Singles 3v3 General Discussion

Last generation I was pretty successful with a highly rated Japanese Mega Steelix Trick Room team. It packs surprising power; after a Curse it OHKOs Mega Kangaskhan and Garchomp and thanks to Curse you can easily set up on physical attacks, even super-effective ones. The threats are much different now, but as a Steel/Ground type with decent bulk it might be ok at dealing with some of the new threats, like Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Mimikyu. We won't know for sure until we try it but I think it could still be a good niche choice. Cresselia is a bit out of favor now but that can be both a good and bad thing for it.

Oh and I just remembered my banner Pokemon is a Mega Steelix, so maybe I am a bit biased lol. Mega Pidgeot I'm less sure about but with that speed tier and special attack I'm sure someone can find something to do with it.
Man I've been wanting to craft a Mega Steelix team like that since ORAS with no luck. Would there be any potential place I could look up a team like that?
 

Hulavuta

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Man I've been wanting to craft a Mega Steelix team like that since ORAS with no luck. Would there be any potential place I could look up a team like that?
Obviously there's nothing for Gen 7 yet, but here's what I used for Gen 6:

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage

Black Dick (Steelix-Mega) @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Curse

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 92 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Safeguard

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Tri Attack

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Low Sweep

Cresselia @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance


Some teams swapped out Breloom for Lapras.
 
Obviously there's nothing for Gen 7 yet, but here's what I used for Gen 6:

Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Blaze
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Outrage

Black Dick (Steelix-Mega) @ Steelixite
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Curse

Sylveon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 92 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Safeguard

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Trick Room
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Tri Attack

Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
- Low Sweep

Cresselia @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance


Some teams swapped out Breloom for Lapras.
Less directed at you, Hulavuta, but tagging since it came up: On the subject of Mega Steelix, I don't suppose anyone has any quick and dirty gen 7 recommendations for a Trick Room set up in the BSS? I know in gen 6 Cresselia was almost mandatory, and that Steelix is heavily overshadowed by stuff like Mawile as a Steel-type TR abuser, but I wonder if anyone has had any other good ideas for the new generation yet. Is a double-Mega setup the way to go, or does the introduction of Z-Crystals help mitigate the need to do so?
 

Hulavuta

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Less directed at you, Hulavuta, but tagging since it came up: On the subject of Mega Steelix, I don't suppose anyone has any quick and dirty gen 7 recommendations for a Trick Room set up in the BSS? I know in gen 6 Cresselia was almost mandatory, and that Steelix is heavily overshadowed by stuff like Mawile as a Steel-type TR abuser, but I wonder if anyone has had any other good ideas for the new generation yet. Is a double-Mega setup the way to go, or does the introduction of Z-Crystals help mitigate the need to do so?
I feel the best Trick Room teams are ones that work whether inside or outside of Trick Room. In the sample team I posted above, the second mega was Charizard, rather than Mawile. Mawile may be somewhat better than Steelix, but they do the same thing so it's somewhat redundant. And it worked because Cresselia worked well with both megas. Cresselia worked with pretty much everything back then, but sadly it is more easily beaten now, and not as common. As for Z-Moves, I can see it being useful on some Pokemon, such as Azumarill, Araquanid, or Rhyperior (and Wishiwashi or Torterra if you really want to go hardcore). Needless to say, being able to take out a Pokemon early without having to boost is extremely useful.

Another thing to worry about is that certain Pokemon, like Porygon2 and Mimikyu, are using Trick Room on balance teams, just to mess up with fast sweepers such as Salamence, Blaziken, Charizard, Volcarona, etc. The downside to this is that some of these mons can cut your Trick Room sweep short by using Trick Room themselves to reverse the effect. P2 is quite bulky, and Mimikyu has Disguise (and sometimes Focus Sash as well) for insurance.

I haven't tried Trick Room this generation yet myself, but these are some struggles I suspect will face our Trick Room teams.
 
