Etesian

Actually, Fairy types are far more special bulky than they are physically. Mawile is the only Fairy which has noticeably more physical than special defense, but that's hardly a threat.

<<Etesian >>Zeph

I'd actually say you get a new one. If you prevent Sewaddle from evolving into Swadloon until level 31, it gets Stick Web, a great move in general (well, not really for Radomus). It could also use X-Scissor and Leaf Blade since it's special attack stat is really nothing to write home about. It'd be easier to just retrain it than to find and use 2 Heart Scales, IMO.

Heeey Well, I've learned my lesson: Whatever you wanna do, don't do it at 6 AM. Ah well, was fun once I realized what was going on

Go for the beast that is Durant. With Hustle, the thing's essentially got 190 Base Attack. It's movepool is nothing to scoff at either, it gets Steel, Bug, Electric, Ground, Dark and (in E12 or earlier) Rock moves.

....pfft. It probably would be faster just to grind for the levels that Exp. Share will be getting you instead of actually getting it, especially since one can be gotten later on in the game.

The 7th Street bit is one people seem to get lost in very frequently. The only advice to give for it is: Talk to everyone, and when something new happens, talk to everyone again. And I really mean everyone.

Ah, my bad, misread that. Though if the foe uses a physical attack and takes ~50% of your health, you can just use healing items while Cursing up, till they don't do much damage and you can start spamming moves while occasionally healing. If that's not the case, what move is used really doesn't matter much, you wouldn't be doing much with it anyways in the few turns you'd have.

3 Fury Cutters actually do more than 3 X-Scissors, it's 40+80+160 as opposed to 3*80, since FC's power doubles every turn it's used. It also has a fair amount of physical bulk, with a Curse or 2, it'll live enough for at least 3 neutral attacks, I'd say.

I think Curse, Knock Off/Brick Break, Fury Cutter and Rock Blast/Aqua Jet. Curse is obvious, and also kinda necessary with that moveset despite the 125 Base Attack. Fury Cutter seems inferior to X-Scissor at first, but after one use, it's already got equal power power, double after 2 uses. Knock Off is a generally great move and hits Steel types better than most of the other moves this guy gets (not counting TM(which we don't have (*sigh*))) so it's not completely worthless against them. Though Brick Break also gives some neat coverage, so that's a valid option as well, but Knock Off has way more utility. With Rock Blast, there's a 33% chance it does more damage than Rock Slide, 33% chance to do equal, and R.Slide's flinch chance is useless with that low speed anyways. Aqua Jet can also be used as a good "parting shot" of sorts. I think the Rain Dance set has speed, but lacks power, so Curse would be better IMO.

Didn't know this was a thing. Anyways, I'd love some help here. I'd say I'm at least average at battling, but I don't know a thing about competitive team building. I'd be very grateful to anyone willing to help me out with that. (I'm almost never on PO, so a PM here would be the best way to contact me). Just to mention this, I especially like hyper-offensive teams, though I can roll with anything not full-on-stally.

I'm all for switching to Showdown. Guess I won't have to get used to PO after all then.

Still there, Corner. Still there, Corner?

Can't a man just lurk in peace. Corner?

Blaziken can get Baton Pass via breeding as soon as you get to the Day-Care/defeat PULSE Tangrowth #1, even before Florinia. Breeding also doesn't take that long. If you wish, you could make eggs hatch in 2 steps with Cheat Engine- it doesn't make the game any easier, just less tedious, so I don't count it as cheating- and also speed up the game for grinding. Swords Dance is also easy to get along with BP if you go back to E12 or earlier. It's also most definitely worth it, many Pokemon are worthless if you don't get them a proper moveset, and some great ones can be made god-like. Whether it's really necessary is a different matter, but I have yet to do worse than 3-0 on any gym using only 6 Pokemon, the ones in my signature (yes, I took Leavanny to the Fire gym and yes, it did well there). Well, I'm just providing options for people here, no need to breed if you don't want to.

I know what you're saying and there really isn't a lot of good stuff early (even Hariyama isn't that great post-Serra). But instead of final party members, you can just train whatever has good stats at that point or swap one gym-specific counter for another until you get to the good stuff. And there's plenty of good counters, depending on the gym, so your starter can take a break if it wouldn't do too well with the current foe. (And by Rain Dancing Charlotte, I meant using Rain Dance in her gym battle, or a Drought Vulpix for Serra, or any such thing that makes the fight a lot easier if you just use X - I don't do that kinda stuff because I want my team to be able to beat everything without relying on crutches. I also don't use specific gym-counters, unless that happens to already be a member of my final party (Archeops>Charlotte))

Here I am. There PWB is.

