FriarTruck

Team:

Klingklang -Levitate

Mawile -Intimidate, Huge Power

Escavalier -Intimidate

Haxorus -Sheer Force

Flex:

Empoleon -Torrent

Gigalith -Sand Stream

Aegislash -Filter

Forretress -Sturdy

Summary: Buffed Empoleon, Mawile, Klinklang and Escavalier makes a steel monotype much more interesting in EXTREME than vanilla Reborn, as well as Gigalith, Haxorus and Cryogonal being available. I was impressed with difficulty of the late game fights as there are so many almost broken pokemon available by that point. Downsides are that each late game fight promotes stalling tactics due to incredibly high bulk on the opposing side shutting down most sweepers.

Rules:

1. Set mode.
2. No bag items in battle.
3. No terrain moves.
4. Pokemon that evolve into steel types are included, until evolution is possible.
5. Species max of 1.
6. No duplicate items.
7. Debug for time saving only, nothing illegal in a clean game.

Hard Fights- Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI7jnIDHkZMXB6ZwHY3ujYkJQOO5S3gYI

• Julia, Shelly, first Aster & Eclipse fight and Corey are all very difficult thanks to limited Steel type choices, require rng miracles.
• Charlotte's Trick Room weakness has been shored up in EXTREME with no Amplified Rock available, and her Turtonator being an absolute unit of a fire type. Knock out Houndoom before Trick Room runs out as it will outspeed and ohko any steel type put in front of it.
• Terra's team is bulky beyond belief, with powerful stab ground attacks. I set Empoleon up as much as possible with Torrent, rain, and Sea Incense, went to town with Hydro Pump + Agility, and stalled out everything else with Toxic Spikes placed down.

MVP's:

• Empoleon's high special attack and typing makes it my go-to for fire types.
• Klingklang is really good, Steel/Electric with Levitate, Bolt Strike and Earthquake by level up, sweeps through Team Meteor bases with ease.
• Mawile, available quite early, has ludicrous attack power, good typing vs. fighting types and utility in Knock off, Sucker Punch.
• Gigalith summons sand. With Assault Vest, has very high special bulk. With Diamond Storm, it becomes a wall. Trick Room? Solos double battles. Pretty big downsides 4x weaknesses to fighting and ground though.
• Haxorus is ludicrously strong once it's available with Sheer Force, Life Orb, Dragon Dance and stab Dragon Rush/Iron Head, with a great defensive typing.

Team:

Talonflame (Evan)

Archeops (Abdulkawi)

Mantine (Isobel)

Hawlucha (Patada Buceo)

Gliscor (Serket)

M-Pidgeot (BIRD JESUS)

Skarmory (Asina)

Emolga (Yinka)

Honorable Mentions:

Dartrix (Hedgwig) -> Serra

Vespiquen (Bea.B.Bsn) -> Aya

Fearow (Pierce) -> Ciel

Swoobat (Swing) -> Adrienn

Summary: Challenging at points but thanks to wide variety of flying mons and powerful ones available later on very doable. Some terrains like Corey's, Charlotte's and water surface are easier without the chip damage each turn or grounded effects. Flying types in general have lots of weaknesses and little bulk so most fights are won through hitting the enemy fast and hard. 

Hard Fights:

• Aster & Eclipse. Azurine island Solrock + Lunatone are hard to fight past with high stats and double rock slide. Then there's two lightning fast Lycanroc in reserve which both OHKO with Rock Slide... yeah. Dartrix could not OHKO with leaf blade. Eventually won through Dartrix's Sucker Punch + Fearow's Assurance, which combo-ed really well.
• Blake. I needed strong winds to complete this fight. My strategy for ice types was to faint them quickly with Talonflame or Archeops, but his mons were too fast (like Weavile) or too tanky (everything but Weavile). Snowy mountain gives ice typing to rock moves, handicapping Archeops and making Blake's rock moves even deadlier.