I feel the best Trick Room teams are ones that work whether inside or outside of Trick Room. In the sample team I posted above, the second mega was Charizard, rather than Mawile. Mawile may be somewhat better than Steelix, but they do the same thing so it's somewhat redundant. And it worked because Cresselia worked well with both megas. Cresselia worked with pretty much everything back then, but sadly it is more easily beaten now, and not as common. As for Z-Moves, I can see it being useful on some Pokemon, such as Azumarill, Araquanid, or Rhyperior (and Wishiwashi or Torterra if you really want to go hardcore). Needless to say, being able to take out a Pokemon early without having to boost is extremely useful.

Another thing to worry about is that certain Pokemon, like Porygon2 and Mimikyu, are using Trick Room on balance teams, just to mess up with fast sweepers such as Salamence, Blaziken, Charizard, Volcarona, etc. The downside to this is that some of these mons can cut your Trick Room sweep short by using Trick Room themselves to reverse the effect. P2 is quite bulky, and Mimikyu has Disguise (and sometimes Focus Sash as well) for insurance.

I haven't tried Trick Room this generation yet myself, but these are some struggles I suspect will face our Trick Room teams.
Wonderful, thanks. I wasn't so much considering Mawile in addition to Steelix, but more that Mawile would serve the same purpose better in some ways.

Steelix is definitely a favorite of mine too (also biased), and Trick Room had always fascinated me. I've taken a lot of inspiration from MattyBrollic's old TR Steelix team from ages ago, but since it was made up for OU it would fare way differently here. I thought Cofagrigus would be a fun, niche pick as a setter, abuser, and Fighting defense, so I'll have to play around with it. Or even Mimikyu itself since it's a setter, too.
 

Hulavuta

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Wonderful, thanks. I wasn't so much considering Mawile in addition to Steelix, but more that Mawile would serve the same purpose better in some ways.

Steelix is definitely a favorite of mine too (also biased), and Trick Room had always fascinated me. I've taken a lot of inspiration from MattyBrollic's old TR Steelix team from ages ago, but since it was made up for OU it would fare way differently here. I thought Cofagrigus would be a fun, niche pick as a setter, abuser, and Fighting defense, so I'll have to play around with it. Or even Mimikyu itself since it's a setter, too.
Yeah, I think Mimikyu would be the best choice nowadays. With Curse, you can force something out in order to Trick Room, or do the reverse and Trick Room then Curse to kill yourself and get Steelix in for free. The cool part is that this can actually use Scarf Tapu Lele as set-up bait.

As for Cofagrigus, I tried it last generation and found it was too passive. On paper it had a lot of cool qualities, but Jellicent was overall much better. I think Jellicent definitely has its own issues now though. Mimikyu and Porygon2 seem to be the strongest setters now, and I think Cresselia can still work as well.
 
Friends of mine are doing a monotype 3v3 tournament. I can bring 6 but can only use three. My type was ghost. Any recommendations?

My team so far
Gengar(Mega?)
Sabelye(Mega?)
Mimikyu
Confrigigus
Chandalure(or maybe alolan marowak)
Aegislash
 

cant say

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Friends of mine are doing a monotype 3v3 tournament. I can bring 6 but can only use three. My type was ghost. Any recommendations?

My team so far
Gengar(Mega?)
Sabelye(Mega?)
Mimikyu
Confrigigus
Chandalure(or maybe alolan marowak)
Aegislash
Mega Gengar, Mimikyu and Aegislash are must-haves. I prefer Marowak since it gives you a much needed physical attacker (unless you plan to use Aegislash like that), but Chandelure is probably the better option.

I would take out Cofagrigus for Jellicent and Mega Sableye for Gourgeist or Trevenant, Decidueye or Dhelmise could also work but they're worse. This gives you a Fire-Water-Grass core which should help you cover more stuff.

Ghost Silvally is also a neat option which can do a whole bunch of things like Thunder Wave + Memento, use its huge movepool for coverage, or even use something like Swords Dance + Flame Charge + X Scissor + Multi Attack to (hopefully) hit Dark-types.

And of course there's Shedinja which can meme on your opp all day, especially in monotype where they may have nothing to hit it with.
 