Waiting to get to the good stuff is necessary, sure, but it's not like you have to rely on your starter for every single fight. Until you get the chance to get the good stuff, other Pokemon can help you out, plenty of counters to gym's team's/ace's exist. The mentioned Cradily is easily 2HKOd by Hariyama, Kricketune also reKs it, for example. Hell, I only use 6 Pokemon, no rotations and no "crutches" like Rain Dancing Charlotte and 3-0 is still the "closest" victory I've had in the entire game. Waiting may be a pain, but it definitely does pay off in the long run.

Loudred with Soundproof makes dealing with that Chatot easy. You could also get something with Fury Cutter, like Kricketune. Espeon, Umbreon and Lileep are all weak to bug, so getting it to max power shouldn't be too tough. Chatot is 2HKOd by Dewott's max-power Fury Cutter, Kricketune's oughta do even more damage.

Currently impossible to get both. Once we have the HM, sure, but until then, no dice.

Nope, just 8 bit Sundowner. Followed by PWB.

Guess I'm kinda late to the party. Ah well, not too late, it seems. Anyways, I'd advise against most Grass-type starters. With Grass types like Liligant, Gogoat, Roserade, Leafeon (yes, Leafeon), Trevenant and Gourgeist, there's not too much of a reason to make a Grass type your starter. Unless it's Torterra, Seprerior or maybe Chesnaught. Torterra gets a pretty sweet Curse set. Contrary Serperior can sweep if you set up 1-2 Leaf Storms and spam then either that, Wring Out or Hidden Power. Chesnaught has a pretty good stally-set available, but Gourgeist has a much better one, and Chespin can be obtained later. Charizard could do well with a Dragon Dance set to boost it's decent speed and average attack, it gets a lot of good physical moves, with only a few usable special moves. Typhlosion's only advantage over Delphox is slightly higher physical defense (though neither is too bulky) and Eruption, which is very unreliable. Blaziken is OP, especially since it also gets Baton Pass, so I have no hands-on experience with the thing. Infernape is a less-OP Blaziken with more move variety and-for some reason- a good Specially Offensive set with Nasty Plot. Emboar actually functions really, really well in Trick Room, though it's not too great outside of that. Delphox is underrated very fun to play with, at least for me. It has the highest special attack out of all starters, can be given Calm Mind if you go back to E12 or earlier and gets some pretty sweet utility stuff to mess around with, such as Light Screen, Trick Room or Magician. As for other in-game Fire types, Arcanine is great, Ninetales and Houndoom have good Nasty Plot sets (though no real physical defense to speak of), Darmanitan with some Speed Boost support could take down at least half of (almost) any gym, and I hear people like Camerupt, which would be good in Trick Room, maybe not as good as Chandelure though. Blastoise gets a lot of variety, but it's focused more on bulk than power, so those moves won't do too much damage. And there's bulkier out there as well. Feraligatr can do good with Dragon Dance I'd imagine. Aqua Tail, Dragon Dance, Crunch/Superpower/Thrash. Swampert is great, it's Speed being it's only really "low" stat. With Avalanche, It's also the only starter that gets a Water/Ice attack combo (which has perfect neutral coverage on all but Water types) without going back to E12 or earlier for Ice Beam. Though it can be gotten later. -I'd say that, if you go back to E12 or earlier to breed, Empoleon is the best Water starter by far. It's not as physically bulky as Swampert, but it's still rather tough. It's also more specially bulky, and it has a Steel typing. It's also got a very good Special Attack stat along with great moves to utilize it (if you go back), among which is Agility, making Speed a on-issue. Just breed Scald (or keep Hydro Pump), Ice Beam and Agility onto it and give it either Drill Peck or Grass Knot and it's good to go. But then again, it's also obtainable later. Samurott is nothing special on it's own. If you have some Speed Boost-er to Baton Pass him a boost or 2, like Scolipede, then have him use Swords Dance, he's pretty good. Not covering Greninja since you have said you already have one elsewhere. Notable non-starter in-game Water-type: Kingler, Crawdaunt, Clawitzer, Azumarill and Kingdra all function great in Trick Room. Although Crawdaunt has access to Dragon Dance, any special attack kills it, Azumarill can also go outside of TR, just set up Belly Drum and spam Aqua Jets or something, and Kingdra (a.k.a. Critdra) can use Agility along with Focus Energy so TR may not be that good for it. There's also the Shell Smash crew's members. SO! I'd say go for either Torterra, Serperior, Infernape, Delphox or Empoleon.

I vote we abolish the Poke Police, they're abusing their power. And their name is all-caps. Sign this petition, Sheep.