Surprisingly Good Mons:

• Swoobat. Dropped off late game with few chances to set up and priority moves, but early and mid game it's really powerful. Fights I thought I couldn't win ended up being won by finding a moment to Calm Mind with Swoobat, then sweeping with Psychic/Stored Power/Charge Beam
• Mantine. Really high special bulk was a blessing when my team had no bulk whatsoever, it also doesn't have a weakness to ice. Available early, made Terra a joke with Amnesia and late game learns Scald and Toxic to stall through tougher enemies. Learns Wide Guard too, which saved my team so many times in doubles to death by Rock Slide.
• Emolga. Motor drive gives free switch-ins to incoming thunderbolts, discharges... Emolga was a lifesaver. Was a really good pivot with Encore, Light Screen, Charge Beam and Baton Pass, with occasionally Nuzzle. Encore usually just forces a switch, but against single mons like Pulse Muk it traps them eternally/15 turns. It's defences are really low though even with max investment so it was often dead weight if the opponent has no electric attacks.

Team:

Vikavolt (Rhir)

Eelektross (Doom)

Bronzong (Charon)

Mismagius (Esindra)

Flygon (Nova)

Cryogonal (Boreas)

Hydreigon (Ravager)

Honorable Mentions:

Carnivine (Flaptrap) -> Radomus

Lunatone (Zonun) -> Ciel

Summary: Early game is the difficult part especially between Shelly and Aya where options are limited or underwhelming. Gets easier after Aya with Mismagius and Flygon becoming available, and even easier after Radomus where Vikavolt and Trick Room can be used. Trick Room then makes most of the game a cakewalk, which Vikavolt, Eelektross and Bronzong all work great under.

This mono-ability run I found to be quite monotonous, as variety and synergy with abilities is what makes an interesting team. Each Pokemon loses part of what makes them stand out in the team, simplifying who I should send out next into just type advantages, moveslots and stats.

Hard Fights:

• Shelly. Without Haunter from the mystery egg, none of your pokemon resist Struggle Bug. Would be SO much easier with Haunter and/or Cryogonal. Pokemon at that point all have low speed speed stats and only Charjabug's Acrobatics could OHKO. Tynamo's dead weight for this fight, Bronzong's Psywave is too weak but does have Confuse Ray/Hypnosis. Carnivine has Sleep Powder and hits hard with Nature Power's Wood Hammer with but takes a lot of damage. Eventually won through confusion and sleep rng, and using all three Telluric Seeds.
• Solaris' Garchomp. I didn't defeat it, as the only way I could see to was with Metal Sound/Acid Spray (overlevelled Eelektrik) then Ice Beam from Cryogonal, IF you get the trade in North Obsidia Ward, which I didn't. Even then it would take sleep rng, misses etc. for it to work. Even at -6 Sp. Def Lunatone would only 2-hit KO with Psychic.
• Titania. Trick Room doesn't give as much of an advantage against her, magical seeds, Klefki and Scizor's Bullet Punch prevent sweeping her team and all six of her pokemon hit really hard under the field effects. Only my Bronzong resisted Steel attacks but he can't 1v1 any the mons it needs to (Klefki/A-Sandslash will paralyze him or set up Aurora Veil). Rotom-H would have been perfect with that sweet double resistance but I couldn't be bothered training one up. Thankfully her AI doesn't use Aegislash to it's full potential or I wouldn't have got my win. She used an ultra potion, in Blade form, against Mismagius-my last pokemon. At +4 Attack.

Surprisingly Good Mons:

• Charjabug carries early game due to decently high defense and good typing against Julia and Florinia, as well as early access to high base power moves like Acrobatics, X-Scissor and Dig.
• Lunatone/Solrock helps between Shelly and Aya where there's many battles against rivals, special characters and Team Meteor. They each learn Rock Polish, Hypnosis and Psychic/Rock STAB moves makes them surprisingly handy. Team options at this section are sparse with Bronzong and Carnivine the best options, with Charjabug and Tynamo/Eelektrik dropping off.