs while the Ludi wastes all the PP it has for Hydro Pump. I then decide to switch out to Chomp as it is about to start using GK, Cune is at about 50% HP here. The damage calc shows that Chomp's Outrage does 97.4 - 114.8%, should have a guaranteed KO with Rough Skin. Switch, Grass Knot, Rough Skin damage, Outrage, dead. I hope the last one is something easy that I can beat with Chomp and a damaged Cune. Fortunately, it is Milotic. Outrage for over half, Ice Beam, confirming the STalk set, Chomp faints. I then stall it out with Cune, it even goes down to struggling in the end. This was the last battle in a set of 7 where I had to set up Cune many times, in more than half of the battles.

Lost in battle #112, against Clerk Anette. Lead Gardevoir, set 3, so I Smash as it Charge Beams and gets a boost, then Spear and I MISS because of the stupid Brightpowder. A damage calc shows that Chomp has a guaranteed KO with Outrage, so I go for that and I do thankfully not miss again, the Gardegarbage goes down. Out comes Mandibuzz. Usually not a Pokémon I'd consider a threat, but it ended up being difficult this time since I didn’t have Cloy left. Outrage again for slightly less than 50%, it uses Nasty Plot. Outrage ends and Chomp gets confused. I switch to Cune. I try to stall the bird with Sub but it is not easy since it keeps breaking them, what I should have done was to try to set up with CM instead since I am faster. It does fortunately not set up any more Nasty Plots for a long while, but it eventually sets in another one while I am at low HP. It has a lot of PP and it still has PP left for both Dark Pulse and Air Slash. I decide to switch out Cune and gamble for a KO with Chomp instead, so I do that. Outrage does not KO and Chomp falls. I then try to stall more with Cune but I am at too low HP to make a Sub and it 3HKO's me after I use Rest. I misplayed here, shouldn’t have switched out Cune for Chomp against Mandi, should have stayed in and kept stalling instead.

Streak 7:

Battle #30, vs Ace Trainer Mooi. Lead Drifblim. Bolt, Cloy at 1 HP, Spear, dead. Out comes Serperior. Specs set. Not good. No point in switching here, better to sacrifice Cloy, so that’s what I do. Out with Chomp. I can 2HKO with either Outrage, Fire Fang or Aerial Ace, I decide to go for Outrage. In retrospect, AA might have been better in order to not activate Overgrow, but then the Serp would have had more HP left afterwards. Outrage does over 90%, but the Serp gets a Crit and Chomp faints. Not good. Out with Cune. The Serp has 2 PP Leaf Storm left now due to Pressure. One more Leaf Storm which does way too much damage even without a Crit (probably due to Overgrow), Cune has enough HP left to set up a Sub but it does not have much HP left afterwards. Another Leaf Storm which also is the last one, Sub breaks, I use CM. Now it is going to Struggle and I am at around 40 HP. I should have used Rest but I go for another CM instead, the Serp goes down and out comes Slowking! Which is very fortunate. I manage to Rest and then set up and beat it but it gets a Crit with Psychic along the way, not enough to take me down but it was scary there for a bit.

Battle #48, vs Pokémon Breeder Shawna. The set leading up to Ingo was extremely annoying this time with many stall battles, some were scary in one way or another but this one was the closest and the only one I decided to write down. Lead Jolteon, switch to Chomp, KO with Quake. Out comes Porygon-Z. It has Download, which gives it a useless Attack boost. A quick Calc shows I should 2HKO with Quake despite Sitrus, while it can't OHKO me with Tri Attack unless it gets Crit. I go for Quake, Tri Attack, but Chomp gets burned! Not good. Quake again, it lives with a sliver of HP and uses Recover. Now it has too much HP left for me to go for another Quake. I switch to Cloyster here I think, which was an idiotic mistake as it goes down without doing anything (not 100% sure here, but I did at least lose Cloyster). Back to Chomp. I run a calc and see that I have a chance to KO with a burned Outrage, so I do that but do not KO and Chomp falls. Out with Cune. If I can CM at least once, I should live a second Bolt and then KO with Scald. I do that, no crits and the PZ faints, but Cune is at very low HP, too low for a Sub. Last mon is Mandibuzz, which is very fortunate. It only has Punishment as a means of dealing direct damage. I manage to stall it out and set up fully despite Swagger and confusion, then beat it in the end.

Battle #134, vs Psychic Zaya. Not super close but one thing that happened here was that Suicune survived a Crit Psychic from a Slowking with exactly 1 HP left. If that hadn't happened and if Cune had fainted, I'm not sure if I would have won. Now I managed to set up fully and beat the Slowking as well as the Espeon and Mr. Mime that followed. That round was also interesting in general since I faced at least 2 more Slowking in the following battles, as well as at least 3 Bronzong on the whole.

Battle #145, vs Pokémon Breeder Janet. Lead Metagross-4. Smash, Trick, Cloy poisoned. Smash again as the Meta Protects. Surf, Meteor Mash, Surf, Metagross faints, but Cloyster also faints from Poison. Out with Chomp, my opponent brings out an Eelektross. I 2HKO with Outrage, it breaks my Outrage with Protect but I do not get confused and manage to take it down. Out comes Donphan. Outrage, EQ, but next turn QC activates, Chomp goes down to another Quake. Out with Cune. If the QC activates, it uses Fissure and hits, I lose. Fortunately, that does not happen and I KO with Scald.

Battle #184, vs Harlequin Aramis. Lead Golurk, Smash, Hammer Arm, Spear, dead. Out comes Hariyama. Not fun. I considered a switch since it has Fake Out but decided to stay in and Cloy dies to Fake Out while the Hariyama gets burned by the Flame Orb. Not good. If it has Guts, that can mean trouble. CC is not a guaranteed KO on Chomp unless the Yama has Guts, so I send in Chomp. Outrage, Detect. Outrage, CC, Chomp down. This means it has Guts. The Hariyama is at so low HP now that it should fall to the burn damage in just one round. Out with Cune. Detect, Sub, it falls. I hope for an easy last mon and it is Cofagrigus. I manage to set up fully and beat it unlike that other annoying one which ended one of my previous streaks. This one gets a Crit on me when I am not behind a Sub but at full HP, though I still win in the end.

Saved the video of Battle #203, just like on Black. Find it below:


Battle summary and comments:
Like on Black, this was an easy battle. My opponent is Backpacker Felton; he uses various set 1 Pokémon. He starts with Walrein which is easy to beat. I Smash as it uses Stockpile, then Rock Blast but it survives and goes for another Stockpile. It is now at so low HP that I expect it to faint from a Spear, but that turns out to be wrong! It lives a +2 Spear and uses Rest to recover and instantly wake up thanks to the Chesto Berry. Next turn I Blast again; it uses Frost Breath which doesn't do much damage. Another Blast and it goes down. It is followed by a Rhyperior and Pinsir, both faint to a Spear. This was an easy battle despite the misplay from my side, I don't think I could have lost here at all. Even if Cloy had fainted, Cune would have set up on the Walrein and beat both it and the backups without issues, I also had Chomp left.

I had five tough battles on the streak that got me to 203 here. More than on Black despite having a lot of experience with the team, as well as the guide. Though I needed less tries in total here on White compared to on Black, and my average streak is longer here too.
And that’s how it went on White. Since I had previously already won 203 in a row on Black 2 as well, I only had one game left at this point, which was White 2.
Last but definitely not least, it was time for White 2.

I had previously decided to use a TruAnt team somewhere and I decided to use it on White 2 since HA Durant had originally been released through the Dream World in B2/W2 and not in B/W. I had picked up a Female HA Durant in Dream World in Black 2 back when it was still open, since I had some kind of plans to use one for a potential future TruAnt team in the Subway. And now, it was finally time for that.

So, a TruAnt team. But which TruAnt team? At first, I thought I should try to come up with something (somewhat) original, but I decided not to since I felt that my skills were not up to it. Instead, I looked at the leaderboards here on Smogon to see the different successful TruAnt teams that existed for the Subway, and I settled for yet another team created by another user. I planned this team alongside the teams I used on B/W, but I did not obtain and train the team members until I had won 203 in a row on both Black and White. Below are the details for this team.

1605343267146.png

Whimsicott (F) @ Focus Sash ** Kerfluffle
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 38 Def / 220 Spd
IVs: 31/0/31/12/31/31
Nature: Timid
- Taunt
- Knock Off
- Encore
- Memento

1605343279014.png

Durant (M) @ Choice Scarf ** Reluctant
Ability: Truant
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 20 Def / 4 Sp.def / 228 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/16/31/31
Nature: Jolly
- Entrainment
- Superpower
- Sandstorm
- Protect

1605343289627.png

Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers ** Eternal
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Att / 20 Def / 28 Sp.def / 6 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/22/31/31
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Claw
- Dragon Dance
- Substitute
- Protect

Streak: 203 (ongoing)

I started battling with this team on July 17th and won 203 battles in a row on July 25th.

This team is originally created by yadazhai, his post about it can be found here. My version of the team has some small differences from his, I’ll go over them along the way.

yadazhai is not among the most well-known facility players, though he did battle a bit in both the Subway and the D/P Tower from what I can find. However, he is notable for having the #1 spot on the Subway Singles leaderboard, and having the highest known Subway streak overall, which is very impressive. His team is also one of only two known teams to get over 1000 wins in a row at the Subway. The other one is a team of Sableye/Durant/Glalie by GG Unit, the details for it can be found here. While it might not exactly be 1001 wins “in a row” (it was also played on an emulator), I still consider it legitimate enough.

Anyway, I settled for this team since it seemed so unbeatable. Maybe any TruAnt team would have worked, and maybe Durant doesn’t need this much support, but I decided to take the better safe than sorry route. I suppose GG Unit’s team would have been an alternative, but I really don’t have the patience to boost for as long as it takes with Glalie, and having to keep track of all the Moody boosts manually is probably something I’d fail at as well. Plus, my goal was 203 wins in a row and not 1001, so this team felt like it should be enough for that.

This was also my first time trying a TruAnt team. I had never tried it before despite having the option to try it not only in Gen 5, but also in Gen 6 & 7 and technically Gen 8 as well. As said earlier, I picked up a HA Female Durant in the Dream World before it closed down just so I could hopefully one day give it a try in the Subway. I never got around to it in the past because I focused on other things and winning 200 in a row was never really my main goal in Gen 5 back then. X/Y also got released so soon after B2/W2 which made me shift focus a bit. But now it was finally time!

This team is similar to Jumpman’s team in a way since both of them involve a lead and a second Pokémon which are used to cripple the opposing lead, then a third Pokémon (Dragonite) which sets up and sweeps. But there’s also many differences between the teams.

Once I had settled for the team, I just had to RNG the three team members as I didn’t have any of them since before, then I had to train them as well, and then I was ready to roll. I had to RNG them on White and not White 2 since RNG breeding can’t be done on the sequels. So I RNGed them on White, then traded over them to White 2 where I trained them and battled with them.

Whimsicott is similar to the one from Jumpman’s team. Taunt is used to stop opponents from using any non-damaging moves, notably Protect/Detect which hinder Durant. Knock Off removes the opponent’s item, it doesn't get priority but that was usually not an issue, Whimsicott is fast enough anyway. It was mostly used to remove hax items like Quick Claw, Brightpowder and Lax Incense, but I also used it to remove various other items, notably Leftovers and Sitrus/Chesto Berries from bulky boosters. Encore was used to force the opponent to use the same move again, it was mostly used against opponents with U-turn/Volt Switch (to force them to use another move and prevent them from escaping from the battlefield), but it had other uses too. Memento was mostly used to safely send in Durant, lowering the opponent’s Attack and Special Attack was less necessary than on Jumpman’s team but it could still be helpful at times. It was on this Whimsicott that I accidentally used PP Ups on Memento, a mistake I didn’t notice until it was too late. Speaking of which, I wonder why Memento has 10 PP and Encore only has 5? It would make more sense if was the other way around. Maybe they thought Encore would be too broken if it had more PP? Doesn’t really matter though as I rarely had to use it more than once during battles anyway.

Whimsicott has enough Speed EVs to outrun Taunt Tornadus/Thundurus so it can Taunt them before they can Taunt it. That actually mattered because I once faced a Thundurus-4 which used Taunt on turn 1. It doesn't always do that though, it started with Focus Blast instead on another occasion. Whimsicott then has maxed HP and the rest in Defense. I’m not sure if this is the optimal spread, I just used the same EVs as yadazhai. My Whimsicott also has a Timid Nature and a 0 IV in Attack, the reason is once again to minimize Foul Play and confusion damage.

