Mah Squad - Tips Welcomed!

[Deja Vu]

Hey, Pokemoniacs! I'd like to share my current top mons with you hoping for some tips and suggestions from you to up my game to the next level. I'd like some help forming the best possible team consisting of some of my favorite Pokemon.

Dhamiria (Kingdra) @Scope Lens

Sniper
Modest nature

252 SpA 252 Spe 4 HP

- Hydro Pump (possibly replaced with Agility now that I'm past Charlotte)

- Dragon Pulse

- Surf

- Focus Energy

Tyson (Infernape) @Black Belt (didn't properly raise him)

Blaze

Neutral nature (considering changing it to either Adamant or Jolly)

EVs scattered everywhere

- Flare Blitz

- Close Combat

- Mach Punch

- Grass Knot

Majiya (Jynx) @Psychic/Ghost/Ice Gem

Forewarn (very helpful in this game)

Timid Nature

252 SpA 252 Spe 4 HP

- Psychic

- Frost Breath

- Shadow Ball/Trick Room (TMs)

- Fake Tears

Nina (Sylveon) @Pixie Plate

Pixilate

Calm nature

252 SpD 152 HP 104 SpA

- Moonblast

- Swift

- Shadow Ball

- Light Screen

Boris (Bouffalant) @Silk Scarf

Reckless

Adamant nature

252 Atk 252 HP 4 Spe

- Swords Dance

- Strength (had to be done)

- Mega Horn

- Afro Break

Maxis (Luxray) @Zap Plate

Intimidate

Jolly nature (change to Adamant?)

252 Atk 252 Spe 4 HP

- Wild Charge

- Crunch

- Ice Fang (for Ground types)

- Fire Fang (for Grass types)

Spiky (Cacturne) @Rose Incense

Water Absorb

Adamant nature

252 Atk 252 HP 4 Def

- Seed Bomb

- Leech Seed

- Spiky Shield

- Sucker Punch

Slurp (Muk) @Black Sludge

Poison Touch

Careful nature

252 SpD 252 HP 4 Atk (more focus on bulk)

- Curse

- Poison Gas (good for double battles I guess)

- Gunk Shot

- Shadow Sneak

And I'm getting tired of typing so I'm just gonna add that I'm also currently working on breeding competitive Gengar, Umbreon, Mamoswine, Alakazam, Arcanine and Sableye (hoping TM86 becomes available in the next update). I also have Sharpedo and Houndoom in da box ready to go.

Any tips are appreciated! Merci in advance.

Ps: Choice items are not obtainable yet, right?

[Etesian]

Good stuff.

Definitely give it Agility over Hydro Pump. With Agility, you'd be outspeeding everything anyways, so HP EVs to help with setting up would be better (keep in mind that you wouldn't have to get a new one because of the EVs, the O. Dept. Store has berries for that).

Infernape is at a level of Speed that it can afford both to ditch Mach Punch as well as to be Adamant. Also, Thunder Punch via Ampharos/Hitmonchan/Electabuzz/Medicham, Grass Knot is inferior to it. Also, get either Acrobatics (and ditch the Black Belt) or Punishment instead of Mach Punch. BTW, Ability Capsules are a thing, no need to over Blaze ...but yeah, Iron Fist cuz Thunder Punch, yeah.

......well, if it works for you. One of Jynx' main niches is being able to both make the foes fall asleep (Lovely Kiss (give it a Wide Lens from wild Yanma to boost it's accuracy (lead with something with Compound Eyes (even if that something is fainted) so that they have a 20% chance of holding one))) as well as set up on them (via Nasty Plot). Fake Tears and Shadow Ball don't do anything for it anyways.

Though if you wanna replace this thing, just tell me whether you want a Psychic or Ice type to take it's place and we can figure something out.

This being a game and not competitive battle gives Sylveon access to an EZ-nuke. Pixilate gives Trump Card, one of Eevee's almost-signature moves, 390 BP. Yeah. Just keep Eevee from evolving until level 45 and TC is yours. Other than that, ditch Swift. In double battles, spread moves lose 25% power, giving Moonblast ~150 due to STAB while Swift has ~100, so they're about the same, really. Yawn is a good move on it I guess, this things doesn't really scream "variety", does it?

Swords Dance is a waste of time on something that slow. Even in Trick Room, you'd have a very limited amount of time for it.
Check my pinned guide in this section, along with a linked Smeargle Guide in it. If you go back to pre-E13, you can get it any TM it could learn if we had said TMs, so EQ, Rock Slide/Stone Edge, Wild Charge and Poison Jab being special mentions (the guides explain exactly how to do this stuff, send me a PM if you still have trouble understanding stuff even then).

