Cheap but effective battle strategies

[momogeek2141]

So have you guys had a combination of moves, items, or skills that make for an insane combination? Tell us.

That said, I have one. Kingdra+scope lens+focus energy+draco meteor. Critical hits always, and they ignore the loss of sp. atk.

A video if you want to see it in action.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/battlespotsingles-190302585

[Elieson]

He got lucky on that Attract not working.

Also, I always thought Focus Energy ran out after one shot. I didn't know it lasted until switchout

[Fruity Insanity]

Lol, that's not cheap at all.

1) You have to take the time to set up.

2) Kingdra isn't that fast.

3) The above is fixable with Agility, but that means more of 1.

4) Priority moves exist and Kingdra isn't particularly bulky.

Oh, and crits were nerfed in gen VI, too.

So.

Yeah.

Not that cheap.

The opponent in that match was clearly horrible, too. Shadow Claw Salamence, double Protect Latios (or Protect on Latios, period. This isn't Doubles we're looking at), and Zebstrika (with Attract, nonetheless).

Salamence and Latios both outspeed Kindgra normally, OHKO-ing with Draco Meteor or whatever dragon-type move they use.

You want to see cheap? Look at Mega Rayquaza.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Fruity Insanity

[Owain_the_swordsman]

Yep, but for doubles. Team:Arcanine, Spinda, Meowstic, Audino (Mega),Togekiss, Physical attacker (Doesnt matter you can have one or not)

Movesets: Audino :Heal Pulse,Toxic,Protect,Dazzling Gleam/Draining Kiss Arcanine:Close Combat, Heat Wave, Overheat, Morning Sun/ Extreme Speed Spinda:Skill Swap Meowstic:Thunder Wave, Reflect, Light Screen, Fake out Togekiss:Air Slash,Heat Wave

Spinda needs the Abilty Contrary. Arcanine wants intimidate.Meowstic needs Prankster. Give Spinda a focus sash and give Arcanine leftovers.

The strat: Spinda will skill swap abilties with Arcanine, Arcanine will use close combat.Since close combat lowers your defense and special defense, and we have contrary because of skill swap, we actually GAIN defense and special defense. This allows Arcanine to be a complete tank, and you can keep skill swapping until spinda dies, swapping the intimidate spinda got from Arcanine with your opponent's pokemon, allowing Arcanine to actually gain more attack as well. Keep spamming Close combat with Arcanine until he's at max defense and sp. defense.Once spinda dies, switch to meowstic, and use reflect and light screen so Arcanine will be more likely to survive. You can use fake out in the begining and start using parahax as well.If he gets really low on HP, use morning sun or switch meowstic to Mega Audino and start heal pulse Arcanine, or just use morning sun. Arcanine should start using overheat until he get s max special attack after he has max defense and sp. defense. Heat wave will speed up the time of the battle, since it could kill two at once. Make Audino toxic if you want too.

I'll show an example of this later.

Edit:K, got a battle with me doing it successfully. Here http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-190313473

Edited December 7, 2014 by BlazeX635

[Shinehollow]

You could give a good Lickylicky with an Attack boosting nature Explosion and a Choice Band.You could use it as a last ditch effort,but otherwise I got no ideas.

[Fruity Insanity]

You people are just posting gimmicks, really. >_>

Nothing reliably cheap or broken.

[Djing]

Greninja

[Comet]

FEAR

counter and destiny bond gengar with a focus sash is good too

Edited December 7, 2014 by Comet

[lazydoggamer]

Using mega rayquaza

[dondon151]

sniper kingdra @ scope lens with focus energy is the standard set for kingdra this gen.

[Comet]

oh and critdra isn't that good for the reasons neal listed and this:

252+ SpA Sniper Kingdra Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey on a critical hit: 216-256 (33.6 - 39.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

not even that powerful

[dondon151]

kingdra's UU, though. posting a damage calc against eviolite chansey as "proof" that critdra "isn't that good" is like asserting that nidoking isn't that good because it's walled by chansey.

[Roflolxp54]

Mega Rayquaza got banned from the Uber tier and got placed to the Anything Goes tier (a complete FFA; the only rule is the endless battle clause).

The only thing that I can think of that is cheaper is running hacked and illegal Pokemon

ie. Shedinja with Sturdy ability with Mind Reader, Sheer Cold, Recycle and Agility and holding a Lum Berry -- nothing short of being hit by Taunt and entry hazards and forcing it to use Struggle (PP stalled or Taunted) can shut it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXa4BIereQI

[Shadow Mir]

Mega Rayquaza got banned from the Uber tier and got placed to the Anything Goes tier (a complete FFA; the only rule is the endless battle clause).

The only thing that I can think of that is cheaper is running hacked and illegal Pokemon

ie. Shedinja with Sturdy ability with Mind Reader, Sheer Cold, Recycle and Agility and holding a Lum Berry -- nothing short of being hit by Taunt and entry hazards and forcing it to use Struggle (PP stalled or Taunted) can shut it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXa4BIereQI

Weather damage sez haaaay. As does Mold Breaker.

That aside, Mind Reader/Sheer Cold is what we call a gimmick.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Levant Caprice

[momogeek2141]

Lol, that's not cheap at all.

1) You have to take the time to set up.

2) Kingdra isn't that fast.

3) The above is fixable with Agility, but that means more of 1.

4) Priority moves exist and Kingdra isn't particularly bulky.

Oh, and crits were nerfed in gen VI, too.

So.

Yeah.

Not that cheap.