I should also mention that my Whimsicott is not nicknamed after the CAP Pokémon with the same name. I did not get its nickname from there; it is simply a combination of Kerfuffle + Fluff (which I guess is where CAP Kerfluffle also got its name from). I just randomly learned that this CAP Pokémon existed when I was writing on this post and had already completed the Subway, I did not know about it earlier. Or if I did, I had completely forgotten about it.

Up next is Durant. If Whimsicott manages to cripple the opponent enough, Durant uses Entrainment and then either faints or gets switched out for Dragonite as the opponent loafs. Superpower is its only way to attack, it lets Durant hit anything that isn't a Ghost-type. I am pretty sure the reason yadazhai picked Superpower was because he lost against a Cobalion once with the team. I never used it though. Sandstorm was used to reset Snow Warning from Abomasnow, I used it against an Abomasnow once and on one other occasion due to an accident (more about that in the battle logs). Protect could be used to waste the PP of opposing set-up sweepers, but I never used it either. The Speed EVs allow it to outrun the entire Subway, they give Durant a Speed stat of 173 (259 with a Scarf) which is faster than Manectric-4 and its 172 Speed (258 with a Scarf). Interestingly, it seems like people generally use even more Speed on Durant in the Subway even if it only needs 228 to outrun all opponents. As for the remaining EVs, it has maxed Attack to hit as hard as possible with Superpower, the rest went into HP and Defenses.

I’m not sure if this is the right set for Durant, though I guess it doesn’t really matter since it only needs to use Entrainment in a vast majority of battles. But in the few battles where it does matter, I would love to have an “ultimate” EV spread and moveset. An alternative could be to go for EVs in HP as opposed to Attack in order to tank hits better, but at the cost of dealing less damage. Another idea is to use other attacking moves besides/instead of Superpower. Yes, Superpower beats Cobalion, but I believe that Iron Head, X-Scissor and/or Rock Slide are other good alternatives. I’m not sure though. And this worked, so I’m satisfied with it.

Dragonite is nearly identical to the one on Jumpman’s team, the only difference is Protect instead of Roost. I also bred a completely new Dragonite instead of just re-using the one from Black because I am a huge nerd. On this team, Dragonite enters the battle once Durant has Entrained the opponent, it then uses Protect on the turns the opponent attacks, then sets up a Sub and 6 Dances on the turns the opponent loafs. After this, Dragonite is at +6, at full HP and behind a Sub, and is basically unstoppable. My Dragonite also has the last EVs in Speed unlike yadazhai’s, since putting them anywhere else would be a waste. This also gives it an extra point in Speed, that never mattered during the streak but I dislike wasting EVs so that’s why.

I’m not sure if this team has any weaknesses, apart from misplay or extreme hax. Some possible threats I can think of are Emboar, Mienshao, possibly Zoroark (depending on which Illusion it does), suicide Pokémon (Explosion, Flame/Toxic Orb) and VoltTurn users. I’m not sure if there are others, but those feel like they are the top threats.

One other weakness this team has is that it can't stop opposing set-up sweepers from setting up alongside Dragonite. It was usually not that bad, but it was annoying if they raised their Defense or Evasion. I could always beat them, but it was especially bad against bulky Steel-types like Bastiodon which aren’t even OHKO’d by a +6 Dragon Claw even before boosting their own Defense/Evasion. In comparison, GG Unit’s team with Glalie would have been better in those situations since it runs Taunt to prevent opponents from using set-up moves, and Frost Breath lets it get through potential Sp.def boots. Accuracy boosts from Moody also allows it to ignore Evasion boosts from the opponent. Glalie also has an edge over Dragonite in that it doesn’t need a separate turn to set up since Moody automatically activates at the end of every turn. But I would never have the patience for such a team, so I’ll stick to Dragonite.

If anything, the biggest weakness for this team is probably misplay. I found the team extremely monotonous and almost boring to play with, it required a high level of concentration so that I wouldn’t do anything wrong. Sometimes, I found it hard to keep that level of concentration when battling with this team. The team might not fall to any specific opposing threat, but rather to the player doing something wrong when battling with it. While the team was safe and easy to use, it was also very boring to play with. I did not have as much fun with it as I had with Peterko’s team. But at the same time, the team rocked. I got to 203 in a row on my first try, compared to in B/W where I lost several times along the way before making it. I was happy about it, because it meant I had finally won 203 battles in a row on all of my 5th Gen games.



Every battle during the streak was more or less the same. Cripple the opposing lead with Whimsicott, send in Durant to Entrain, then out with Dragonite, Protect, Sub, Protect/DD until at +6, then sweep anything. As said, this was my first time using a TruAnt team, and it did not disappoint. TruAnt breaks the Subway so hard that I don’t even know what to say other than that it is epic. It is basically an easy mode for Super Single in the Subway.

I have some battle logs to share as well. However, I did not write as detailed logs of these battles as I did for B/W since I did initially not consider them noteworthy enough, then I changed my mind and wrote them down anyway. But at that point I had often lost several details, such as which exact trainer I was facing. Either way, here are all the logs with this team. There were no super close battles like on B/W (nor any losses), just some battles where at least one noteworthy thing happened.
One early battle in the first set of 7 where I accidentally used Sandstorm instead of Entrainment. This was before I had gotten used to the team and how to play it in the Subway. When I trained Durant before the Subway, I had Entrainment in moveslot 3, I then moved it to slot 1 right before starting at the Subway. I basically misclicked, thinking I used Entrainment. This battle was against a lead Ursaring. I had to switch out to Nite afterwards, then back to Durant and Entrain for real, it was an easy victory beyond that.

Another battle in the 20-30s where I got annoyed by a Bastiodon which came out second and used Iron Defense/Double Team. But it couldn't really hurt Nite as it only had 5 Stone Edge PP, I managed to hit it and win in the end.

Battle #49, vs Ingo. Not hard but one noteworthy thing happened there. He started with Chandelure which is the best possible lead from him as it means no Flame Body risk. I Entrained it and it killed Durant with Overheat, this was the first time during the streak where Durant fainted after using Entrainment on the opponent. This threw off the rhythm for me a bit since the next turn was a Truant turn for the Chandelure, but since I had gotten so used to using Protect with Nite on the first turn it is in, I did that here too. I Protected on the wrong turn. Thankfully Nite is faster than Chandelure so it didn't really make a difference, but that was something I learned during this fight. Otherwise an easy battle.

One battle in the 50-60s against an opposing Toxic Orb Breloom. I wasn't sure what to do. If I use Taunt, it gets poisoned and will die if it has Effect Spore. If I use Knock Off, it will use Sub, preventing me from Entraining it afterwards. I decided to go for Taunt and it did fortunately not have Effect Spore. Nite could set up fully as the Breloom tried Leech Seed every turn I was behind a Sub, I could beat it and the backups with ease. But afterwards, I thought about my approach against Breloom for a bit. I decided that I will try a different strategy next time, using Knock Off instead. TruAnt might not be necessary since Focus Punch won't do much to Nite (if it even chooses to use that in the first place) I also have both Protect and Sub to stall with.

One battle in the 170s which I think was against a Baker. In this battle, an opposing Shiftry-3 decided to randomly explode on Nite after first using Sunny Day and Dark Pulse. I was only at 3 DDs at the time, but it was enough to finish of the two last mons which were Exeggutor and Lilligant IIRC. The only real bad backup in that trainer’s roster was Volcarona with Flame Body, though I still had both Whimsicott and Durant alive as well, so it should have been an easy win even if I had faced a Volcarona.

A battle in the 180s, vs Hiker Jorge. He uses Ground-types, any set. Lead Hippowdon which I confirm to be set 2, felt like I faced Hippowdon a lot as an opposing lead with this team. It is rather chill but some of the sets can set up with Curse alongside Nite, and Sand Stream is annoying. Either way, I set up Nite fully and beat it, Nite is behind a Sub but only at 3/4 HP due to the Sandstorm. The next opponent is Donphan. I hope it is not set 4 which has QC. DClaw, it survives with Sturdy and uses Roar, confirming set 2 which is safe. Durant comes in, uses Entrainment and gets hit by Endeavor, leaving it at 1 HP. I switch back to Nite and set up again, but now I am only at 1/2 HP since I have had to Sub twice and the Sandstorm rages. I also only go to +5 since I have very little PP left for Protect and I decide to save some of them in case of a bad third Pokémon. Donphan faints and the last opposing Pokémon is Torterra, which is super chill and it goes down to a +5 DClaw.

I saved the video of battle #203, just like on B/W.


Battle summary and comments:
My opponent is Ace Trainer Mooi, she uses a rather specific group of Pokémon. According to turskain's trainer list, the Pokémon she has are "Set4 of Group (B) Pokémon with 43 less Pokémon". For some reason, all the Ace Trainers in the Subway use very specific Pokémon. So that’s interesting. Either way, she starts with Alakazam-4. I Taunt it immediately to stop it from using TrickSpecs (which it tries to use), then Memento as it locks itself into Psychic. Out with Durant and Entrainment, then switch to Nite and set up. Alakazam faints, out next is Abomasnow which brings Hail with it. This doesn’t really do anything; it will just cancel out my Leftovers recovery. Abomasnow faints as well, and the last opposing Pokémon is Cryogonal. It has a Focus Sash, so it survives the first Dragon Claw and breaks Nite’s Sub with Blizzard. It then goes down to a second DClaw.

This was a very simple and easy battle, like pretty much every battle with this team. That said, it could have been bad if my opponent’s last Pokémon had been Froslass. Focus Sash + Snow Cloak + a Ghost-type + Blizzard AND Icy Wind is more trouble than I could ask for. All of this means that Nite would have needed to hit it twice through evasion, and Froslass can easily take down Nite with 2 hits. It has a lot of PP with two Ice-type moves, plus the Hail which cancels out my Leftovers recovery. And if Nite falls, Durant can’t touch it either. This is one reason I’m thinking that Iron Head might be better. But if I make that change, I might feel sorry if I should lose against a Cobalion. Fortunately, the last Pokémon here wasn’t a Froslass, so there was nothing to worry about.
And that’s that. With White 2 done, I had won 203 battles in a row and gotten the Starf Berry on all four of my Gen 5 games. The only thing I had left at this point was Super Multi. So that’s next.
 
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Super Multi
Super Multi is my least favorite facility format. I have gone over everything I dislike about it in various other points, so I won't do that again. The fact that it is my least favorite format is why I never bothered completing it in Gen 5 in the past. I remember that I tried it a little in Gen 5 during the B/W days and I just decided that I would not beat it back then because of how frustrating and annoying it was. I also got frustrated just from trying to unlock the Super Multi line in some of my Gen 5 games. There was also never a “Three Trophies Hall of Fame” in this thread like there is for the Maison thread, the Hall of Fame in the Maison thread was the main reason I bothered with Super Multi in Gen 6. Then I did Super Multi in Gen 7 just because I had done it in Gen 6 and I wanted the last Stamp in my Gen 7 games even if there wasn’t a club for that.

As said, I tried the Super Multi line at the Subway a little, in the past, but only in B/W. On Black, I tried once with an AI partner and made it to 18 wins in a row before losing. I never tried with an AI partner again after that. I also tried a little more on B/W by using both of my games and my 2 DS systems, but I only won one round of 7 battles before I quit. I gave up after that first round since it went so slowly, animations couldn’t be turned off and being forced to use wireless communication made it take too long to get done. I never continued on that streak either… Until now.

In some old Serebii posts, I had written that I would never bother with the Super Multi line. There was also one time when I had trouble unlocking the Super Multi line on Black 2 – I had to try the regular Multi line 3 times before I made it! That was really annoying and it made me determined to never give Super Multi a try. But now, it was finally time. I had to do it. 49 battles in a row – twice! (Since I had to do it on both game pairs). Though in reality, it was even more battles since I did of course lose a few times.

At first, I wasn’t sure what team to use. Multi is essentially Double with a twist, and as said before, I didn’t feel that there are any truly unbeatable strategies for Double in Gen 5. But I had two ideas for a Multi team. One was Rain, the other was priority Tailwind. I thought about it for a bit and I decided to go for Tailwind since I had previously used a Rain team in Double on three of my games, and I wanted to try something different even if the Rain team I previously used had worked very well. I also decided to make a somewhat more “original” team since my goal was only 49 wins in a row and not 203. I really wanted to try to have some fun along the way with a semi-original team. As for the team, I looked at various teams made by other people here in the thread and mixed them together into… something. Credit to those who inspired me for this team: Jumpman16, Peterko, yadazhai, Eppie, R Inanimate, Team Rocket Elite, pokemonwargeneral, McGrrr and icu812. I think that’s everyone.