Short answer: no. Long answer: IF you still want to use it, use an Ability Capsule or 2, make it's Ability Guts and use this to get it a Toxic Orb and get the Facade TM from the Arcade. Otherwise, you might as well not even bother and get another Electric type, like Magnezone or Heliolisk.

Spiky Shield's chip damage doesn't really do much for you. Leech Seed stalling isn't an option for it with it's sucky defenses. Give it Destiny Bond and Brick Break.

Poison Gas is just bad. Either give it Brick Break to help with coverage or, even better, use Minimize and become invincible.

For your rotation, my guide lists how to get T-bolt and Sludge Bomb onto Gengar, Mamoswine is best with EQ/Icicle Crash/Body Slam/Ice Shard, Alakazam is waaaay outclassed by Trick Room Reuniclus (since it's "faster", immeassurably bulkier and has unnoticeable weaker attack), Arcanine is best with Agility/Flare Blitz/Close Combat/Outrage and I'd actually advise not to use Sableye, at all, it's great for comp, but things are much different in-game.

PS: Yes

[Deja Vu]

Wow, thanks for the long reply. I just wanna point out something before commenting that I mainly used these Pokemon 'cuz they're some of my favorites. I'm well aware that some are complete trash in battle.

Definitely give it Agility over Hydro Pump. With Agility, you'd be outspeeding everything anyways, so HP EVs to help with setting up would be better (keep in mind that you wouldn't have to get a new one because of the EVs, the O. Dept. Store has berries for that).Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. I just wanna point out however that I mostly picked these Pokemon 'cuz they're some of my favorites. I'm aware that some of them plainly suck in battle.

Right, that's exactly my line of thought about it. Although, my main concern was that I might never be able to have the opportunity to setup. Two turns is a lot of time in Reborn and I fear that by then Kingdra will be dead and if not, will only have enough HP to KO a single Pokemon. So, I'm thinking the trade of three turns to KO one poke is prolly not worth it. I definitely however would love to test it but I've just completed EP14 and I'm not sure if there's any place to test the new set properly (the wild won't do obviously).

Infernape is at a level of Speed that it can afford both to ditch Mach Punch as well as to be Adamant. Also, Thunder Punch via Ampharos/Hitmonchan/Electabuzz/Medicham, Grass Knot is inferior to it. Also, get either Acrobatics (and ditch the Black Belt) or Punishment instead of Mach Punch. BTW, Ability Capsules are a thing, no need to over Blaze ...but yeah, Iron Fist cuz Thunder Punch, yeah.

......well, if it works for you. One of Jynx' main niches is being able to both make the foes fall asleep (Lovely Kiss (give it a Wide Lens from wild Yanma to boost it's accuracy (lead with something with Compound Eyes (even if that something is fainted) so that they have a 20% chance of holding one))) as well as set up on them (via Nasty Plot). Fake Tears and Shadow Ball don't do anything for it anyways.

Though if you wanna replace this thing, just tell me whether you want a Psychic or Ice type to take it's place and we can figure something out.

Can't argue with your points. I raised this one mainly 'cuz it was the only Poke I had at the time that could outspeed Charlotte's leads to setup Trick Room for Kingdra to come in and sweep. I can definitely do without Jynx and replace her with an Ice type as I heard somewhere I'm gonna need one for the next episode.

This being a game and not competitive battle gives Sylveon access to an EZ-nuke. Pixilate gives Trump Card, one of Eevee's almost-signature moves, 390 BP. Yeah. Just keep Eevee from evolving until level 45 and TC is yours. Other than that, ditch Swift. In double battles, spread moves lose 25% power, giving Moonblast ~150 due to STAB while Swift has ~100, so they're about the same, really. Yawn is a good move on it I guess, this things doesn't really scream "variety", does it?

Haha no it doesn't. Sylveon is also one of the newcomers in my team 'cuz of the next episode and also 'cuz I never used one before in-game and thought this was a good opportunity to. Your suggestions make sense, thx.

Swords Dance is a waste of time on something that slow. Even in Trick Room, you'd have a very limited amount of time for it.
Check my pinned guide in this section, along with a linked Smeargle Guide in it. If you go back to pre-E13, you can get it any TM it could learn if we had said TMs, so EQ, Rock Slide/Stone Edge, Wild Charge and Poison Jab being special mentions (the guides explain exactly how to do this stuff, send me a PM if you still have trouble understanding stuff even then).

Whoa, I didn't know those TMs were obtainable. I only started playing Reborn last week, but this is good stuff, thx! I'll check it out!

Short answer: no. Long answer: IF you still want to use it, use an Ability Capsule or 2, make it's Ability Guts and use this to get it a Toxic Orb and get the Facade TM from the Arcade. Otherwise, you might as well not even bother and get another Electric type, like Magnezone or Heliolisk.

