Stuck at Shelly's gym (Reborn hardcore CoM 1.5)

[Treeharl]

Greetings all,

Thanks to Commander for making this wonderfull challenge at reborn hardcore. Shelly gets a bit difficult for me due to two things. Using the non rain single battle fight here.

1. Playing the entire game in set mode (as in this is how you should play the game)

2. Not turning her grass field into a burning field as that would be a great way to chicken out (and as such I am not using a fire Pokemon aigainst her at all!)

So yeah due to these additional poins I get my but kicked by or her Crustle or her Scyther everytime.

The lead

Onix lvl 34

Sturdy

Carefull nature

Curse

Stealth Rock

Gyro Ball

Rock Slide

Ampharos lvl 35

Static

Sassy nature (that really sucks I know, but I didn't SR for it)

Thunder wave

Charge Beam

Power Gem

Electric Terrain

Feraligatr lvl 35

Sheer Force

Jolly nature

Ice Fang

Water Gun (deeerp only water move till lvl 63 )

Crunch

Agility

Meowstic lvl 35

Infiltrator

Bold nature

Shadow Ball

Light Screen (works imo great in this gym, still meowstick is a 2 or 3 hit KO aigainst any of her poke)

Covet

Psyshock

Donphan lvl 35 (just as a switch aigianst Crustle)

Sand Veil

Quiet nature (~_~)

Rollout

Natue Gift

Magnitude

Slam

Fearow lvl 35 (aka gets ohkoéd by everything)

Sniper

Quirky nature

Mirror Move

Agility

Assurance

Aerial Ace.

So the trick here is to setup stealth rock with Onix and dish out a Rock Slide aigainst illumise before it gets taken out. Rock slide is about a 3 hit KO at this point. After onix gets taken out swapping in to fearow and (when lucky 2 hit KO it with aerial ace). Then Crustle comes in and I have to swap Fearow for Donphan. Usually I get a rockslide on the swap (if I get shell smash on the swap I can F12 already because I get swept at that point). When lucky Donphan can 2 hit KO Crustle with decent rolls on magnitude (first turn he usually sets up his Shell Smash, but usually he survives at ~10% hp gets healed by an Ul;tra Potion and I get swept aigain. If I do get past Crustle Scyther comes in and straigtly setup Swords Dance or takes out my Donphan when it is at low HP (Rollout + stealthrock damage doesn't OHKO it ~_~) and I get swept aigain shortly after. If somehow Yanmega comes in, I can usually take out that one with ampharos combo with electric terrain + Charge beam

tl/dr. I get stuck at or her Crustle or her Scyther as they set up on me and sweep my entire team.

Thanks in advance

Edited November 6, 2016 by Treeharl

[AnimeFg]

In order to deal with Scyther, switch Meowstic with a Graveler and use rock blast to probably OHKO it OR you can grab a slugma, and level it all the way to 38 to evolve it and get it shell smash, and use common candies to get it back down to 34~. Once Scyther gets switched in you should be able to shell smash and lava plume to victory as long as the rain is turned off. And you really don't have to worry about thinking if turning the rain off is cheap or not because Commander himself said that the rain fight is obnoxiously hard. Also, you would probably be better off using a Graveler to deal with Crustle, as rock type moves are super effective where ground types are not.

Edited November 6, 2016 by AnimeFg

[Hycrox]

Get a Doduo and evolve it, Dodrio's pretty fast and strong

[drevance]

I forget if Emolga learns Acrobatics in time for that fight...

I'd replace Donphan because just looking at it, it doesn't seem like it can carry weight in this battle. I second the Graveler recommendation and Dodrio. What is Ampharos doing when Scyther comes out? Paralyzing it could help. I had a Fearow for her and I found it lackluster and ended up swapping it out for Emolga/Dodrio.

I really want to tell you to just burn the field, because Hardcore doesn't like to pull punches but you said you don't want to do that. If you have a trubbish trained up you could toxic spike em. Do you have Psyduck/Golduck? It would be useful for this battle, as would Dewgong if you got the Seel egg instead of Cacnea.

[Treeharl]

Thanks for the replies,

First of all I forgot to mention I enabled the levellimitter which means I can't overlevel my pokemon (at all) and use the common candy trick.

Dodrio seems like an apealing option, however i have only acess on Pluck (60 bp). Still this would be an excelent replacement for my Fearow..

Graveler gets reduced by any special attack all the way to its sturdy, so in the whole game it could use rockblast only once (or setup stealthrock if I replace my onix). Any special attack (even bug ones) will reduce my hp to my sturdy. Also I can't really switch into my graveler due to the same reason (it can't soak damage at all and if it does it will break my sturdy).

Options I thought about,

Forretress as spikesetter or as "bugbiter". Forrretress has the natural bulk to actually tank something and has with mirror coat an attack that (I guess) would 3 hit ko Crustle. It also can go boom. However I can't breed SR on it as of yet and it still gets worn out pretty fast by special flying attacks. Not to mention it gives Scyter a free turn to setup Swords Dance...

Weezing, Just a bulky overall tank that resist both bulk and grass. Can go boom or sludge bomb but has nothing else to go for...

Banette, can be annoying for both Crustle and Scyter because of will-o-the-wisp. Her moveset is terrible at level 35 and I don't have acces to Destiny Bond yet.

Unfezand, 115 base attack with no physical attacks. Seems to be pretty meh overall.

Thoughts?

Edit,

Yes I do have a Trubbish trained up, but toxic spikes only hit grounded Pokemon (Crustle). I do have a Ciel however and juding dewgong it seems pretty viable indeed, haven't thought about that one! I also have acess to a Crosschop golduck and I could breed yawn on it. Still I'd wonder which option would be the best as secondary water type, Dewgong or Golduck?

Edited November 6, 2016 by Treeharl

[AnimeFg]

I totally forgot that in my run, I had an Arbok that almost solo'd this fight because glare, intimidate, and acid spray put in tons of work. But I did this fight in double in the rain with some other pokemon.

[Treeharl]

Well I finally did manage beating her (I got a lucky sweep with ampharos at the end), replacing Fearow for Dodrio did the trick here, I did replace Donphan with Dewgong and train a Forretress to counter the shellsmash Crustle. Thanks everybody for their help!