Perhaps this is needless to say, but as always and as on Gen 6/7, I used both games together for this. Below is the team.

Black/Black 2:

1605343511891.png

Whimsicott (F) @ Focus Sash ** Entropy
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 206 HP / 84 Sp.def / 220 Spd
IVs: 31/0/31/31/31/31
Nature: Timid
- Taunt
- Tailwind
- Helping Hand
- Worry Seed

1605343523075.png

Garchomp (M) @ Life Orb ** Wulfric
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Att / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/31/31/4/31/31
Nature: Jolly
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect

White/White 2:

1605343533284.png

Typhlosion (M) @ Fire Gem ** Ignite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Sp.att / 10 Sp.def / 248 Spd
IVs: 31/2/30/31/30/30
Nature: Modest
- Eruption
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Flamethrower
- Protect

1605343543174.png

Blastoise (M) @ Water Gem ** Ammunition
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 6 HP / 4 Def / 248 Sp.att / 252 Spd
IVs: 31/2/31/30/31/31
Nature: Modest
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Protect

Streak (on all four games): 49 (ongoing but discontinued, not going to continue as my only goal was to get the trophy)

On B/W, I started battling with this team on August 19th, and I won 49 battles in a row on September 18th. That is a very special date, because on that day, it had been exactly 10 years since B/W were first released in Japan! I don’t think I could have celebrated their 10th anniversary in any better way.

For B2/W2, I started battling with the team on September 20th, and I won 49 battles in a row on September 27th. Because that was the last thing I had left in the Subway, I consider it to be the day when I had truly completed the Subway.

Now, to the team. There were two users of priority Tailwind to choose from in Gen 5 since Talonflame doesn’t exist: Whimsicott and Tornadus (don’t say “Murkrow”, lol). I settled for Whimsicott since it felt like it could be a great team supporter, others on the leaderboards had also used it to great success. Then I wasn’t sure if I had a Tornadus with great IVs and the right Nature on Gen 5 either. My own Tornadus which I caught on Black was obtained before I learned RNG in Gen 5, it has a Sassy Nature and far from perfect IVs. I might have obtained a good Tornadus through trade but I wasn’t sure, I was too lazy to check and if I were to use a Tornadus I had gotten through trade, it meant I wouldn’t be able to nickname it. Getting a Tornadus from the Dream Radar wouldn’t work either since it would always have its HA Defiant instead of Prankster.

So, I settled for Whimsicott once more, it would be the third time I used it for the Subway. It had served me well in Single and I had high hopes for it in Multi as well. I had also had great success with priority Tailwind (Talonflame) in Gen 6 & 7, so I wanted to see if it could work in Gen 5 too. The idea of using Gem-boosted Eruption/Water Spout was partly from using similar powerful moves in Gen 6/7, I had used Mega Blastoise with Water Spout in Gen 6 and Soulblaze Kommo-o in Gen 7. I mostly got the inspiration here from various successful Kommo-o teams in Gen 7, such as Mahler’s Flight, 4K, and my own team which I have named Saints of the Lunar Republic. Maybe there will be more to say about them in the future, who knows? I also have to say that after using this team and previous ones, I really love the concept of (priority) Tailwind. I always appreciate having Speed control in Double/Multi (and Triple, for that matter, not to mention Single and Rotation), so being able to instantly set up a successful Tailwind always felt good. Then letting the partner and sometimes also the user dish out heavy damage afterwards. That’s a strategy I really like.

A note on Gems. They feel like a basic predecessor to Z-moves/crystals. They are similar to Z-crystals, yet different. One advantage they have is that they will not get consumed if the attack fails due to the opponent protecting. But at the same time, they have a disadvantage in that they must be used immediately when an attacking move with the same type is selected, unlike the Z-moves which are used when the player wants, not the game. Gems have both advantages and disadvantages compared to Z-moves. I guess that they were considered a bit broken during the Gen 5 days which is why they got both nerfed and almost removed entirely in Gen 6 and following Generations.

Back to the team. The main idea for this team was for Whimsicott to support Typhlosion and Blastoise, they can dish out heavy damage with their powerful Gem-boosted Eruption and Water Spout. Garchomp takes over if Whimsicott faints, it is a fast and powerful Physical Attacker with great STABs.

Whimsicott is similar to the previous ones I used. I mostly took the EV spread from the Whimsicott on yadazhai’s team, but changed the EVs a little. I gave it enough EVs in Sp.def to have higher Sp.def than Def, this was done in order to give opposing Porygon a useless Attack boost if they have Download. This didn’t feel as relevant on yadazhai’s team since TruAnt auto-wins against all Porygon sets, but here, it felt like it might matter since I did not expect this team to be completely unbeatable. I’m not sure how Download works in Double/Multi though (does it pick an opponent at random, always the one directly opposite the user, or always the one diagonally opposite the user?). Either way, Typhlosion and Blastoise also have higher Sp.def than Defense, meaning most Download Porygon will get their Attack boosted. It did matter since I faced a few Porygon along the way, some of them had Download. The Speed EVs are the same as on the Whimsicott from yadazhai’s team, they let it outspeed Taunt Tornadus/Thundurus and throw up a Tailwind before getting shutdown if they should choose to Taunt it. The rest of the EVs went in HP to maximize bulk.

Whimsicott has many good moves to choose from, I picked the four I thought would be the most useful. Taunt was mostly used to stop opposing Trick Room users and others with potential annoying non-damaging moves, but I rarely used it. Though it was fun once when I used it on an opposing lead Cresselia, only to find out that it was Cresselia-2 and I had just forced it to Struggle! Tailwind was one of the two most used moves, I always used it when I wanted to get speed control in a battle against opponents that were faster than Typhlosion (or Blastoise). Helping Hand was the other move I used a lot, it was used to give it an extra boost to Typhlosion’s or Blastoise’s move, notably Eruption or Water Spout, but their other moves could benefit from it as well. Worry Seed was not used as much either, but I think I used it more than Taunt at least. It was useful when I had to change the Ability of an opposing Pokémon. Notable Abilities to get rid of were Sturdy, Solid Rock, Flash Fire, Dry Skin, Water Absorb, Thick Fat and Heatproof. There might have been others too, but those are the ones that stood out. Sometimes I wouldn’t use Worry Seed even against an opponent with one of these Abilities, it depended on the situation.

But as said, Whimsicott has many good moves to choose from. At times, I really missed a direct attacking move. Whimsicott is a great supporter, but it was very passive here since it didn’t have an attacking move of its own. This was less of a problem in Single, but here in Multi, it could feel useless at times. I would have loved to be able to run an attacking move (probably Giga Drain, but possibly Energy Ball or even Grass Knot instead) over either Taunt or Worry Seed. That would have made some situations a bit easier, it would also have given the team a chance to perform a bit better against Water-types as it has trouble against them (more about that later). Protect would also have been great to have, as would possibly Memento in order to make powerful opponents less powerful, and to give Garchomp a safe entry on the battlefield. But Memento feels more like a niche here than the other moves.

I gave Whimsicott a Focus Sash to hold in order for it to always survive at least one move. A Lum Berry could have been an alternative since Whimsicott tended to get hit by status fairly often and it occasionally even survived powerful super effective moves, but I think a Focus Sash is the better alternative on the whole. Being poisoned or burned doesn’t really hinder Whimsicott unless it is already at 1 HP, being paralyzed doesn’t matter in terms of Speed since it is still faster than everything thanks to Prankster (getting fully paralyzed is still annoying though). Getting confused was annoying as always though, and if it got frozen or put to sleep, it was pretty much dead anyway.

Another thought I had was to use Tailwind Thundurus instead of Whimsicott as a lead. I was almost considering switching to it at one point as I had RNGed a Thundurus on White (it is Modest and not Timid which I consider a failure, but has the right IVs at last). But then I learned that Thundurus can’t learn Tailwind! So I scrapped that idea.

Typhlosion is next. It was picked solely because of the fact that it learns Eruption and has the best stats to go along with it. Plus, Typhlosion is my favorite Johto starter, so yay! In comparison to the other Eruption users, it seemed like the best choice. A better choice would have been Heatran, but it only gets Eruption through an old Event and I do not have such a Heatran (and Wi-Fi for Gen 5 is dead, so I could not get one through trade either). Heatran is slower than Typhlosion though, but it might not have mattered much since I was using Tailwind anyway. So I went with Typhlosion.

I decided to lead with it alongside Whimsicott since it felt like Typhlosion has worse coverage overall, making Blastoise better as a backup. Typhlosion is weak towards Rock, Ground and Water, all of which Blastoise can hit super effectively. Typhlosion can’t hit Fire-types with its own Fire-type moves either, while Blastoise can spread water on most opposing Fire-types. Typhlosion can’t hit Rock- or Water-types super effectively either, while Blastoise can. Meanwhile, Blastoise is weak to Grass which Typhlosion decimates, and Electric which takes neutral damage from Fire (and Water too). Though I guess Garchomp is the team’s best answer to most Electric-types, and it can destroy Fire-types as well. Blastoise can’t hit Water- or Dragon-types neutrally with Water Spout either, but it has coverage for them at least with HP Grass and Ice Beam.

Eruption is the main move for Typhlosion, it deals a ton of damage as long as it is at high enough HP, the first Eruption gets a boost from the Fire Gem (except in the rare cases where I use Flamethrower first), and sometimes a boost from Helping Hand too! Epic damage for the win. HP Rock was for coverage. I’m not sure if this is the best HP type though, I was considering many other types as well: Ice, Electric, Grass and Ground. But I settled for Rock in the end. Together with Fire, it has great coverage against the opposing Pokémon in the Subway. The only ones that Fire/Rock can’t hit for at least neutral damage are the following: Poliwrath, Golem, Quagsire, Swampert, Flygon, Whiscash, Gastrodon, Garchomp, Rhyperior, Seismitoad and Terrakion. Typhlosion doesn’t get a lot of good coverage options, Hidden Power is pretty much the best one it has. That said, another HP type might actually be better. Rock seemed very good in theory, but in practice, the truth is that I rarely used it. Eruption usually felt like the better option, even if I was up against opponents that resisted Fire. The potential boosts from the Fire Gem and Helping Hand coupled with the ability to hit both opponents and chip away their HP made Eruption feel like the better option in most cases. HP Rock still had its uses though, I could use it to one-shot any Charizard or Moltres, and to deal more damage to opponents that resisted Fire but were weak to Rock, such as Dragon/Flying Pokémon like Dragonite and Salamence.

But yeah, another HP type might actually be better. Grass felt like an alternative to hit Typhlosion’s weaknesses: Water-, Rock- and Ground-types. Ice could be used to hit Ground- and Dragon-types, or Electric to hit Water- and Flying-types. There’s also the one I almost considered over Rock: Ground, in order to hit Fire- and Rock-types. I am really unsure about the best HP type for Typhlosion, but Rock did at least work.

As said, Typhlosion doesn’t have a lot of other options. Solarbeam would be awesome to counter Water/Rock/Ground-types, but that requires either Sunny Day which means Whimsicott would need to give up a moveslot for that (and Sunny Day is very unhelpful for Blastoise) or a Power Herb, but I’d rather use the Fire Gem. Focus Blast offers great coverage but it is way too inaccurate. Extrasensory won’t really help unless I’m up against a Tentacruel or Poliwrath or something. Going mixed doesn’t feel very appealing either since Typhlosion only has base 84 Attack.

Flamethrower was the third move of my choice; it was used in situations when Typhlosion’s HP got low but it still needed a Fire-type move. If it’s HP got very low, it would even get a Blaze boost! Then Protect in the last slot because it is always good to have in Double and Multi battles. It could be used if Typhlosion needed to protect itself while Whimsicott sets up Tailwind, to bait/scout attacks, or when Garchomp needed to use Earthquake. I was at one point considering Heat Wave over Flamethrower though. Heat Wave is inaccurate, but it has the benefit of hitting both opponents (assuming it hits), and it will also thaw Typhlosion if it gets frozen (which happened once, more about that in the battle logs). But I’m not sure if it would have mattered as I didn’t use Flamethrower that much either.

