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I'm curious to know what kind of strategies people are using to beat the Master Trainers. I myself was impatient to face Red and went into the Master Trainers at high level 70s-low 80s and used some really degenerate strategies to get my first six wins. I didn't even have maxed AVs like the Master Trainers do. Toxic stalling seems to be the most efficient strategy. I'll list some details of some of my matches below:
Pikachu was absurdly easy because my Pikachu is almost maxed out on candies.
Dragonite and Magmar were tough.
For Dragonite I had the set of Reflect, Outrage, Ice Beam, Roost. The Master Trainer for Dragonite almost always opens with Reflect, so despite being a Jolly Dragonite, I had to teach it Blizzard, I outspeed so I would go for Blizzard, knowing it's going to set Reflect after my attack, and THEN I'd set my own Reflect, because I outspeed, and my Reflect will last a turn later, which means they won't get the jump on me for the Outrage one shot, they'd also go for Ice Beam after I put up Reflect, but two Roosts heals me to full + got me to lose my Flying typing and take half the damage I took from the first Ice Beam. So it became a game of seeing who gets a random freeze or a crit first, it was tough and it took me a few tries, but that set overall ended up winning me the game.
For Magmar I had to do similar shenanigans, my Magmar set was Toxic, Taunt, Protect, and Substitute. The opposing Magmar has Psychic, Toxic, Confuse Ray, and Fire Spin, and the AI wants to stack all those statuses on you at once, so I always open with Substitute and outspeed. It goes for Confuse Ray but has no effect, after that I go for Toxic and it uses Psychic to break my substitute, from here it's just a matter of using Taunt, Protect, and Substitute to protect myself. I go for Protect right after to 1. let Toxic do it's thing and 2. Scout for what his next move is, go for either Taunt or Substitute depending on whether he's trying to status me or attack me and react accordingly, banking that you scout for a move he's going to use again.
Aerodactyl was by far the hardest, even with Mega Evolution, I still got out sped, I basically only won because the opponent missed an Iron Tail, he almost always goes for Toxic first so he Toxics, I Mega Evolve and Toxic, then he Iron Tails, I put up Reflect, he was probably going to get the KO even through Reflect, but he misses the second Iron Tail, I used Rest right here to heal to full, and basically tanked him down until he was forced to use Roost just to survive (it seems Toxic has a damage cap of half HP, so he was stuck using Roost to even live) so I just used a Crunch to get him to just below half and poison knocked him out, it was a super lucky battle. If he hits the Iron Tail two times in a row, I almost always lose.
Snorlax was supposed to be one of the easier ones because the AI set is admittedly terrible, but the set is incredibly annoying, it only knows Rest, Reflect, and Facade. So I knew a few things going in: 1. Toxic was useless for this fight 2. Brick Break gets rid of his Reflect and is super effective. 3. He has Rest, so this is going to inevitably be a stall war that could end in some usage of Struggle. 4. Seismic Toss also essentially ignores Reflect. My set was Seismic Toss, Brick Break, Rest, and Reflect. Basically I had to PP stall him, I used a lot of Brick Breaks early on to make the AI use up its Reflect PP. I used my own rest as a counter of how many he's used, so I'd rest a turn after he did until he had just two rests left, I saved my last two for a possible struggle battle. Once he used his last Rest, I finished off my PP of Seismic Toss, which ignores Reflect since the damage is based on the opponent's level. I knew at this point if I could get him to Struggle first, he'd faint himself from the recoil and I had 2 PP of Rest left to live a few extra turns. When I finally got him to start using Struggle, all I had left was 2 Reflect and 2 Rest, and he fainted himself after just two Struggles, I never got to use the last four moves I had. This fight felt like a freaking chess match, it was all about having moves left, and I think Gamefreak had to give this Snorlax fight only three moves or else it would be way too hard to beat, so Snorlax comes to down to a PP and Struggle war.
The Dewgong battle was by far the most simple and most degenerate. The opponent's knows Horn Drill... But it's also slow as heck, so I literally relearned Horn Drill and just used it until I won. It also has Toxic, Rest and Protect and actually uses those moves. But I just spammed Horn Drill half-expecting the Master Trainer to do the same. I knew it had Protect and when it would use it (basically literally every other turn) so I would use a different move to save Horn Drill PP for after it uses Protect. It WILL try to double Protect.
