....now I can't beat Samson.

[DecShep]

Yes, I'm annoyed at myself I am posting another gym issue a day later. But I literally have no idea what to do.

 

Samson is way too OP. Hawlucha and Mienfoo are way too fast and just one shot practically my entire team. I trained up my Ampharos and it can barely handle Hawlucha. I did look at other threads, but they either were old and I'm not sure how relevant they are or they gave little advice. The only thing I really picked up was apparently Hawlucha is great here, so currently I'm hunting for one now, I have EV items to train him fast.

 

But let me know any other tips. Here's my team for reference: (Lvls 60-65)

Infernape: Flame Wheel, Close Combat, Shadow Claw, Acrobatics

Sylveon: Moonblast, Swift, Yawn, Light Screen

Roserade: Giga Drain, Venoshock, Toxic Spikes, Nature Power

Escavalier: X-Scissor, Iron Head, Drill Run, Swords Dance

Ampharos: Discharge, Signal Beam, Power Gem, Thunder Wave

Hawlucha?: Flying Press, Acrobatics, ?, ? (whats a good moveset for it here?)

 

This is my strategy so far: Start with Roserade, can get 2 toxic spikes before Hari kills her. Infernape one shots with Acrobatics. He switches into Lucha, I pull out Ampharos who kills it with Discharge, but put into red. Then he summons Lucario, I switch to Escavalier to Drill Run and (I thought at least) tank a hit or two but get one shotted even with brick break. Infernape finishes it. 

 

Thats about as much thats consistent. If he chooses Mienshao, Sylveon has sometimes took one hit and one shot it with Moonblast, or he summons Blaziken and I get sweeped. I think so far my only chance is to stall its toxic status and keep healing my team until it dies. Don't know how many cotton candys i need for that though. Have yet to see his Conkeldurr. If its not too fast, I believe my Infernape or Sylveon could one shot it.

 

Also I have some decent reserves: Wigglytuff(45) with Perish Song, Pallossand(59), Yanmega(60) with Air Slash I initally had her in, but she would get one shot by literally any team member of his. And a Gothorita I could train.

 

*Caught a lvl55 Hawlucha, Naive nature with 31 in Atk, 29 in Def, and 27 in Spd and Sp. D. That seems good? High IV in Atk and Spd, plus a Spd boosting nature, and the high IV in Sp. D somewhat negates its 10% loss? (Sorry for sounding like an idiot I'm not super competitive, I usually only go for Adamant/Modest natures and thats it) Also apparently Hawlucha doesn't learn Acrobatics through level up. Stupid question, but would giving Luchy a Fist plate make Flying Press 'flying' part more damaging as well? 

Edited July 21, 2020 by DecShep

[Trumpet of Doom]

What worked for me to beat his Hawlucha was a Sturdy Aggron (if you caught an Aron earlier) with Metal Burst. If you have a Gale Wings Talonflame with Acrobatics or a Pink Nectar'd Oricorio with Revelation Dance, those may also help, though I don't think you can catch either of those at this point in the game if you don't already have them.

 

Flying Press should do more damage with a Fist Plate, yes.

[Imperial]

Hawlucha can be a great asset here indeed, especially with the unburden ability. Give it a flying gem and after one acrobatics it will outspeed anything, and probably kill anything with a field boosted acrobatics. Another  alternative if you already have the flame charge TM is to use it on Infernape. If it can take a hit from Hariyama, get  a speed boost with a charge, then acrobatics them to death. You should also consider teaching Flare Blitz to Infernape (through the move relearner in Agate I think) to replace the weak flame wheel

 

More generally, with its field effects Reborn favors offensive pokemon, defensive pokemon hardly handle field boosted moves. So in my experience Toxic spike isn't great here because you can't really survive long enough for it to kill the opponent. Personally, I would replace Toxic Spikes by Grassy Terrain (through move relearner) that can replace annoying field effects boosting the enemy and boost you instead. My favorite strategy is to use Roserade to set grassy terrain, then switch to drought Ninetales to set it ablaze, that makes your fire type moves so powerful that you can OHKO even fire resistant pokemon. All that to say you should consider exploiting field effects instead of suffering them

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Use the move relearner to get Mach Punch on your Infernape for Lucario; it usually uses its first turn to set up Swords Dance so you can Close Combat it on that turn and then kill it with priority.

If your Yanmega has Speed Boost and Detect it should be able to help against Mienshao, Blaziken and Hawlucha; the latter is stupid fast due to its Seed and Unburden so you'll need three Speed Boosts iirc.

Hawlucha doesn't get Acrobatics by level up as you've noticed, but Flying Press is listed as Fighting Type in the status screen so it should probably benefit from the Big Top Field like all other physical Fighting moves.

 

If your Hawlucha has Unburden and you have the right Seed or Gem it'll probably do a lot of the heavy lifting, otherwise what I think you should do is try to goad Samson into sending out Mienshao before Hawlucha and use Yanmega's Detect to get a Speed Boost before killing it. After that his next Pokémon should be either Blaziken or Hawlucha with the other one following next where you again Detect for Speed Boost then kill. If Yanmega lacks in power against any of those carefully check your Items, even a Metronome can help once you have enough Speed Boosts.

I think Mienshao and Conkeldurr are his only Pokémon with Poison Jab so having Sylveon nuke Hariyama is probably your best bet to bait out Mienshao. It might pull out Lucario instead but if you have the Berry that weakens Steel moves you should be able to avoid that.

 

His Conkeldurr is slow as heck, but very bulky on the physical side and packs Drain Punch to heal itself. Try to keep your Special Attackers alive for it - particularly Roserade, Sylveon and Yanmega since they resist Drain Punch so he's less likely to use it - and only send out anything weak or neutral against Drain Punch when you're sure you can finish it off.

[OmegaSolare]

I used only my Blaziken with Speed Boost with Synthetic Seed against 6 pokemons by often using several times Bulk Up and sometimes strike if necessary until my Blaziken fainted after defeating his last pokemon. I also used healing items when in danger. It could be useful for you if chosen as starter of course.

Edited July 21, 2020 by RoyChaos

[Excendium]

My Gale Wings Talonflame with Brave Bird and Me First along with my Acrobatics Arecheops to deal with Hariyama did the trick. Priority wins this fight imo