Regarding the EVs, I gave it max Sp.att to hit as hard as possible of course, then 248 EVs in Speed (since it has a 30 IV) to make it as fast as possible. I thought about going for a lower Speed stat but then I saw that this gives it a stat of 151 which is an empty speed tier and that’s excellent. The rest went into Sp.def. I did some damage calcs and learned that putting the last EVs into Sp.def allows Typhlosion to always survive an Earth Power from Heatran 1 and 3. Which is very specific and it never ended up mattering during the run, but it was at least something, and it meant the extra EVs did not go to waste. Fire Gem was the hold item of my choice. It gave a massive boost to the first Eruption (or sometimes Flamethrower) in every battle. It felt better than the alternatives since it meant I could switch between moves which I wouldn’t be able to with a Choice item, and it did not gradually reduce Typhlosion’s HP like a Life Orb would do (which in turn would lower the power of Eruption the more I attacked). So I went with the Fire Gem and it was great.

Garchomp was originally going to be Latios, but I quickly changed it because I realized that using Latios meant that the whole team would be Special-oriented, which isn’t good as that would give me trouble against Special sponges like Blissey and Snorlax. I know Latios gets Psyshock, but that didn’t feel like it would be enough. So I went with Garchomp instead. It is slower, but it is still very strong and all-Physical with good STABs. Dragon Claw and Earthquake are the main STAB moves, Typhlosion and Blastoise both carry Protect so Garchomp can Quake freely when it needs to. Then it has Protect as well since that move is just so useful in Multi. I went with Rock Slide as the last move for extra coverage because it was on the Garchomp sets used by others whose teams inspired me, but I almost never used it. No STAB and inaccuracy were the main factors, not to mention Dragon Claw or Earthquake were almost always the better option. I’m not sure if another alternative would have been better though. Maybe Fire Fang to hit certain Steel-types harder (I had a rather close battle against a Scizor once, more about that in the logs). Crunch could also be used to hit Psychic- and Ghost-types harder, but that doesn’t feel super necessary since my team doesn’t really have issues with those types. I guess there’s also Outrage which hits like a truck, it could have been used as an uncontrollable last resort if nothing else. Garchomp got the Life Orb to hold since it felt like the best item for it, having an extra boost at all times felt better than having a Gem since Garchomp doesn’t rely on a one-time nuking move like Typhlosion and Blastoise. The EVs and Nature don’t need any explanation, I just went with Jolly and max Attack/Speed, the rest in HP. I suppose I could have used Adamant and less Speed + more bulk since I have Tailwind, but I couldn’t count on Tailwind always being up and I wanted Garchomp to be as fast as possible in every given situation. Rough Skin is the obvious Ability, it is always active and it punishes any attacker who makes direct contact against Garchomp.

Lastly, there’s Blastoise. Random trivia: Squirtle was my original first in-game Pokémon, it was the one I picked the first time I played Blue, which was my first Pokémon game. Here, it was not chosen for nostalgic reasons but rather because of Water Spout. It isn’t as powerful as Typhlosion’s Eruption, and it is among the offensively weaker of the Pokémon that learn Water Spout. In fact, it is tied with Jellicent as the weakest one! But Blastoise is the fastest Water Spout user that can be used in the Subway and it has decent bulk too. I had also had great success with Mega Blastoise using Water Spout in Gen 6. That’s why I went with it. Water Spout is the obvious STAB move, it is similar to Typhlosion’s Eruption as it deals a ton of damage. The first one gets a boost from the Water Gem and then there’s a possible Helping Hand boost as well. Ice Beam and Hidden Power Grass for coverage, they are useful against opposing Grass-, Dragon- and Water-types. I went with HP Grass over Electric because it just felt better. Looking back at it now, I believe Grass is the superior option. It allows me to hit Lanturn, Quagsire, Swampert, Whiscash, Gastrodon, Seismitoad and Carracosta harder (or at all) compared to Electric. However, Electric is better against Tentacruel, Gyarados and Empoleon. But out of these, Gyarados feels like the only real problematic one as Garchomp handles Tentacruel and Empoleon. Even Typhlosion can do a ton of damage to Empoleon since it takes neutral damage from Fire.

Protect in the last slot for the usual utility, the reasons are the same as for Typhlosion. I would have loved to have Scald somewhere on Blastoise’s moveset, but I felt that the four moves it has are just too valuable, it can’t give up on any of them. Scald would have been great if I needed to use a Water-type move when Blastoise’s HP got low (which happened a few times), or if it got frozen and had to be thawed (don’t think that ever happened though). The EVs are the standard, 248 Sp.att (because of the 30 IV), then max Speed which allows it to outrun the entire Subway during Tailwind (it gets a Speed stat of 130 and doubling that gives it 260, just enough to outrun Scarf Manectric which sits at 258). The remaining EVs went into Defense and HP. Like with Typhlosion, this lets Blastoise survive some specific moves from opponents. They are the following: Double-Edge from Snorlax-3, Explosion from Lickilicky-4, Head Charge from Bouffalant-4 and Wild Charge from Zebstrika-4. Once again, very specific calcs that never mattered, but it felt great to know that the extra EVs at least did something! The Water Gem for the same reason as Typhlosion’s Fire Gem, it gives a great boost to the first Water Spout in every battle.

So that’s the team. It worked, but it had several issues. I noticed some problems when playing with it. The biggest issue for the team was definitely Water-types. They hit Typhlosion for super effective damage while it can usually not do that much back to them. They also tend to carry Ice-type moves which ruins Whimsicott and Garchomp. My only way to hit them effectively is with Blastoise’s HP Grass, which doesn’t do a ton of damage due to rather low base power and no STAB. Certain Water-types are extra tough to deal with if they carry an Electric-type move and an Ice-type move as well, such as Lanturn and Starmie. They can hit the entire team for super effective damage, which is very bad.

Another type I had issues against were Dragon-types. Typhlosion can’t hit them all that hard, Blastoise has to rely on Ice Beam which does sadly not hit all that hard either due to the lack of STAB. Garchomp felt like my best answer against them, but it was a double-edged sword. While it could hit opposing Dragons hard with Dragon Claw, it is also weak to Dragon itself and might fall if it fails to land a KO. None of my team members resist Dragon, and Dragon-types often tend to carry all sorts of coverage and annoying or powerful moves. Fortunately, it felt like I didn’t face Dragon-types as often as Water-types, but they were still problematic.

Lastly, I also found myself having some issues against Ice-types and Ice-type moves. Which might seem weird as I had Typhlosion with Eruption and Flamethrower, but Ice-types gave me more trouble than I had expected. Obviously, Whimsicott and Garchomp both have problems against them since they are weak to Ice. Typhlosion and Blastoise both have a risk of getting frozen, and neither of them can thaw themselves. Ice-types also tended to bring me trouble in various other ways such as Hail and 100% accurate Blizzards, Snow Cloak, Focus Sashes, Occa Berries, fast opponents requiring me to set up Tailwind first (notably Froslass) and more.

Regarding the playstyle for the team, I found that switching was generally a very bad idea. At least that’s how it felt. Switching out Whimsicott never felt like the best option and I think I only ever did it whenever my opponent only had one Pokémon left and both Typhlosion and Blastoise had fainted, so I could finish the opponent’s last Pokémon with Garchomp while I still had Tailwind. Otherwise, I always let Whimsicott stay in so it could cause as much chaos for the opponent and support for me until it went down. The same went for Typhlosion, I avoided switching it out. While switching out to Blastoise to negate a Water-type move might seem like a good choice in theory, it wasn’t really that good in practice. It meant Blastoise would take damage, lowering the damage of Water Spout. It felt better to let Typhlosion stay in and do as much damage as possible before it fainted, then have Blastoise take over from there. So, sacrificing the leads generally felt like it was the better option here.

As for my impressions of Super Multi in Gen 5 on the whole… when I started, it just felt so slow! Much slower than I had expected. Being forced to play with animations on and the games connecting all the time… it was painful in the beginning. Especially after Super Single/203 wins where even long stall battles felt like they went by extremely fast. A set of 7 battles in Super Multi usually took me around 30-40 minutes. Thankfully it was only 49 battles… twice. Except more since I lost. All in all, it made me even more determined that this was going to be my final farewell to Super Multi as a format. I’m never touching it again in any Pokémon game after this, that’s an oath.

But… after playing Super Multi for a while, I didn’t feel that slow anymore. The battle animations in Gen 5 are mostly quite short and go fast, so that was good. But at the same time, it was very annoying how item activations also have animations. Towards the end, I had sort of gotten used to everything with Super Multi to the point where it was honestly quite fun! Didn’t quite expect that, but that is how it was. In the end, both Super Multi and the team was quite fun. I’m happy that I did it. But I am still never going back to it.

How did my attempts go? I started on B/W where I had an ongoing streak of 7 since before, and I did of course not make it on my first try. I lost twice, those streaks ended at 39 and 43 battles won. Then I made it to battle #49 for a battle against Ingo and Emmet on my third attempt. Below are the battle logs of my noteworthy battles and losses from B/W. Those are not as detailed as the ones for 203 wins because as said earlier, I did not look up opposing trainers/sets while battling in Super Multi, so I was not using my PC and thus I did not write down everything until afterwards, when some details had been lost. Or several details, in many cases. Either way, here we go!
Streak 1:

One battle in Round 2 where I was up with my entire team against my opponent’s last Pokémon, which was a Milotic. It beat Typh with Surf and Blastoise with Mirror Coat. I still had Whimsi and Chomp left though, so I used Taunt to stop it from using Recover, then switched to Chomp and KO’d it with Quake.

Two tough battles in Round 3. One of them involved a dual Water lead where I sacrificed Typh instead of switching to Blastoise. I wasn’t sure if that was the right decision back then but I think it was now that I look back. And I won that battle, so it felt like the right decision. Can’t remember anything about the second one though.

One battle in Round 5 where I only had Blastoise left against my opponent's last Pokémon, a Miltank which to my surprise was faster than me (I didn’t have Tailwind up). Thankfully I could still beat it and win.

Lost in battle #40. Lead Suicune + Vaporeon. I switched to Blastoise, which in retrospect was a mistake. I go for a HH HP Grass on Cune and even get a Crit. I have lost several details of what happened next, but the Vaporeon got a QC activation and used Shadow Ball which got a Sp.def drop on Blastoise, (though according to my notes, that didn’t really matter in the end). Then Whimsicott fainted along with the Suicune and Vaporeon, I send out Chomp while the opposing backups turns out to be Latias and Slowking. Blastoise also fainted somewhere along the way, leaving me with only Chomp and Typh left against the backups. I lost against them, but I feel that I could have won if I had just played better. I did apparently not have Tailwind up but Chomp was still faster than the Latias, which I hadn’t expected. I might have been able to use that to my advantage in some way if I had known about it. I was close to winning in the end, but Typh’s HP Rock wasn’t quite strong enough to 2HKO the Slowking after it had lost about 50% to Chomp’s DClaw in the previous turn, it KO’d Typh with Surf while Chomp had gotten finished by the Latias’ DClaw on the previous turn.

This loss was annoying, but I did make it to 39 wins in a row. Just 10 wins from the goal. I felt that the team had the potential to make it all the way, so I made another try.

Streak 2:

One rather close early battle in the first set, battle #5 IIRC. Lead Quagsire + Arcanine, I switched to Blastoise (possibly a mistake, but I’m not really sure here). Whimsi uses Tailwind, the opponents use Flamethrower + Bulldoze which KO's Whimsi, Blastoise and Arcanine both take damage and have their Speed lowered. Out with Chomp, Quake + Protect, Arca faints, Quag survives and Bulldozes again, causing damage and lowering Chomp’s Speed. Lickilicky comes out to replace Arca. DClaw Licki, HP Grass Quag, both survive. Licky IB on Chomp who faints, Quag uses Bulldoze again. HP Grass again next turn, Quag goes down while Licky uses TBolt, Blastoise gets paralyzed. Manectric comes out to replace Quag. Blastoise goes down next turn obviously. Out with Typh. I am faster than both opponents and Eruption takes them down, giving me the win.

