Endless Battles despite the ban

Started by Clavito May 13th, 2015 5:14 PM
  • 2979 views
  • 8 replies
Seen June 15th, 2015
Posted May 14th, 2015
2 posts
8 Years
You've most probably heard of the mighty Funbro, a troll strategy torture device used to create endless battles by holding a Leppa Berry and Recycling it when needed, so it doesn't lose any PP, Slacks Off when necessary, and Heal Pulses the enemy so he doesn't die to Struggle recoil. It also carries Block so when it gets a target that can't 2HKO him it won't be able to switch out.

Slowbro @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Oblivious
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Slack Off
- Recycle
- Block
- Heal Pulse
Of course, this is unacceptable in competitive play, so the Leppa Berry+Recycle and Leppa Berry+Harvest combo was banned by Smogon, even in Anything Goes, the tier without bans. It's notable that Showdown disallows this combo on the same pokemon, but you can, for example, carry Recycle on one poke and Leppa Berry on another
That being said, the ban is not perfect. There are still ways to cause this endless battles and I'll name the three I discovered. I would've posted this in the original EB clause thread, but it was no longer open for futher replies.

1) Tricking a Leppa Berry onto your enemy, and then taking it back. Since Showdown won't see this as having Recycle+Leppa on the same pokemon, it will let you enter a battle. The problem was that Slowbro needs all four of his moves, so he couldn't afford having Trick. I thought of a way to use quite a different endless battle strategy with the Truant+Shadow Tag combo:
Whimsicott @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Switcheroo
- Tailwind
- Taunt
- Encore
Durant @ Eject Button
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Entrainment

Clavitelle (Gothitelle) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
- Protect
- Trick
- Recycle
- Filler
Give the leppa with Switcheroo with Whimsicott, die, give the enemy Truant with Durant. Now Gothitelle can TrickScarf the opponent and get the Recycle Leppa combo. Protect when the enemy can attack and use your random filler when Truant kicks in. Leppa will give you the PP you need, but you need to Recycle it each time you consume it.
2) Tracing Harvest. This was quite easy to create, I knew that both Trevenant and Exeggcutor got Skill Swap, which could be given to oponents and that Gardevoir was the only Trace mon able to create endless battles.
Trevenant @ Focus Sash
Ability: Harvest
- Skill Swap
- Grudge

Gardevoir @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heal Pulse
- Mean Look
- Protect
- Wish
You can pull this off if you can trap a mon that can't 2HKO Gardevoir, but that’s easier said than done. You need to remember not to get a move on 0 pp if you haven't Harvested your Leppa yet, as after harvesting, it won't activate.
3) Making Assist pick Recycle. By far the hardest, as no mon that know Assist can cause an Endless Battle except for Smeargle, who is easy to 2HKO. If by some miracle you trap an opponent who can't status you or 2HKO, this is the set:
Smeargle @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 216 HP / 40 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Assist
- Mean Look
- Milk Drink
- Heal Pulse

Delibird @ Focus Sash
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Destiny Bond
- Recycle
- Focus Punch/Counter
Delibird so he can D-bond+Recycle (I just picked a random Recycle mon, there might be better options), Milk Drink as it is the best recovery move that Smeargle gets. Apart from that, just a common Funbro set that uses Assist instead of Recycle.

punkysaur

Male
In your dreams!
Seen August 17th, 2020
Posted June 27th, 2017
505 posts
8.9 Years
Further evidence as to why Gothitelle is aids.

I wouldn't even waste time doing this. It's a good way to get banned as demonstrated here:

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-228482623
The mods should not have banned jewman!It was fun to watch!They could have gone upto 1000 moves and then forfeit!
Also we should praise people like clavito and jewman for their awesome strategy which pisses everyone off!

Candy

Age 26
Female
In OJ Land
Seen 6 Days Ago
Posted August 22nd, 2020
3,813 posts
14.2 Years
I recall seeing that Gothitelle strategy somewhere and then I googled it for a bit. It was a reddit thread that starred a battle with it posted back at December. And this one's a link to the battle itself.

The OP claimed that it reached 9001 moves (the opponent was the one who wanted it apparently) but the replay can't get any further than 261 though. I'm interested to watch it through just to see it lol.
_
Zhuang Zi
Crash Fever

Nah

Age 30
she/her, they/them
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted 19 Hours Ago
15,643 posts
9.5 Years
I never understood why anyone thought that making an endless battle is even remotely fun. Like shouldn't trolls even get bored of that muk quickly?
Nah ンン
“No, I... I have to be strong. Everyone expects me to."
Male
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted June 28th, 2022
7,210 posts
15.9 Years
Ah yes. This is on page 890 and in paragraph 9 of chapter 86 of my soon to be best selling book "Why this gen psyducking sucks". Its not in stores yet as its obviously not finished since it will take me about another 5 years to write up everything relevant to said title of book. Still you can place a pre order on it. Pm me for details. :)
†Kill the unicorn
Just to have its horn
Soon he's just a fantasy†
Seen June 15th, 2015
Posted May 14th, 2015
2 posts
8 Years
Fun fact: I actually posted this on the Smogon forums and the posts got deleted.
I actually got banned from Showdown too after a mod saw me pulling this off.
But I still get no news (since March) to what measures are going to be taken for these strategies to be banned, which is why I choose to try to spread this again.
Anyone who can help with spreading these strats, please help.

Polar Spectrum

I'm still here; watching. Waiting.

Non-binary
[Birthplace banned for centralizing childhood]
Seen May 29th, 2017
Posted March 21st, 2017
1,663 posts
8.9 Years
Seems like keeping a leppa berry off a team where recycle and any form of trapping are present would be a fair solution; to those who would say "but what about 'x' team where all 3 of those are used and the intent is not to force an endless battle?" I would say sacrificing that one possible team build for supposedly the end of endless battles for everyone is a valid tradeoff.
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