Mega Gengar, Mimikyu and Aegislash are must-haves. I prefer Marowak since it gives you a much needed physical attacker (unless you plan to use Aegislash like that), but Chandelure is probably the better option

I would take out Cofagrigus for Jellicent and Mega Sableye for Gourgeist or Trevenant, Decidueye or Dhelmise could also work but they're worse. This gives you a Fire-Water-Grass core which should help you cover more stuff.

Ghost Silvally is also a neat option which can do a whole bunch of things like Thunder Wave + Memento, use its huge movepool for coverage, or even use something like Swords Dance + Flame Charge + X Scissor + Multi Attack to (hopefully) hit Dark-types.

And of course there's Shedinja which can meme on your opp all day, especially in monotype where they may have nothing to hit it with.
Ah, cool! Is special aegis lash the common set? I haven't used one since early xy. And shedinja sounds interesting...should be fun trying to transfer a swords dance one over...
 

Hulavuta

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So apparently you can use ash-pikachu on rated battle spot (not that you should), whereas you can't use ash-greninja. That might be a good thing to add to the "Introduction to 3v3 Singles" thread as I've seen some confusing surrounding it already.
 
As a person who tends to play more on Battle Spot Singles rather than Smogon OU, I've come across my fair share of... interesting Battle Spot sets. While some sets may be simply bad, I've come across some creative ones, mainly from the Japanese players, who I swear to god, want to stand out from the crowd.
That's why I've created this (no longer a) thread: I want you to discuss some of the weirder and more creative sets you've seen on Battle Spot, be it Singles or Doubles.

I think I should get the ball rolling with this set from the Kanto X Alola Regional Rumble:

Tapu Koko @ Normalium Z
Nature: Jolly(?)
EVs: 252 Atk(?), 252 Speed(?)
Ability: Electric Terrain
Attacks
Mirror Move (It copied my Weavile's Fake Out, which it survived thanks to it's Focus Sash)
Wild Charge(?)
Brave Bird(?)
?

These question marks are only there because of the fact my Weavile knocked out Tapu Koko with a high-roll Icicle Crash then Ice Shard. It would've been interesting to see what would've happened if it did manage to take out my Weavile.

Now it's your turn. I want you to bring up the weirdest, most interesting, and creative sets you've seen on Battle Spot; singles or doubles, free or ranked, whatever. Anything is fair game.

EDIT: Sorry mods. My mistake. Won't happen again. plz forgive me
 
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Hulavuta

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PanzerThiefZero: Honestly, Mirror Move is not that unheard of in Battle Spot! It was more common pre-bank, but it's not too surprising to see now.

There are a lot of cool and unique sets on Battle Spot, which is always fun to see. As a format, it tends to reward surprises and creative sets more, as single turns can give you much more momentum than in 6v6 formats. Especially as it is ladder-based and you're fighting a different opponent each time, you can catch people by surprise often.

The truth is that creative sets often eventually become standard. So it's interesting to see how the metagame evolves despite nothing ever being added or removed from it.
 

Hulavuta

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Anyone else notice that offensive Ferrothorn has become a trend?
Choice Band is a pretty dope set. Been using it a lot and the power is really nice, especially since people often don't expect to take that kind of damage.
Man, always nice to see people catching on to stuff I did a while ago (like with Flame Charge HP Ice Zard-Y too). Okay, just joking, Choice Band Ferrothorn has been a cool pick since Gen 5. But anyway.

Ferrothorn packs a lot of power and the fact that he's already bulky (you can invest in HP and Attack, since you don't need or want Speed anyway) makes him a great defensive and offensive pivot. It can also wallbreak annoying Pokemon like Hippowdon, Tapu Fini, and Suicune. Bullet Seed gains decent strength too and can break Sashes and subs. On that note, I have seen Bullet Seed on non-band sets and I kinda disagree with that.

One thing I wonder about is if maybe Stealth Rock on Choice Band Ferrothorn will catch on. Since it often forces a switch, it's something you can take advantage of.
 
