First T3 solo: Scyther
As the headline suggests I managed to beat Scyther by myself today on the first try with ~14 seconds to spare. It was my first ever T3 solo! Moveset was double Slash (Air+Night). My lineup (IVs as S/A/D):
1. Lv. 29,5 Golem RT/RB 14/15/13 -- 2441 CP
2. Lv. 20 Tyranitar B/SE 10/12/10 -- 2026 CP
3. Lv. 30 Dragonite DT/O 15/12/14 -- 3030 CP
4. Lv. 30 Arcanine FF/FB 12/13/14 -- 2388 CP
5. Lv. 27 Zapdos CB/TB 11/12/10 -- 2483 CP
Didn't get to the 6th mon.
Notes from lineup:
1. Once I saw Scyther pop up, I finally had a good reason to TM my Golem's both moves (even though Raikou is still going on here).
2. I don't have any powered up Tyranitars (I have total of 3, best IVs 13/11/10). This was my only one with SE and I was very pleasantly surprised by his performance.
The rest carried their weight. I love my Arcanine so it was great to be able to use him and be victorious as well.
I was rather surprised that Tyranitar wasn't listed as a counter for Scyther in the solo guide. I assume the benefits you'd get from having a higher level Tyranitar would outweigh the benefits I had from resisting both of the boss's moves.
*Tl;dr:* Scyther can be comfortably soloed with level 30 and below Pokémon and even then you don't need an optimized team. I still recommend at least one double-Rock Golem (or Omastar if you're lucky enough to have one).
Answers
I did a Scyther for the first time last night and finished it with single digit seconds left and 5 mons. It should have been easier if I had selected a better team but I was in a hurray and just went with the games preselected team. I had two RT/SE Golem (levels 35.5 and 32) and a TS/WC Raikou (level 22) that did the bulk of the work. The game had selected a level 26 RS/SE Rhydon that did terribly and wasted time with inadequate damage then I had a level 20 Entei that cleaned up.
Tyranitar is great against air slash/night slash since he's neutral to flying and resists dark. But if you had a fury cutter/X-scizzors Scyther, Tyranitar would have collapsed like a house of cards in a jet engine exhaust.
Bring more Golems to the table. Start raiding them to get better at soloing Scyther.
Is it so even with higher level Tyranitars, say 25+? I realize X-Scissor could pose some problems but it's just one charge move out of three. Does Fury Cutter also do significant damage to Tyranitar? If it does, Tyra is a fine counter 1/3 of the time and if it doesn't 2/3 of the time.
Lastly, Tyranitar resists Flying as well due to his Rock typing.
Thanks! I'd love to do those but I'm pretty certain I don't have good enough teams for them. My only Psychic type with FS is an Espeon with ~2100 cp, two other Espys have the other two charge moves. Both of my two Dragonites have Outrage (not that I'm complaining) and my only Alakazam has SB. I assume Machamp does require more effort than Scyther since he doesn't have a double weakness, am I correct?
Omastar is simply a matter of employing level 30+ big grass attackers with double grass movesets. You need at least five, in my experience. I failed with four plus a level 30 Zapdos and level 30 Raikou. Then, I swapped out the legendary electrics for two CP 1900 Victreebels, and I won with 20 seconds remaining.
They have now updated the Tier 3 solo guide. But I don't think the difficulty summaries are very good. To call Machamp "very easy" and then Scyther and Porygon "very easy" is lazy. There is a huge difference in effort and team requirement. Machamp is NOT "very easy" for most people unless you get the weakest of the boss moves.