The opponent in that match was clearly horrible, too. Shadow Claw Salamence, double Protect Latios (or Protect on Latios, period. This isn't Doubles we're looking at), and Zebstrika (with Attract, nonetheless).

Salamence and Latios both outspeed Kindgra normally, OHKO-ing with Draco Meteor or whatever dragon-type move they use.

You want to see cheap? Look at Mega Rayquaza.

Mega Rayquaza blows everyone out of the water.

Critdra is very good, but I have other pokemon as backup since I can't rely on it. And yeah, that opponent was awful.

1) The setup isn't worth it if it won't OHKO or the opponent is faster. If I'm facing an assault vest Empoleon, I'm better off switching. Otherwise Kingdra is reasonably bulky enough to survive 1 hit (unless its shadow claw salamence )

2) I gave him full speed Ev's, Iv's, and a speed boosting nature. He's still pretty slow, but is faster than a lot of pokemon that way.

3) Agility sucks.

4) Kingdra is weak to Fairy and Dragon, the former whose only priority move is baby doll eyes, the latter which doesn't have any. He'll die only if the opponent is faster.

BTW, the combo is also available with mega-salamence, minus sniper.

Mega Rayquaza got banned from the Uber tier and got placed to the Anything Goes tier (a complete FFA; the only rule is the endless battle clause).

The only thing that I can think of that is cheaper is running hacked and illegal Pokemon

ie. Shedinja with Sturdy ability with Mind Reader, Sheer Cold, Recycle and Agility and holding a Lum Berry -- nothing short of being hit by Taunt and entry hazards and forcing it to use Struggle (PP stalled or Taunted) can shut it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXa4BIereQI

That means 2 turns per attack. Remember that Shedinja has 1 hp. The opponent will switch to someone who can kill it easily.

oh and critdra isn't that good for the reasons neal listed and this:

252+ SpA Sniper Kingdra Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey on a critical hit: 216-256 (33.6 - 39.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

not even that powerful

Remember, you're talking about Chansey, who has a shitton of hp and SpD, and with an eviolite it's even greater. Chansey's wrecked by a physical move (fighting preferred.) This would also apply to snorlax, and empoleon like I said earlier.

Talking about a different strategy, I remember the first time someone played the lv1 aron sweep on me. I was like WTF? It has many weaknesses though.

[Fruity Insanity]

Mega Rayquaza blows everyone out of the water.

Critdra is very good, but I have other pokemon as backup since I can't rely on it. And yeah, that opponent was awful.

1) The setup isn't worth it if it won't OHKO or the opponent is faster. If I'm facing an assault vest Empoleon, I'm better off switching. Otherwise Kingdra is reasonably bulky enough to survive 1 hit (unless its shadow claw salamence )

2) I gave him full speed Ev's, Iv's, and a speed boosting nature. He's still pretty slow, but is faster than a lot of pokemon that way.

3) Agility sucks.

4) Kingdra is weak to Fairy and Dragon, the former whose only priority move is baby doll eyes, the latter which doesn't have any. He'll die only if the opponent is faster.

BTW, the combo is also available with mega-salamence, minus sniper.

I'm not saying that Sniper Kingdra is bad. It's just not cheap because all of the downsides. The situations where you'll be able to successfully pull of everything you need to do to make it worth it are rare.

Agility doesn't suck, and a lot of dragons naturally outspeed Kingdra. Pretty much all of the commonly used dragons outspeed Kingdra, in fact.

Also, it can't be available to Mega Salamence, since Salamence kinda, I dunno, needs a Salamencite to evolve? Which means it can't hold a Scope Lens?

[X-Naut]

Mega Rayquaza got banned from the Uber tier and got placed to the Anything Goes tier (a complete FFA; the only rule is the endless battle clause).

The only thing that I can think of that is cheaper is running hacked and illegal Pokemon

ie. Shedinja with Sturdy ability with Mind Reader, Sheer Cold, Recycle and Agility and holding a Lum Berry -- nothing short of being hit by Taunt and entry hazards and forcing it to use Struggle (PP stalled or Taunted) can shut it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXa4BIereQI

Opponent withdrew [who cares]

Opponent sent out Tyranitar!

[dondon151]

I'm not saying that Sniper Kingdra is bad. It's just not cheap because all of the downsides. The situations where you'll be able to successfully pull of everything you need to do to make it worth it are rare.

sniper kingdra literally requires one turn to set up focus energy for a 100% critical hit rate... it's not cheap (kingdra is UU for a reason), but critdra is kingdra's flagship set this generation.

[Sasori]

I'm not knowledgeable about the competetive scene enough to say if my little trick is cheap or not, but its pretty effective when I use it.

Drifblim with unburden and a weakness policy can get pretty though once it is hit by a super effective attack. Double speed, sharply raised attacking stats and acrobat has given plenty of people some problem. Priority attacks solves their problem pretty well though.

[momogeek2141]

Also, it can't be available to Mega Salamence, since Salamence kinda, I dunno, needs a Salamencite to evolve? Which means it can't hold a Scope Lens?

Whoops, forgot about that. I guess only regular salamence then.

I'm not knowledgeable about the competetive scene enough to say if my little trick is cheap or not, but its pretty effective when I use it.

Drifblim with unburden and a weakness policy can get pretty though once it is hit by a super effective attack. Double speed, sharply raised attacking stats and acrobat has given plenty of people some problem. Priority attacks solves their problem pretty well though.

The problem with that strategy is that you need to get hit by a super effective attack, which means going near death, which can then be taken advantage of with a priority move.