CB Ferro is cool and all, but how about Celesteela?

Celesteela @ Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Explosion

Been using it for a while now, genuinely think it's good.
 
Can we please discuss why Charizards have spiked in usage compared to last generation?
That's actually a pretty nice topic, i was also wondering why, because CharY hasn't really changed from 6 to gen7. The changes happened around it.
The presence of cores such as Celesteela cores, Kartana cores and such, or Flame Charge growing in popularity (people like a lot this kind of stuff) are some reasons of it being more choosen.

Plus, the fact that there are/have been less mega around and some got a nerf too (Kanga for example) drove people to try CharY more.

So imo it already was good, but now there is more general awareness.
 

Hulavuta

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I think there are a few good reasons. For one, people caught on to how good Flame Charge Charizard-Y is (of course, I knew this from the start but nobody ever listens to me :pirate:). Like solerme said, Kanga was also hit hard so something had to take its place. Same thing with Blaziken not having a mega yet, so we'll have to see how much things change once that happens. Azumarill is horrible now so that's a plus for Charizard-X. Tapu Fini of course is a problem, but it's a defensive one, not an offensive one. And Stealth Rock is more popular than it's ever been before with all the Hippowdon offense and such.

I also think indirectly, things that have become more popular help Charizard. In a Tapu metagame, lots of Steel-types are becoming popular, like Aegislash, Ferrothorn, Mega Metagross (practically unseen during ORAS but now in the top 25). In such a fast paced metagame, Pokemon that can set up for a sweep in just one turn are great. Especially Charizard-Y as it can boost its Special Attack an entire stage without using a move, letting it use that move to boost its Speed. Fire is just insanely good neutral coverage. And X takes advantage of this on a slightly lesser scale.
 

Theorymon

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So I managed to restore my rating back to the 1800s zone in singles! I experimented with those Shedinja stall teams Jhon was talking about, but the QR codes for them all have Alomomola for some odd reason... didn't have too much success with those, but I'll try out a different Shedinja stall build later on my Moon cart.

However, what got me back to the 1800s was... GOLISOPOD!



Yeah I'm serious!

To be clear, Golisopod can be a bit awkward because of emergency exit and its really low Speed, but holy shit First Impression is one hell of a priority move. I mostly used Choice Band, which pulled stunts like OHKOing Mega Gyarados, doing over 50% to Tapu Koko, etc. Its possible to take advantage of Emergency Exit as well. I'd often find myself in situations where I'd take a huge chunk out of something with First Impression, then Emergency Exit out to a Pokemon to revenge kill. CB First Impression can be a bit restrictive, so I plan on trying Life Orb out some as well.

I also tried Sitrus Berry, and its reasonably good though it doesn't revenge kill stuff quite as well.

Seriously though, give Golisopod a try. I'm impressed with how effective it is in practice. Its an excellent Mamoswine and Mega Gyarados check, with good bulk and the strongest priortiy move in the game. Make sure you carry a Tapu to get rid of Psychic Terrain btw (Tapu Koko works out pretty well to check bulky waters).

I used this QR team. It isn't perfect, but it was a good enough introduction to make me a believer of Golisopod! https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/BT-4C00-B5BC

Also, Jhon brought up that he realized Golispod was good because it fits well into a core of Tapu Koko / Aegislash / Mega Salamence as an offensive check to Mamoswine. I think I'm gonna have to try out this supercore soon!
 
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Hulavuta

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Okay guys, so if you've talked to me lately you'll know that I think that Azumarill is just bad now. But what do you think of maybe Sap Sipper Azumarill becoming the new standard? I haven't seen it at all yet, but theorymoning it seems like it might be able to fill a new niche.

With Sap Sipper, it pretty handily walls Tapu Bulu and Ferrothorn, as well as Breloom and Serperior. Most importantly, unlike traditional checks like Steel-types and other Grass-types, it resists their common coverage moves like Fighting and Fire.

It gets Perish Song and Scald which are great of course. It can even be a decent check to Charizard-Y (though I think in the sun it will still die to repeated Flamethrowers over time).
 

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