Battle #27, vs two Psychics. Lead Mr. Mime and Gengar. Tailwind + Protect, Gengar Sludge Bombs Whimsi to 1 HP, Mime uses Light Screen. HH Eruption next turn, Gar faints, Mime defeats Whimsi with Signal Beam. Out with Chomp, Slowbro comes in to replace Gar. DClaw Slowbro for about 50%, Eruption, Mime faints. Slowbro uses Trick Room. Medicham comes out as the last opposing Pokémon. Double Protect next turn, Slowbro uses Blizzard, Medi HJK, it loses somewhat less than 50% HP in recoil. Next turn both my mons faint to blizzard and HJK, though Medicham is now at less than 50% HP thanks to the Life Orb it is holding, Slowbro recovers with leftovers. I only have Blastoise left. I manage to win by first using Protect to make the Medi KO itself through a HJK miss, then 3HKO the Slowbro with HP Grass.

Round 5 – hadn’t written down any concrete details, but this was one of the rounds where it felt like every single battle was hard or close to becoming a loss in some way.

Lost in Battle #44, against Backpacker Wald (I lost against my favorite trainer again) and a Biker with “Powerful” Pokémon - Philipo or Petro (not sure which of them, and it doesn’t matter). Lead Dragonite + Salamence. Not good. Tailwind + Protect, Salamence uses EQ, Whimsi takes damage, Nite TWaves Whimsi. Next turn I go for Taunt on Nite with Whimsi and let Typh HP Rock Sala for about 50%. Sala EQ again, Whimsi takes more damage and Typh is at less than 50%. Nite tries TWave again, this time against Typh but can’t use it since it got taunted. Next turn HH + HP Rock on Sala, it faints. Nite Rock Slides, Typh faints. I send in Blastoise, my opponent sends out Haxorus. I then do a mistake here as I Taunt Haxorus and Ice Beam Dragonite – which survives with about 10% left. They use EQ + Rock Slide. My Tailwind ends. Next turn, I go for Tailwind + Protect, Whimsi takes even more damage and faints. Out with Chomp. DClaw on the Haxorus, but it survives thanks to a Haban Berry. IB Nite, which now faints. Haxorus uses EQ and gets a Crit on Blastoise, so it faints. Not good. The final opposing Pokémon is Weavile. I’m so screwed at this point. I guess I could have gone for Rock Slide or maybe EQ here, but I go for DClaw on the Weavile which faints, Haxorus uses Dual Chop to defeat Chomp, the Rough Skin recoil was not enough to take it down.

I lost again, but I had not really expected to make it all the way on my first or even second try. This time, I was only 6 wins away from the goal, so I was determined to keep trying since I really felt that I should be able to make it.

Streak 3:

In one of the earlier rounds, can’t even remember which round but it was either Round 2 or 3, I got to face several Water-types and it felt like every battle was tough once more.

Round 5, two notable battles here. In the first one, I was up against a lead Mr. Mime and Bronzong. I Taunt the Mime to stop it from using Light Screen and use Eruption with Typh. The Mime fails to set up Light Screen, but then the Bronzong uses Light Screen as well, which succeeds. That was a bit annoying. I still won that battle in the end, but I guess I should have used HH + Eruption from the start instead of Taunt.

The second battle was against a lead Empoleon + Chandelure, the Empoleon froze Typh with Blizzard, and it didn’t thaw. This was the battle that made me wonder if Heat Wave might actually be a better alternative than Flamethrower as Heat Wave thaws the user if it is frozen, while Flamethrower does not. I still won this battle, but it made me think about making the change. Though I never ended up making it.

Then there were two more battles in Round 6. The first one was rather hilarious. I faced a lead Metagross + Krookodile, I use Protect + Tailwind, they use Earthquake and Magnet Rise… but since the Metagross is slower, it takes heavy damage from the Krookodile’s Earthquake first. The AI had a nice idea there, just too bad that they didn’t take the speed tiers into account. Other than that, it was an easy win for me.

The second one was Battle #42, the last fight in the sixth round. Lead Lapras + Infernape, they manage to beat both Whimsicott and Typhlosion, which means I only have Garchomp and Blastoise left against these leads and two unknown backups. I also sort of gambled a bit here as I used Dragon Claw to defeat the Infernape while it was at about 10% left while I used HP Grass on the Lapras while it had like 25-30% HP left. Fortunately, both fainted. It would have been worse if the Lapras had survived since it could then have used IB to beat Chomp. The reason I didn’t use Water Spout was because it felt better to save the Water Gem for the backups (and the Lapras could have had Water Absorb). These backups were Gigalith and Cradily which were a very safe duo, though the Cradily annoyed me by successfully using Protect twice in a row, which meant that the end of the battle took longer than it should have. Opposing Cradily in battle facilities still manage to annoy me, somehow.

Lastly, I had three more tough battles in the seventh and final round.

The first one was Battle #46, against a Gentleman with legendaries and a Hiker Kemuel who used Rock-types (though I wasn’t sure about that before the battle because of his lead). They started with Terrakion and Golem. Protect + Tailwind, then HH Eruption. Both survive and they defeat Typh. Out with Blastoise, HH Water Spout. I would have loved to save the Gem for the backups since the leads would faint anyway, but I had no choice. Both opponents faint, obviously. Out comes Virizion and Rampardos. Virizion is not good since it threatens Blastoise, it makes wish I still had Typh. HH Water Spout again. Rampardos faints, Viri takes damage but is at about 60-70% HP left and it defeats Blastoise with Leaf Blade. I then stall a little with Whimsi, set up a new Tailwind since my previous one ended, then I Taunt the Viri to stop it from using potentially annoying moves. It defeats Whimsi and I only have Chomp left. But I am faster thanks to Tailwind, and DClaw KO’s.

I don’t remember the other two in quite exact detail, but I think Battle #47 was against a lead Tentacruel and Vaporeon. I attack and sacrifice Typh, thankfully the Tentacruel goes for Sludge Wave and kills its partner Vappy with it! Then I think I was up against a Slowking and Umbreon. I focused on taking down the Slowking first, then the Umbreon last. It was a Curse set but it wasn’t too hard to beat.

Battle #48 was the last one. What happened here? Wish I had written down more and that I could remember more. It might have featured a Blissey and some partner I can’t remember. Then there was a Garchomp which used Sandstorm followed by Protect to dodge my Water Spout while I defeated its partner, it then causes damage to Blastoise and I manage to beat it but not the partner Umbreon (which was from the same trainer as the Blissey) which defeats Blastoise. In the end, I only have the Black side left against another Umbreon. But this one hadn’t boosted with Curse. I switched out Whimsicott for a full HP Chomp and defeat it, which went easy.

Then I finally got to face Ingo and Emmet for a Trophy battle. I saved the video on Black, find it below:


Battle summary and comments:
I had checked which Pokémon Ingo and Emmet would use before I got to them, so I knew Ingo would use Excadrill and Haxorus, while Emmet would use Archeops and Eelektross. They start with Excadrill and Archeops which is pretty good since at least Excadrill should go down easily. I go for Protect + Tailwind since Archeops is faster than Typh, they go for RS (which misses against Whimsi) and EQ. On the next turn, I go for a HH Eruption which takes down both of them. It was not a guaranteed OHKO on the Archeops though, “only” a 87.5% chance to according to the calculator, which is good enough. Next are Eelektross and Haxorus. Another HH Eruption, no Fire Gem boost this time but I get a Crit on the Eel and it faints (a non-crit would not have been a guaranteed KO, only a 25% chance according to the calculator). Haxorus takes damage and DClaws Whimsi, which faints. I send out Chomp and DClaw Haxorus away, winning the battle. With this, I have beaten Super Multi on B/W and gotten my third and last trophy on these games!

Looking back, Ingo and Emmet were easy opponents. I don’t think it is possible for this team to lose against them unless I get haxed to the extreme or misplay horribly.
That’s how it went on B/W. After I had beaten the Super Multi line there, it was time for the sequels as well. While I had lost twice and noticed some issues with my team to the point where I was feeling unsure about it for a little while, I decided to use it in B2/W2 as well. After all, I managed to make it all the way on my third try in B/W. And at this point, I felt that the team was really fun to use! As said earlier, Tailwind + being able to spam powerful attacks is really fun, it is a strategy I really like.

So I traded over the team to B2/W2 and entered the Super Multi line with it here as well. And on these games, I made it all the way on my first try. Not sure how, but I think it was a combination of skill (after my three streaks with the team on B/W, I had learned how to play it a bit better compared to when I first started with it) and luck, of course. Interestingly, I needed several tries to reach my goals on B/W (10 and 7 for 203 wins, 3 for Super Multi), but on B2/W2, I beat both 203 wins and Super Multi on my first try on both games.

Below are the notable battles from B2/W2. Since there was only one streak, there aren’t that many. And sadly, I really wish I had more details for most of them because several were really interesting.
One battle in the late 30s. Lead Houndoom + Armaldo (or it might have been a Froslass, but probably an Armaldo). I ended up having only the White 2 side left against the last opponent which was a Hariyama with Flame Orb. I had both Typh left at full HP and Blastoise in the back so it was rather chill, but still a bit scary. Eruption did a ton of damage to the Hariyama (meaning it had Guts) and it survived with like 1 HP left, KO’d Typh with CC, then fainted from the Burn damage.

What happened then? For a while, not much. But in the seventh and final round, it felt like every single battle was scary or close in some way. It was really painful and my heart was racing all the time. I wish I had written down details of every single battle in that round. But I didn’t. Instead, here are all the things I can remember. I met several Water-types, a trolling Shuckle, opponents with Focus Sashes, a QC Vaporeon and several Ice-types, notably Froslass. There was also a Slowbro and a Latios. I only had one or two Pokémon left at the end of most if not all battles. Mostly Blastoise and Garchomp. There was one battle where I only had the White 2 side left against a Wailord which I could KO by first using Typh’s HP Rock and then Blastoise’s HP Grass. Another one was against the QC Vaporeon mentioned earlier. It was next to a Scizor, I only had Chomp left against the Scizor in the end. I could fortunately 2HKO it with Quake as it used Bug Bite first and then I KO’d it on the next turn, it did not go for Bullet Punch even if that would probably have KO’d Chomp. This was the battle that made me consider Fire Fang for Garchomp over Rock Slide, but it didn’t really make a difference as I won in the end anyway. Plus, the Scizor had an Occa Berry, so Quake might have been the better option in the end anyway. Though I guess both moves would at least have 2HKO’d. I won, that’s what matters. That Scizor situation was in Battle #48, the last battle before the bosses. I misplayed a bit in that battle (leading up to the final situation) and I could have had an easier victory, but I still won. Either way, those first 6 battles of round 7 were an utter pain and it’s a miracle I didn’t get a heart attack along the way. Interestingly, it was a fitting way to end my journey in the Subway, and a memorable way to get the third and last trophy on the last two games. And looking back at how easy it was before, it feels like the game decided to save all of the hard battles for the final round.

Like on B/W, I saved the battle video of my battle against Ingo and Emmet, this time on Black 2. Find it below.


Battle summary and comments:
Since I had beaten Ingo and Emmet on B/W, I knew I would be able to beat them on B2/W2 as well. This time, they start with Excadrill and Eelektross which is excellent. Both of them are slower than Typh, so I don’t need Tailwind from turn 1. Instead, I go for a HH Fire Gem Eruption and nuke them both into oblivion. Only Haxorus and Archeops left. I knew at least Archeops is faster than Typh (and upon checking their sets afterwards, I learned that Haxorus is as well), so I go for Protect + Tailwind while they use EQ + RS, Whimsi takes heavy damage. HH Eruption next turn, both survive, Archeops recovers with the Sitrus Berry. Archeops uses AA on Whimsi which faints, Haxorus DClaws Typh (a move that was probably meant for Whimsi). I send out Chomp. DClaw on Haxorus, HP Rock on Archeops, I win and have beaten the Subway once and for all!

Like on B/W, Ingo and Emmet were easy to beat. No issues whatsoever.
With that, I was done with Super Multi. Not only on Gen 5, but as a format across all generations once and for all. That felt good.

How many Super Multi battles did I need on Gen 5 (this time around) before it was done?

The answer is: 40 + 44 + 49 + 49 – 7 = 175

So that’s quite many. It is exactly 28 battles away from 203!

Despite all the issues I have with Super Multi as a format, I honestly enjoyed it this time around, as said earlier. But as I have also said earlier, I am never going back to it.

One last thing I have to say about Super Multi is this: a crazy idea I came up with for a Super Multi team as I was playing is to make a TruAnt team for Super Multi. Since you can use two Pokémon of the same species (one on each side/game) if you play with two games and two systems, it is possible to use 2 Durant and Entrain both opponents on turn 1, then switch out to two backups and set up them on the turns the opponents loaf, using Protect on the other turns as usual. Once that is done, you could sweep the entire opposing team. But such a strategy would still have some flaws, notably if the opponents manage to screw you up on turn 1. It would also take forever to get the battles done since you have to play with animations on and set up fully in every battle. Maybe someone is up for trying it in practice? I am definitely not though.