Haha, my poor Luxray can't seem to catch a break anyhwere. He was a member of my DP/P team and never used him since then, and I decided to use him again a couple days ago for nostalgic reasons. I've used Magnezone too often in previous games and I'd like to try something new. Heliolisk looks interesting so I'll give him a shot. I also didn't know you could get Toxic Orb! Thanks!

Spiky Shield's chip damage doesn't really do much for you. Leech Seed stalling isn't an option for it with it's sucky defenses. Give it Destiny Bond and Brick Break.

Another Poke that got into my team because it's underused and a favorite. I'll try your set for sure.

Poison Gas is just bad. Either give it Brick Break to help with coverage or, even better, use Minimize and become invincible.

Haha, Minimize too cheap in my book even in Reborn, but I'll consider Brick Break, thx.

For your rotation, my guide lists how to get T-bolt and Sludge Bomb onto Gengar, Mamoswine is best with EQ/Icicle Crash/Body Slam/Ice Shard, Alakazam is waaaay outclassed by Trick Room Reuniclus (since it's "faster", immeassurably bulkier and has unnoticeable weaker attack), Arcanine is best with Agility/Flare Blitz/Close Combat/Outrage and I'd actually advise not to use Sableye, at all, it's great for comp, but things are much different in-game.

I'll def check out your guide - it sounds awesome. Can you explain though the Sableye bit, please? Why is it bad in Reborn?

[Follow]

Mamoswine is a pretty solid option to replace Jynx, since you don't have a ground type, and I can see one in your breeding list so...

Edited March 9, 2015 by Follow

[Etesian]

Wow, thanks for the long reply. I just wanna point out something before commenting that I mainly used these Pokemon 'cuz they're some of my favorites. I'm well aware that some are complete trash in battle.

Right, that's exactly my line of thought about it. Although, my main concern was that I might never be able to have the opportunity to setup. Two turns is a lot of time in Reborn and I fear that by then Kingdra will be dead and if not, will only have enough HP to KO a single Pokemon. So, I'm thinking the trade of three turns to KO one poke is prolly not worth it. I definitely however would love to test it but I've just completed EP14 and I'm not sure if there's any place to test the new set properly (the wild won't do obviously).

Can't argue with your points. I raised this one mainly 'cuz it was the only Poke I had at the time that could outspeed Charlotte's leads to setup Trick Room for Kingdra to come in and sweep. I can definitely do without Jynx and replace her with an Ice type as I heard somewhere I'm gonna need one for the next episode.

Haha no it doesn't. Sylveon is also one of the newcomers in my team 'cuz of the next episode and also 'cuz I never used one before in-game and thought this was a good opportunity to. Your suggestions make sense, thx.

Whoa, I didn't know those TMs were obtainable. I only started playing Reborn last week, but this is good stuff, thx! I'll check it out!

Haha, my poor Luxray can't seem to catch a break anyhwere. He was a member of my DP/P team and never used him since then, and I decided to use him again a couple days ago for nostalgic reasons. I've used Magnezone too often in previous games and I'd like to try something new. Heliolisk looks interesting so I'll give him a shot. I also didn't know you could get Toxic Orb! Thanks!

Another Poke that got into my team because it's underused and a favorite. I'll try your set for sure.

Haha, Minimize too cheap in my book even in Reborn, but I'll consider Brick Break, thx.

I'll def check out your guide - it sounds awesome. Can you explain though the Sableye bit, please? Why is it bad in Reborn?

Hey, I hear you. My main team ATM consists of 8 really strong members and a Linoone. I'm intent on making it work, dammit

Kingdra is actually pretty bulky and will be even more so if you give it HP EVs. It also has only two weaknesses, both of which are very rarely seen as non-STABs, and we haven't been showered by Dragon- and Fairy-typed foes. Also, you'll be taking a lot more hits than just 2 (for Focus Energy and Agility) if you keep your Speed that low.

For good Ice types, Mamoswine is king. The best set would be EQ, Icicle Crash, Body Slam and Ice Shard. If you're looking for something tankier, Avalugg is great as long as you keep it away from special attackers, which it's completely worthless against (it can get one hit off due to Sturdy and it's attack stat is pretty good, but that's it).

Something I've found to be rather fun to use is Vanilluxe, Weak Armor and Iron Defense is a great combo, giving you +1 Speed and +1 Defense turn one when hit by a physical move. Iron Defense, Freeze-Dry, Water Pulse (new tutor added in E14.5), Hidden Power Ground/Ice Beam with Weak Armor and HP and Sp.Attack investment. FD>Ice Beam, because Water types, the only type resistant to both Ice and Water, is hit super-effectively by Freeze-Dry. For the last slot, HP Ground gives it great coverage against it's weaknesses it's STAB doesn't hit neutrally while Ice Beam is a little bit extra power, but HP is better.