Pikachu was absurdly easy because my Pikachu is almost maxed out on candies.
Dragonite and Magmar were tough.
For Dragonite I had the set of Reflect, Outrage, Ice Beam, Roost. The Master Trainer for Dragonite almost always opens with Reflect, so despite being a Jolly Dragonite, I had to teach it Blizzard, I outspeed so I would go for Blizzard, knowing it's going to set Reflect after my attack, and THEN I'd set my own Reflect, because I outspeed, and my Reflect will last a turn later, which means they won't get the jump on me for the Outrage one shot, they'd also go for Ice Beam after I put up Reflect, but two Roosts heals me to full + got me to lose my Flying typing and take half the damage I took from the first Ice Beam. So it became a game of seeing who gets a random freeze or a crit first, it was tough and it took me a few tries, but that set overall ended up winning me the game.
For Magmar I had to do similar shenanigans, my Magmar set was Toxic, Taunt, Protect, and Substitute. The opposing Magmar has Psychic, Toxic, Confuse Ray, and Fire Spin, and the AI wants to stack all those statuses on you at once, so I always open with Substitute and outspeed. It goes for Confuse Ray but has no effect, after that I go for Toxic and it uses Psychic to break my substitute, from here it's just a matter of using Taunt, Protect, and Substitute to protect myself. I go for Protect right after to 1. let Toxic do it's thing and 2. Scout for what his next move is, go for either Taunt or Substitute depending on whether he's trying to status me or attack me and react accordingly, banking that you scout for a move he's going to use again.
Aerodactyl was by far the hardest, even with Mega Evolution, I still got out sped, I basically only won because the opponent missed an Iron Tail, he almost always goes for Toxic first so he Toxics, I Mega Evolve and Toxic, then he Iron Tails, I put up Reflect, he was probably going to get the KO even through Reflect, but he misses the second Iron Tail, I used Rest right here to heal to full, and basically tanked him down until he was forced to use Roost just to survive (it seems Toxic has a damage cap of half HP, so he was stuck using Roost to even live) so I just used a Crunch to get him to just below half and poison knocked him out, it was a super lucky battle. If he hits the Iron Tail two times in a row, I almost always lose.
Snorlax was supposed to be one of the easier ones because the AI set is admittedly terrible, but the set is incredibly annoying, it only knows Rest, Reflect, and Facade. So I knew a few things going in: 1. Toxic was useless for this fight 2. Brick Break gets rid of his Reflect and is super effective. 3. He has Rest, so this is going to inevitably be a stall war that could end in some usage of Struggle. 4. Seismic Toss also essentially ignores Reflect. My set was Seismic Toss, Brick Break, Rest, and Reflect. Basically I had to PP stall him, I used a lot of Brick Breaks early on to make the AI use up its Reflect PP. I used my own rest as a counter of how many he's used, so I'd rest a turn after he did until he had just two rests left, I saved my last two for a possible struggle battle. Once he used his last Rest, I finished off my PP of Seismic Toss, which ignores Reflect since the damage is based on the opponent's level. I knew at this point if I could get him to Struggle first, he'd faint himself from the recoil and I had 2 PP of Rest left to live a few extra turns. When I finally got him to start using Struggle, all I had left was 2 Reflect and 2 Rest, and he fainted himself after just two Struggles, I never got to use the last four moves I had. This fight felt like a freaking chess match, it was all about having moves left, and I think Gamefreak had to give this Snorlax fight only three moves or else it would be way too hard to beat, so Snorlax comes to down to a PP and Struggle war.
The Dewgong battle was by far the most simple and most degenerate. The opponent's knows Horn Drill... But it's also slow as heck, so I literally relearned Horn Drill and just used it until I won. It also has Toxic, Rest and Protect and actually uses those moves. But I just spammed Horn Drill half-expecting the Master Trainer to do the same. I knew it had Protect and when it would use it (basically literally every other turn) so I would use a different move to save Horn Drill PP for after it uses Protect. It WILL try to double Protect.
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