And that’s all I have to say about Super Multi, which will be the last time. With this, I say farewell to it.
In the Subway, you get a trophy for each Super line you manage to beat. Those are similar to the Trophies in the Maison in Gen 6 and the Stamps for beating the Tree in Gen 7. In Gen 5, they get displayed in your room at your house in the games, as opposed to in the Maison in Gen 6 or on your Trainer’s Passport in Gen 7.

I was initially not sure of there even existed a Trophy for beating the Super Multi line, but I guessed that there must be one. Since I had gotten one for beating the Super Single and Double lines, and since it seemed like there was enough space for another Trophy in the player’s room in the games, it seemed logical that you would get a third Trophy for beating the Super Multi line. It also said so on Bulbapedia’s page for the Subway, and since they tend to be correct about pretty much everything, it meant that the third Trophy existed.

I had previously beaten the Super Single and Double lines, so I knew that the two trophies you get for beating them were Red and Blue. But which color would the Multi Trophy be? I didn’t know. Yellow or Green felt like the most logical choices. But what if it was a completely different color altogether? Purple, Gray/Grey, or any other color? I didn’t know. I almost got spoiled on it once thanks to an earlier post here in this thread (which is on this very page) by Collector Togami, it featured a video which showcased the three trophies at the end. Thankfully I managed to not look too clearly at that part, so I didn’t get spoiled on anything besides the fact that the third trophy did in fact exist and was not a mere myth!

Either way, now that I have beaten the Super Multi line, I finally know the answer to the mystery of the third Trophy.

Spoiler alert! If you don’t want to know the color of the Multi Trophy, stop scrolling now.

Photos of the Three Trophies below.

Black and White:


Memory Linked to Black 2 and White 2:


Black 2 and White 2:


And the answer is…? It was Green! That makes sense, and it is one of the colors I had expected. Red, Blue and Green. They are suitable colors for the three trophies in so many different ways, and that’s great.
With this, I have beaten the Battle Subway once and for all. I have beaten all three Super Lines and won 203 battles in a row on all four games. For real. But I want to say a few more short things before I am done.
I may be done with the Subway, but not with battle facilities in general. In the post in the Gen 8 Tower thread that I made in February, I said that I had thought about going back to the Battle Tower in Sword once more in the future. I have been thinking about that, and I have decided that I am going to do it. I just decided to wait until both DLC packs had been released so that I would have as many Pokémon as possible to choose from. I know I’m far from the only one, but Dexit is a huge blow for me, having access to all existing Pokémon in past generations was always something I appreciated and I dislike how it is no longer (currently) possible in Gen 8.

Now that the Crown Tundra has been released, I have returned to Sword once again, for what might very well be the last time. I am going to go back to the Tower, but there are a bunch of other things I have planned to do as well. I’m going to do some of them first, so my return to the Tower will not happen immediately. What I have planned to do in the Tower is some sort of self-imposed challenge where I am going win enough battles at both Single and Double so that my total reaches 200 in both modes. It will not necessarily be 200 in a row, but it may happen... it depends on how things go. There is a lot more I want to say about the Tower in Sword, Gen 8 on the whole, the future regarding my interest in Pokémon as well as a certain Copperajah in the room that exists in S/S now that we have the DLC… but I’ll save those things for when we get there. Sad as it is, I have been losing interest in Pokémon lately, I am getting burnt out on the series again. But more about that next time.

As for the future of my battling in older battle facilities… with my Subway streaks, I now have three more ongoing streaks left to complete (not including Super Multi since I’m never going back to it). How many notable ongoing streaks do I have now on Gen 3-7? The answer is 22. Maybe I’ll go back and complete them all at some point just in order to not leave anything unfinished. Or maybe not. I don’t know yet. The future will tell…

There are of course also other things I want to do in the older facilities. I have talked about most of them before, but here’s a bit about that again. The most notable ones are of course the Factories in Emerald and Platinum, it would be nice to get Gold in both of them so that I can finally consider myself done with both Frontiers once and for all. There’s also the Crystal Battle Tower, winning 100 battles in a row at the Towers in R/S/E, and the entire HG/SS Frontier but that last one is definitely a big no. I have also thought about making new teams for the PWT, the Maison and even the Tree… but I’m not sure when or if any of this will ever happen.

There’s also another idea I got for the Subway, which is to try to beat it (in some way or form) with more original teams of my own as opposed to teams created by other players. Thanks to Brucolac for giving me this idea! But I’m not sure about it either. And it is also hard, where exactly do you draw the line between an original team and one that has been heavily inspired by someone else’s team? So that’s another idea, but I don’t know about it either.

As said in the beginning, Gen 5 is my favorite. B/W are the games that got me back into Pokémon after I previously got burnt out on the series during the latter half of Gen 4, B/W and B2/W2 both gave me some of the most fun I have ever had not only with Pokémon, but also with video games in general. Even if I were to lose all my interest in Pokémon in the future, I will never forget all the fun I have had with Gen 5. Beating the main battle facility is one of the things I always wanted to do in my favorite Pokémon generation, and now I have done it for real.

It feels a bit sad that it is over, but at the same time, I am very happy that I did it. It took a while to get done, so being done with it also means that I can now shift my focus to other things. How about a quote? “Don’t be sad that it is over, smile because it happened.” That’s how I feel about the Subway right now. And now that I am done with the Subway, I honestly miss it! It was fun and a great experience. I’m so happy that I completed it. Maybe I’ll return one day? Time will tell.

I also wanted to say something about write-ups. I really enjoy doing write-ups like this, but they tend to become extremely long. This one became so long that I had to split it in four posts, I had originally thought one post would be enough, but that was wrong. Looking back, it feels like each of my write-ups has been getting longer than the previous one, the only real exception so far would be my post for the Sword Tower. I’ve come a long way since my first write-up here on Smogon for the Maison in X/Y, which I wrote in 2014. But that post was extremely rushed, I just quickly threw it together in one day. Making long write-ups also take a lot of time, I completed the Subway in the end of September which was way over a month ago. So, while this is fun, I’m not sure if I’ll continue doing write-ups like this in the future. That said, writing on this was at times more fun than playing Sword, I often ended up putting higher priority on writing this instead of playing Sword. For my next post which will be for the Sword Tower, I’ll try to keep things shorter. But we’ll have to see how that turns out.
I am now done with the Subway. This took a while. It started in February, and now, 9 months later, it is over.

I want to give a big thanks to all the people who have helped, inspired and encouraged me along the way. Not only for the Subway, but throughout all the years I have been battling at battle facilities, all the way from 2006 to the present. Thank you all so much!

If you read everything I have written in these posts, or just some parts of it, that would make me happy. I hope you enjoyed it. Personally, as I said earlier, I really enjoy making these write-ups despite all the time and effort it takes, it is a lot of fun.

So yeah, this is it. I’m done with the Subway. For now, if nothing else. But I am not done with battle facilities on the whole yet. I am going to go back to the Sword Battle Tower at the very least, so my next battle facility post will be in that thread. See you there! Until then, take care and have fun!
 
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Eisenherz

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Suspicious Derivative congrats on completing this journey through the Subway!

I have noticed that there are some things missing from the calculators. The most notable is that neither calculator have the Subway sets for Porygon-Z.
It also seems that some moves are not displayed and have to be added manually, such as High Jump Kick and Extreme Speed. I guess this is because they got a name change in Gen 6, and that this also happens for all other moves which got a name change in Gen 6. Some Abilities are not displayed at all either even if they exist in Gen 5, such as Rough Skin. There might be more things, but those are some of the missing things that I noticed. turskain and Eisenherz, if either or both of you read this, do you think these things can be fixed? As awesome as your calculators are, I would love to see them become even better.
I added all 4 P-Z sets and fixed HJK, Espeed and Rough Skin. If there are more instances of missing moves/abilities feel free to let me know by DM and I'll add them too!
 
Hey there,

I want to submit a completed streak with 114 battles with a sun team.

Typhlosion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Eruption
- Solar Beam
- Flamethrower
- Sunny Day

Ninetales @ Focus-Sash
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flame Burst
- Solar Beam
- Protect
- Sunny Day

Exeggutor @ Life-Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 12HP / 252 SAtk / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
- Solar Beam
- Psychic
- Hidden Power Ice 70
- Protect

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Flamethrower
- Earthpower
- Dragonpulse
- Protect
The team was superfun to play and obviously just breezes through most of the battles. Even against two fire-resists I usually go for Eruption, and most of the stuff gets just worn down. Water types often just need an additional Solar Beam from Ninetales. Flame Burst in general was very useful, way more than Flamethrower which I initially had over Sunny Day. Ninetales surprisingly often got a double KO. Also it helps to soften things up like Flash Fire users, bringing them in range for Exeggutor and Heatran, which often is crucial (see threats below). There is some stuff where I really wish I had Flamethrower, like Haxorous, Spiritomb (KO with Eruption), and TR Dusknoir goes down with a very high chance, too. But as I said Flame Burst did serve better in many many situations.
After one of my leads goes down Exeggutor usually comes in and does massive damage. Just take care that you don’t trade it 1vs1. I rather do some switching/protecting in order to kill the other mon in the same turn, than just trade Exeggutor for something.
LO-Exeggutor is incredibly strong: In the sun it OHKOs all Walrein, Vaporeon, Suicune, Regirock, Hippowdon, Tyranitar (with Flame Burst damage), …
It also OHKOs so many of these very fast mons like Aerodactyl, Jolteon, Crobat, ...
If I spot a mon that can hardly harm Heatran I usually just kill its partners and let my Heatran wait. There is a big amount of stuff that gets completely walled by it, including many fire mons, grass/poison types, some toxic users, .. It can beat certain trainers alone. However for certain threats it also is the only answer (like enemy Heatran), so don’t bring it in carelessly. Very dumb AI often helped me. Also Heatran really needs all 4 of its moves. What survives the inferno of my leads (Solar Beam against waters and stones) mostly are dragons and fire types that I can hit with SE damage. Most of them are 2-hit or even one-hit if they are already chipped.
In general there is a very good switching synergy. Exeggutor and Heatran cover their weaknesses perfectly, and switching is an important part for many situations. Exe has nice EQ-taking qualities, and Icebeam and Fire moves aimed at it just fall flat on the other team members. Only a rock resist I miss at times. Rock slide on my leads is quite common.
Enemy weather:
Sand is the biggest problem, as this weather can be set up via ability. This also caused me to lose on the 114-streak, but I think this even was the only loss against sand. But anyways, sand is the main reason why I have two times Sunny Day, which makes me very flexible. If I manage to setup the sun again, Exeggutor can OHKO all Tyranitar (do some chip against sash) and Hippowdon, so a strong comeback is possible. If Typhlosion can deal only few damage to the second enemy I may go for Sunny Day with him.

Rain was very seldom a problem, one only has to take care about the setters. One time I faced a Floatzel and went for Eruption + Solar Beam, but before the latter it set up Rain. Typhlosion got damaged so much that it couldn’t finish Floatzel in the following turn and Ninetales couldn’t switch because of the charging Solar Beam. I lost that battle. So if I see Floatzel I usually go for Eruption + Flame Burst, which is no guaranteed kill, but much safer play.

Hail is no problem and against Ice-teams I often didn’t even need my sun. I just have to remember that Solar Beam doesn’t work then.

Sunny Day abusers:
Here I think mostly of Chlorophyll users (hello Teeterdance Lilligant) and Fire mons, especially Flash Fire users. Chlorophyll usually is no problem unless they somehow prevent Eruption. Normal fire mons usually cannot hurt my leads much and get worn down with Eruption. Flash Fire users here are the biggest problem, although I think I never lost to one of them. Flash Fired Calm Minded Chandelure in the sun is scary. But as long as I can kill their partners I just let them do their thing and preserve Heatran. Heatran is key for so many threats. A bunch of Flash Fire users cannot even touch it for relevant damage, the others need to be taken seriously. Some carry fighting moves, and against enemy Heatran my Heatran pretty much is my only answer. Don’t by shy to target them with Ninetales Solar Beam, some of them go down by Psychic then. Also what really helps is the stupid AI which often goes for Fire attacks into Heatran, which saved some battles. Maybe here activating their Flash Fire with Eruption even helped them making their decision for a fire move (Flareon).