They aren't available tho. Before E13, passing TM moves through breeding was possible. Smeargle deserves it's own guide because it can learn every move in the game, so it can pass any move in the game to something else via the Day-Care. Check the Smeargle guide linked in my guide: you use something that learns a TM move by level-up (such as Geodude with Earthquake) to get that onto Smeargle to then use Smeargle to pass any 4 TM-(or Egg-)moves (to something you can make a chain to, Egg Groups are a thing and all).

It really can't, haha. It's great early-game, but it's performance drops quickly. Toxic Orb and Facade do help it a lot, but not enough to justify using it unless you really like it IMO.

And yeah, Heliolisk is a beast: T-bolt, Grass Knot, Surf, HP Ice/Dark Pulse are the best moves for it. This can help you out with HP arrangement.

Cacturne would be awesome if only it was a little bit faster, but as is...it's awesome enough, keep it

Do tell if you have any questions about anything in the guide, just toss me a PM then

And what I meant about Sableye is that it's not flat-out bad, but it's a waste of a slot compared to all the other stuff you can get at this point. See, the reason it's so popular in comp is because of it's Prankster Ability making it almost always go first and because of it's expansive support move-pool, both great things to have in the dynamic and unpredictable PvP. In Reborn, not only is it's move-pool limited a lot, the game is immeasurably more predictable than comp. You can go get yourself annihilated the first time to see what the foe has, make a plan, then beat said foe easily the second time around.

IMO, in Reborn, Gourgeist does everything it does way better. The standard Sableye set is comp is like Taunt, Will-o-Wisp, Recover and Foul Play. Taunt is unnecessary because- well, how many not-attacking moves have we seen so far in Reborn? Taunt is there to stop set up and full-on stall, the former is really rare in Reborn while the latter is impossible in any game. Gourgeist also gets Will-o-Wisp. Recover is unnecessary since we have potions and what-not and Gourgeist's Leech Seed heals for about the same because of it's much superior bulk and because it heals continuously while also doing damage. And Foul Play is unnecessary since WoW and LS take 25% of the foes health each turn. If you combine that with Protect and Phantom Force, you're invulnerable 2 out of 3 turns while taking 1/4th of the foe's health per turn, and even when it does get hit, it has incredible physical defense and the foe will be burned. Btw, to get Protect and WoW, you need to breed it with a Yamask in pre-E13.

[Fredicash]

the only thing that bothers me is that most your pokemon are slow and you got any speed evs your gonna get damage all the time meaning you will always be travelling back to heal most of the times but I like your team because of cacturne and muk (yeah i like pokemon who are underused)

PS (if you beat charlotte with that team can you explain me how?) xD

[Follow]

Hey, I hear you. My main team ATM consists of 8 really strong members and a Linoone.

and a Linoone

Linoone

LINOONE

Belly drum + extremespeed mwahaha

Anyways, I prefer physical kingdram with waterfall, d dance, bounce and outrage via druddigon. I just don't think something with HP less than 100 and speed less than 90 deserves 2 set up moves, it will get hurt in the process, while with the physical set, you can just setup in one turn and proceed to sweep.

[Etesian]

the only thing that bothers me is that most your pokemon are slow and you got any speed evs your gonna get damage all the time meaning you will always be travelling back to heal most of the times but I like your team because of cacturne and muk (yeah i like pokemon who are underused)

PS (if you beat charlotte with that team can you explain me how?) xD

A lot of the stuff on his team is very bulky, so he's perfectly fine. There's also absolutely no point in running Speed EVs on stuff like Muk, like that would do anything

Belly drum + extremespeed mwahaha

Anyways, I prefer physical kingdram with waterfall, d dance, bounce and outrage via druddigon. I just don't think something with HP less than 100 and speed less than 90 deserves 2 set up moves, it will get hurt in the process, while with the physical set, you can just setup in one turn and proceed to sweep.

Yeah, right, it doesn't even get Extreme Speed I've got Belly Drum, Headbutt for flinches, Play Rough and Dig on the thing.

You definitely wouldn't be OHKOing a lot of stuff with just one DD, so if you don't want to take damage because you're not OHKOing, you'd need to keep setting up. While 2 DDs might be enough, you'd need at least the same amount of set-up time you'd need with the special set while the special set gives you more power since Sniper makes crits do x2.25 damage. Furthermore, Bounce's accuracy is atrocious on something you don't want to get hit and Outrage's confusion is really detrimental on something you don't want hit, let alone hitting itself. And it's not even that defensively-weak either.