Trickroom:
Often scary, but I learned to deal with it better. Often 3 or 4 turns I just switch and protect alternatingly, which works quite well considering the types. Also some of the notorious setters I can take out in turn one such as Slowbro and Bronzong. I am not sure if I lost to Trickroom once, but it is always stressful.

Dragons/StrongResists/Special Bulky things:
Dragons are a problem. I wonder how I never lost to Lati@s, but I lost twice to Salamence and other dragons, also to that specially bulky Gyarados. Exeggutor can OHKO a bunch of them but one should prepare momentum and kill the other enemy in the same turn or Exeggutor just gets traded. Blissey usually is no problem if at least two of my team are around. Activating Heatrans Flash Fire may be a thing.
I faced Tyranitar and Excadrill, which may be problematic. In the first turn all odds turned against me. Eruption, Excadrill avoided (Bright Powder), Excadrill has Sand Rush, outspeeds Ninetales and goes for Rock Slide, hits both, crits Ninetales and flinches it! Ninetales cannot reset the sun, also the crit brought it to the Sash (would have survived otherways). Tyranitar kills Typhlosion with Stone Edge and Ninetales goes down to Sand. So this is what I call unlucky. What follows is one of the greatest almost comebacks:
Exeggutor and Heatran in. Protect with Exe, they double into him, I hit Flamethrower on Exca and it dies. In comes Hippowdon.
Next turn, I try a second Protect on Exe, but it fails. Heatran Earthpower in Tyranitar, Tyranitar Crunch, kills Exe, Hippo Yawn on Heatran. Why am I still playing this.
Next turn, I finish Tyranitar, Hippo Crunch, destroys the balloon, Heatran at 143/166, falls asleep. In comes Bastiodon.
Heatran sleeps, gets Crunch and Stone Edge crit, 40/166.
Heatran sleeps, Crunch and Iron Defense lol, 19/166.
Heatran wakes up, Flamethrower, crit on Hippo, Hippo down! Stone Edge miss! Is this.. can it be?
I protect, then I want to 2HKO it, but this time it finished Heatran with Stone Edge.

That was a thrill. Karma trying to fight back hard after a maximally bad start + horribly bad AI play. Anyways, who would have imagined that Heatran ALMOST killed an entire Sand team, only with some small prior Eruption damage on Tar.
I had four (!) consecutive Quick Claw activations in a battle. Quick Claw is not nice on this team, there is QC EQ Steelix, and something with QC Water Pulse + Confusion + Hurt on Typhlosion. I bred Exeggutor and the very first egg had 31IVs in SA, SD, Spd, and it had HP Ice 70 lol.

I did quite a few attempts with this team, but I only got over 100 twice. I almost always lost due to misplay which probably is why I tried it again. On the other over-100-losing battle I went for Solar Beam against Wiscash while sun was not shining. Always these crap mons that you underestimate. I actually hope that this was my final attempt and that I will not try it again, nor anything else. Here I want to give a quick shoutout for Flavor0 and his cool Gravity team which I tried and also found superfun. I tried to replace Metagross with something that can deal with Jolteon, I had Eviolite Rhydon, Scarf-Terrakion and Scarf-Moxie Heracross. They all had their moments, but were too frail and opened other weaknesses. Moxie-Krookodile is something that could be tried out (EDIT: and Scarf-Dark Void Smeargle lol), but I am done I think.
 
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Hello there, I can’t stop. Luckily I have no chance to get a Tornadus, so this is just an idea. It’s a Tailwind team that features some uncommon but really (REALLY) hard hitting mons.

Tornadus @ Flying Gem
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Tailwind
- Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Protect (Sub)

Ursaring @ Toxic-Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 4SDef / 244 Spe (4 left, but not in Def because of Download)
Jolly Nature
- Facade
- Close Combat
- Earthquake (Crunch)
- Protect

Nidoking @ Life-Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SAtk / 20 SDef / 196 Spe (outspeeds everything in Tailwind, no Download boost)
Modest Nature
- Earthpower
- Sludgewave (Sludgebomb)
- Icebeam (Thunderbolt)
- Protect

Metagross @ Muscle Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SAtk / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Bullet Punch
- Thunderpunch
- Protect (Icepunch)
The teambuilding involved thoughts about making STAB sludgewave paired with a Steel work. Most stuff is awful, but Nidoking with Sheer Force seemed kind of okay. At second glance it actually is not only okay, it hits shockingly hard! See below.
Because of the low speed, Tailwind is a must and the reliable Tornadus was quickly chosen, as it hits hard and has an okay type synergy with Nidoking. First I considered Fake Out, but found nothing too charming (Medicham, Infernape, …). Then I discovered lolnubs cool Tailwind-team with Guts Heracross. Considering that strategy Ursaring fits better in my team for several reasons (maybe even in lolnubs team?). Ursaring is just brutal, again, see below. The fourth slot needs to tie everything together, a Steel type comes to mind, Metagross seeming to outclass here anyone.
Sheer Force boosts Nidokings SAtk to the level of modest Gengar/Latios/.., (on top comes the Life Orb) and it has an awesome movepool and great STABs! Poison + ground is one of the combinations hitting almost everything for neutral damage. Just as a comparison: Due to one additional STAB and Icebeam being stronger than HP Ice, it kills slightly more stuff than the similar (timid) LO Landorus you all know (even more if you use Sludgebomb over -wave). I am not quite sure if one should give him Thunderbolt, Icebeam or both, but I think Protect + Icebeam should be used as Meta maybe should carry Thunderpunch for coverage against Waters. Also Nidoking has nice resistances for the frontline.

Ursaring as I said hits incredibly hard. It’s the longest list of OHKOs I saw lol. It hits harder than lolnubs Heracross. The reason for this is the better STAB: Many things resisting normal are hit super effectively by Close Combat, while for Heracross, many things resisting fighting are not hit super effectively by Facade (this is true.). At the same time stuff weak to fighting is often OHKOed by both Hera and Ursa. In comparison to Heracross Ursaring loses some OHKOs on stuff as Regice or Walrein, but gets many more OHKOs on normal-neutral-hit stuff like the Lati@ses, etc. 315BP Facade does its thing. Crunch would give it an opportunity to hit Ghosts, but I think Earthquake may be even more beneficial. With such a strong attacker you want a spread move, and I don’t worry too much about ghosts. For one reason most of them don’t even have a STAB move against Ursaring and carry status moves which make no sense against a toxic-orb. Jolly Ursa in Tailwind outspeeds everything except for Terrakion, Entei and Manectric. Terrakion obviously may be unconvenient, but I think its not too bad, the backrow resists its attacks quite well and it is OHKOed by 3/4 of the team, so yeah..

Tornadus is well known. Acrobatics should OHKO many fighting-types threatening Ursa.

Meta as I said is supposed to be some glue with many resistances. The team obviously doesn’t like Ice, so here comes the Ice-killer. Fire types that threaten it can be OHKOed almost entirely by Nidoking (Also many Rocks/Steel with Earthquake). Air Balloons may be destroyed with Bullet Punch (I spent way too many thoughts on this team oops).

The speed-tie of Meta and Nido needs to be decided, as well as final move choices.
The team may have problems killing bulky Waters and Water Grounds although Ursas Facade kills some of them. Intimidate in the beginning may be annoying. For Trickroom: If there is one setter not being from the Slow-Crew, Taunt should do it. If there are two, well attack and hope. For the oblivious Slowbros and Slowkings: Slowking can be OHKOed turn one if I double on him. Slowbro cannot, so this is the one setter that cannot be stopped. Poisoned Ursa + Gem-Acrobatics kill it, while it can do 50.6% damage to Ursa. However removing a single Atk EV into HP loses guaranteed KOs on two Regice sets and other stuff, so better let that be.

In conclusion the team outspeeds everything in Tailwind (bar 3 sets for Ursa), hits incredibly hard, has a nice type synergy and variety offensively as well as defensively, spread- and priority moves to gain and preserve momentum, taunt to stop Trickroom, robustness against status... I think it has potential.
Of course feel free to try it... ;)
 
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Figured I might as well report on a current streak I have in one of my copies of Black 2 Super Doubles. I am currently at 63 wins with a mono water Drizzle-toed team. Its nothing earth shattering or even new in concept, as currently I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel for Doubles or even try a weird team combination (At least not yet)
But there aint nothing like spamming surf til your opponents die, its so stupidly simple yet fun and I love it. I do plan on doing a lot of gen 5 alongside my usual gen 3 from now on and hopefully will help keep this thread alive with the few others who post here as well (Awesome stuff btw)

Here is the team as of now

Politoed @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Ludicolo @ Absorb Bulb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 36 HP/4 Def/252 SAtk/4 SDef/214 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Fake Out

Kingdra @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SAtk/6 SDef/252 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Rain Dance
-Ice Beam
- Dragon Pulse
-Surf

Gastrodon @ Leftover
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 120HP/92 Def/232 SAtk/64 SDef
IVs: 0 Speed per the usual
Nature: Quiet
- Surf
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Protect

Generally how turn one turns out is if I can surf for free with Politoed, I will auto hit that move so I can pop Ludis Absorb Bulb. But since Ludi is Swift Swim and in Toeds Rain, he outspeeds her and doesn't get to use that boost til turn two. But even with that being said I generally can get double KOs on turn one if the matchups in my favor, if not Im at least drowning one. If worst comes to worst and I dont like what I see I will lock her into Psychic or Ice Beam depending on what I see, thus not popping absorb bulb turn one. If that happens I will switch her out for generally Kingdra but sometimes Gastrodon depending on the situation who also loves being hit with surf and getting its special attack up a stage. I want to be able to keep my rain alive as thats my main go to here with the team, just super powered water surfs. Electric types can be tricky, and in fact the 63rd battle was against a Socialite with two legendary Electric types (Raikou and Double Team Zapdos) and was mainly tricky only because Zapdos used one Double Team and was having a fun time roosting up when I missed surfs. Luckily my Gastrodon and Ludi where able to connect and finish her off for 63 wins. Overall its a really fun team and gels well together and if memory serves me correct a lot of people here has used it before as well. I also like a mono typed challenge and Rain Doubles is really really fun.

20210701_230311.jpg
 
is this still on going?
Ongoing as in the leader board? If that's what you mean the person who used to update the boards has not been online for a very long time and sadly compared to the other gens, this gen didn't get a new leader board or person in charge of it. But there are still some of us who do Subway even with the board itself being dead and this post game battle facility community does have a happy little home on discord as well.
That being said I hope someone takes it over again or a new one gets created, even if it means all the top people will be Durant again lol
Although I'm sure more creative teams could be found to get streaks, kinda like the current progress in the Emerald Battle Frontier leader board that keeps blowing my mind with the shit they keep coming up with for teams.

Updates on my Doubles streak, currently parked at 98 wins with no troubles and have been busy doing singles with Durant, Cloyster and Haxorus and that's well over 60 now as well with little to no trouble cause Durant. Kinda been sidetracked in gen 6 doing a personal online/maison competitive living dex of my preferences and getting ready to do streaks in that facility again. But yeah Durant is as amazing as its always been and I decided to use Haxorus to be creative in the third slot over reusing Chompy boi for the billionth time. I know I coulda used my Multiscale Dragonite or even another dragon since that's the trend for this team, but I wanted to give my fave gen 5 pokemon some love.

Also I did some Wifi battle Subway as well for fun with the singles team and Haxorus really carried me as it killed all the wonder tombs that plague that facility. Thank God for Mold Breaker. And for anyone questioning how I'm doing Wifi singles in gen 5, just look up the DNS exploit. The wifi tower or subway is not for the faint of heart and every shiny and non shiny spiritomb you see will make you rage for the absolute bullshit they are unless you have a mon with an ability of mold breaker or another ability to get around their ability. I'm tempted to keep doing it and get the max ranking
But yeah that's where I am currently
 
Been playing Black 2 for fun, bored of it now but got to 63 without losing:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Iron barbs
252 hp, 252 sp def
Impish (+def, -sp atk)
Protect, Leech Seed, Toxic, Flash

Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
252 sp atk, 252 speed
Modest (+sp atk, -atk)
Overheat, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Energy Ball

Scyther @ Eviolite
Technician
252 hp, 252 speed
Jolly (+speed, -sp atk)
Aerial Ace, Substitute, Roost, Swords Dance

Ferrothorn scouts for Fire and Fighting moves with protect and switches to Chandelure who is immune to Fighting and Fire due to Flash Fire. Without Fighting and Fire moves, Ferrothorn will generally just win the match by himself using Leech Seed and Toxic stalling and Protect/Flash every other turn to regenerate health via Leech Seed and Leftovers. Scyther feels quite useless and I experimented using other Pokemon in its place such as Scizor and Gyarados. I feel that it may be better to have a Choice Band or Life Orb user in Scyther's slot rather than a setup sweeper but I wanted to diversify because I already have a Choice Scarf user.
 
hello everyone, back with a new emulator-experimented team in the subway. According to my (inaccurate) logs, the longest streaks I ripped off were 212 and 260 wins, both of which I had no better play. This team is "voltturn2"

Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 236 hp / 54 spa / 220 spe
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split

Scizor @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Technician
EVs: 244 hp / 100 atk / 164 spd
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- Quick Attack

Gliscor @ Toxic Orb
Impish Nature
Ability: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 hp / 100 def / 156 spe
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
After my decent but slow and grindy previous team(link), I wanted a fast-paced team that didn't fall into the tried-and-true cripple-and-setup archetype, so I borrowed a strategy from the competitive meta: voltturn. My initial team used a scarfed physical landorus-i (lead) over gliscor, and play like a voltturn team. Spamming voltturn moves with lando, scizor, and rotom is a reasonably effective strategy in the subway - while it didn't pull off long win streaks, it cruised into ~50 wins with relative speed and ease. Subway voltturn doesn't force switches like it may against a human opponent, but the hard chip damage + typing + bulk of the lando/scizor/rotom core runs circles on mixed-type offensive teams. can't count the number of times i had a shit-eating grin against a voltturn-susceptible team, pivoting in and out and netting KOs with voltturn. Those battles would end in around 10 turns.
From my experience, the most tiresome archetypes in the frontier are bulky setup sweepers or annoyers like evasion haxors or status spreaders. Setup sweepers threw a big curveball at many of my experimental teams, and especially if the setup mon possesses rest. Status is a pain for offensive teams, notably ones without substitute or other escapes (lum berry, rest etc). My first incarnation of subway voltturn didn't have a way to combat status or setup sweepers, so those battles resulted in some ugly stallfests reliant on critical hit luck. My solution is a stallbreaking gliscor, adapted from a set posted on this website. Switch in gliscor, taunt, and set up for +6. the utility of having ice fang pays versus dragons or flying types - considered roost, substitute, or protect but this team doesn't have a consistent answer against dragons or flying types otherwise. The 156 speed EVs allow gliscor to outspeed breloom3 (see this link to speed tiers), an uncommon but the fastest annoyer. Gliscor outspeeds things like all blaziken sets, braviary, mandibuzz (set1 and 4 are common and possess annoyer movesets). Other than its speed EVs, haven't fine-tuned the remaining EVs - I'm open to any suggestions if anyone tries my team. Regardless, spiritomb, blissey4, and almost every other mon rostered by policeman bob_____ falls to this beast. The trick is finding an opportunity to send in gliscor. Switch gliscor in too early against non-policeman bob____ opponents and the AI is likely to send in a mon with an ice or special water move to force a switch. Don't switch gliscor in early enough, it isn't toxic'd yet to be a status sponge - cofagrigus and spiritomb are common annoyers rostered by many trainers, and i'm forced to have rotom wisp'd to safely bring in gliscor. Knowing the subway trainer and their pokemon roster helps in determining if gliscor should be deployed cautiously or pre-emptively.

Choosing a lead was a tricky decision. Scizor was my initial lead, and discovered there are many faster mons possessing a fire coverage move that forces a switch. Lead scizor is a lot more threatening than lead rotom though, because that cb-boosted u-turn is brutal. Rotom is the safest choice for lead mon; less threatening than scizor, but more reliable because of its wonderful typing+ability+bulk+speed combo. Think I actually got to my first win streak of 212 with scizor as my lead

didn't accurately record why I lost, but one loss was Enpi (lucario arcanine scrafty) and aces (scrafty mienshao conkeldurr). not sure why i lost to enpi, but versus aces, gliscor took a crit from their wisp'd scrafty, which iirc, bypasses the atk drop from the burn status, and got an unexpected KO on gliscor while i was setting up. then rotom+scizor took a significant damage from scrafty, which used bulk up+protect, lucky shed skin curing itself of burn, and they got picked off by mienshao + conkeldurr. going into the subway with this team, i knew there would be battles where bad luck simply can't be overcome. my goal was to come up with a team that could win quickly, diverged from the cripple->setup strategy, and rack up a long win streak, and i think that goal was accomplished.

tl;dr using this team is easy: voltturn into the most optimal matchup. if the mon is the only safe option against the opponent, leave it in. try to voltturn in and out for chip damage and AI confusion. also, try to get in gliscor on a voltturn KO to activate its toxic orb. if gliscor is against an optimal matchup, get +6 from 3x swords dance and earthquake to victory. unlike my last team, battles generally take no more than 10 minutes. incidentally, the annoyer teams fall fastest because gliscor taunts, sets up, and i win.
Rotom-w: debated between the smogon bulky offensive set, or something more defensive because this team is so reliant on switching. After running the bulky offensive set through some trials, it's probably the best choice. Common bulky waters like milotic and swampert wall the defensive sets more easily, and rotom needs every bit of juice it can get since it's my first answer against other water mons.
Scizor: similar to its classic pre-mega gen 4+5 sets. Beefed up its spdef EVs by shifting over some from atk and hp. The IVs allow it to switch in more freely without fear of an errant crit putting it into 2HKO range. 100 atk EVs instead of 252 pushes it out of some valuable OHKOs, eg armaldo3 (bullet punch @ 46% chance of OHKO), beartic3 (bpunch 56%), articuno4 (43% @ 100 atk -> 100% @ 252 atk), reuniclus4 (u-turn), walrein4 (superpower @ 62.5%), tyranitar3 (bpunch 31.3%) but I feel the added special bulk offers more utility since this team is reliant on switching. Has the side effect of screwing over pory-z's download
- water teams (eg fishermen) - so many annoyingly bulky waters. rotom can't directly dispatch many waters because volt switch switches it out, so sometimes I have to employ a grinding strategy. e.g. milotic's rest set, STAB surf will take a good chunk out of scizor, so rotom-w has to use wisp, toggle between pain split and wisp again to burn off milotic's offensive arsenal pp and to whittle its health to 50%, and then when it's about to rest i can't remember if use volt switch for the KO, or volt switch->u-turn->volt switch, for the KO. I use a similar strategy for milotic sets with recover. Gliscor turns into deadweight against these teams and is usually sacrificed for a safe switch-in for either rotom or scizor. Can't remember but there were a few rare instances where it was safe for a gliscor switch and setup. Dangerous mons like all swampert and milotic sets, and 3/4 regice sets are OHKO'd by +6 gliscor earthquake. Gliscor is useful in dispatching lanturn3, a surprisingly dangerous mon against this team - usually swap in gliscor to absorb discharge/t-wave, eq, and pray scizor revenges with quick attack.
- legendary teams (see: gentlemen, socialite, veteran class trainers). while i created a bulky and fast team, legendaries are just as bulky, hit hard and hit fast. none of my mons have (in the case of gliscor, use) reliable recovery moves, and only scizor posseses immediate stopping power. every move or switch needs to be slowly deliberated because this team only works if every mon is healthy enough to switch in and react.
With all the legendaries introduced in this generation, it's a real shame that those secret non-game cover mascots legendaries (eg mew, genesect) are also banned from the subway. Found out how to remove the banlist using a hex editor (don't pm me - it's easily googled), and had a lot of fun with genesect, meloetta, and keldeo
- Genesect is a good pokemon for the subway. the AI doesn't care about the hundreds of great genesect sets, which banned it from past OU metagames, and the standard scarfset works great as a pivot in the subway, like a special offense version of scizor. havent felt like it's too powerful for the subway, because while it has immense coverage, you're bound to run into a mon with a fire attack that easily OHKO or 2HKOs genesect
- meloetta is the most fun i've had with a single mon in the subway. Used a mixed offense set (relic song/calm mind/psychic/close combat), and every time I was able to relic song into an optimal matchup i cackled like mad. Utterly useless against spiritomb, and against all ghost mons if it's in fighting-type mode.
- darkrai is not devastating as it is in the showdown/smogon/simulator meta, and honestly is just an above average mon here. anyone who played subway/frontier/maison/etc has experienced the frustration of having a <95% accuracy move miss repeatedly. 80% accuracy in a place like showdown is fine, you can take the miss because you have 5 more mons to fall back on. in a battle facility, any miss can be fatal. even without sleep clause, the AI doesn't switch as often as a human opponent, and dark void misses often enough. it's unlikely that i can pull off a dark void->switch to a phazer->phaser move->switch back to darkrai without the opposing mon waking or dark void missing. focus miss sucks in the facility, and using a more reliable move like ice beam means it misses out on the coverage provided by dark+fighting.
- keldeo being a water-type specially-offensive version of terrakion and on the ban list sucks. yeah it's a better offensive and defense typing, but come on game freak, just ban the giant BST mascot legendaries and free mons like keldeo and meloetta please! a good solid fun mon that can fit on many of my experimental teams
- The cover legendaries are as disgustingly powerful as expected. Did a test run (somewhere past 100 wins, to see how they fare against the subway's toughest opponents) with reshiram, zekrom, and palkia, all with random IVs and EVs, and they plowed through the subway like a hot knife through butter. Not recommended.
 
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Cool idea.
But your team is quite slow, there must be a ton that outspeeds you and flinches you to death?

For your Darkrai: If you use Gravity Dark Void should always hit, which should be broken af. You may want to have a look at the very creative team by Flavor0 https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...ith-gen-4-records.102593/page-85#post-4546458
rotom-w and gliscor are at 134 and 135 speed respectively, which from my experience outspeeds around 2/3 pokemon i've encountered, and looking at the speed tiers, are roughly in the top third percentile of speed. What mons have you encountered are flinch haxors? I can only think of one togekiss set as a threat for paraflinching, and looking at its moveset I don't think i've ever encountered it as a lead mon - usually have gliscor at +2 ATK already, prepped for another swords dance for the confirmed 2HKO. The two or three parafusion regigigas sets are easy taunt->setup bait for gliscor. Lack of top end speed did concern me in the beginning, but scizor packing two priority moves generally alleviates that concern. There were quite a few times where custap/salac berry/focus sash turned the tide against me on my other teams, but scizor handles a lot of those mons. eg sash destiny bond mismagius and froslass, scizor gets the 2HKO on them before they can d-bond.

I've only seriously played the super subway singles so far, and don't have much experience with doubles. Darkrai for sure sounds nasty on a gravity team for doubles though.
Here is a quick list of some teams i've come up with that had decent super singles success in the subway:
ferrothorn (smogon standard - leech seed/stealth rock/t-wave/power whip) - lead
dragonite (multiscale tank phazer - substitute/t-wave/dragon tail/roost)
heatran (timid substitute scout - substitute/protect/lava plume/earth power)
- i've maxed at ~60 wins on this so far and i don't think this team has sustained 100+ win streak type ability like my voltturn2; got a bit lucky in some battles. the goal is to hopefully have ferrothorn paralyze and set up rocks, then have dragonite shuffle rocks damage and/or paralysis. not very good against ground-type teams (workers) or fighting-type (battle girls, black belts) since i can't paralyze them, ferrothorn doesn't have reliable recovery + ground resistance. i ran a variant of this with starmie over heatran with significantly less success (30 wins?) - thought starmie could be that late-game sweeper that cleans up the damage shuffled opponent with its perfect movepool (surf/boltbeam/psychic) but the lack of flash fire really sucks. starmie doesn't have much bulk and it exposes dragonite more, ie burning its lum or having to waste sub/roost

ferrothorn, substitute chandelure, shell smash cloyster
- max ~40 wins before getting bored. think i ended up having to use the pp-stall strat more than i liked, so i shelved it

aforementioned genesect, mixed meloetta, chandelure
- played this a year ago and didn't record my win streak because it's an illegal team, but i think it was around 30-40 wins. very susceptible to status despite the mass of immunities. insanely fun when this team gets each mon into the battle, especially mixed meloetta, but yeah status sucks. this team might actually be the inspiration for me using landorus and eventually my voltturn2 team, because paralysis pissed the hell out of me using this team. having two ground (read as: earthquake) immune mons in rotom-w and gliscor is wonderful, with the prevalence of eq.
 

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