Grass Mono Team evaluation

[Mimmu]

Hey guys,

I'm now quite far into this mono run (I'm about to battle Arceus) and I want to change up my Team.
Here they are:

Torterra Lv. 56
Overgrow
Adamant
20/28/25/16/23/6
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer
- Crunch
- Curse

Roserade Lv. 52
Technician
Timid
30/0/27/31/24/30
- Giga Drain
- Shadow Ball
- HP Rock
- Toxic Spikes

Cacturne Lv. 51
Storm Drain
Mild
2/27/22/25/12/22
- Sucker Punch
- Energy Ball
- Leech Seed
- Spiky Shield

Gourgeist Lv. 52
Pickup
Adamant
15/28/26/19/14/2
- Phantom Force
- Seed Bomb
- Confuse Ray
- Leech Seed

Ludicolo Lv. 53
Swift Swim
Modest
15/0/19/19/26/27
- Giga Drain
- Bubble Beam
- Rain Dance
- Leech Seed

Cradily Lv. 53
Storm Drain
Modest
27/16/30/28/30/13
- Giga Drain
- Ancient Power
- Brine
- Confuse Ray

Spares:
Exeggutor & Parasect

So I am actually thinking about putting Gogoat, Meganium, Bellossom/Vileplume and after beating Rhadomus Brigaron into my team. Of course I don't intend to put all of them in, but .. It's going on well actually .. I'm just not happy with this team.

So the question is which of these pokemon are worth training and putting into my team? And well.. just put your suggestions and ideas here :3

♥ Mimmu

Edited May 25, 2015 by Mimmu

[Tomy]

I would say Meganium could replace Cacturne,for better stats.

[BIGJRA]

All I can really suggest is replacing Cacturne with Gogoat, it'll be a better physical sweeper down the road.

(don't forget to put a '/' in the second tag for gourgeist)

[Mimmu]

All I can really suggest is replacing Cacturne with Gogoat, it'll be a better physical sweeper down the road.

(don't forget to put a '/' in the second tag for gourgeist)

( ty, missed that one )

I'd rather replace cacturne with gogoat than meganium. That Sucker Punch saved me more than once and Gogoat will be awesome to set up Bulk ups with since its really bulky.

Meganium would be defensive, I guess .. Screens, bodyslam, petal blizzard.. but I can't see sacrificing cacturne for this

[Darvan Korematsu]

Team looks ok-ish so far. I would say, although idk if it's available is investing in a Rotom-Mow because Samson's upcoming Hawlucha will destroy your entire team pretty much. It is your out to Flying types in the very least. I would recommend throwing Iin Amoonguss because it's bulky and Spore is amazing. Same goes to Breloom when E15 comes out, assuming you can get it.

[Mimmu]

Yeah Breloom would've been fantastic for this run <~< But spore isn't that good in reborn as they tend to wake up after the first round.. Rotom-Mow won't be available before Samson since you need the Computer in ametrine to change rotoms form..
But it isn't Flying types I'm actually worried about. Ferns Ferrothorn was a huge pain.

[pyrromanis]

Chesnaught is also an option for physical attacker since it can get both bulk up and belly drum for set up and also has some really good defensive moves.
Leafeon and Leavanny swords dance sets should also be mentioned but are not that good with the limited tms we have access . Although leavanny gets sticky web which can be extemely helpful!
Own tempo Liligant is a mosnter with quicer dance/petal dance/hp rock or fire for ferro/sleep powder or giga drain

[Etesian]

I'd say give Torterra Body Slam instead of Crunch, the base power is higher and the high para chance can help you out since even your fastest isn't all that fast. YOu lose the coverage of Crunch, but it's had useless coverage ever since we beat Radomus.

Your team consists of hard hitters and a Gourgeist, so there's no point in having Toxic Spikes. The Toxic damage would do next to nothing compared to the hits of your team. Extrasensory would be a good replacement. Shadow Ball has the same useless coverage Crunch does, so I'd recommend going back to pre-E13 to get an actual second STAB, Sludge Bomb. My guide in this section lists the chain for SB and Extrasensory if you need it, as well as CE stuff that'll let you finish the chain in 3 minutes.

Spiky Shield is a waste of time, it does negligible damage. Instead, I'd say get Destiny Bond, Swords Dance or Nasty Plot. Actually, I think a purely physical set would work out better than this. It's slow and not terribly bulky, but if it gets the chance to set up an SD, you can likely sweep with Sucker Punch. SD, Destiny Bond, STABs is what I'd go for, with Destiny Bond for encounters like the Arceus or PULSEs.

It can sweep if it can set up 1-2 SDs and has Destiny Bond, but it's borderline useless if the foes has any SE hit, which is very likely considering how many weaknesses it has. I don't know about keeping this one, it's up to you.

A much more efficient set, one that even soloed both Garchomp and PULSE Avalugg, would be Protect, Will-o (<<both from pre-E13), Leech Seed and Shadow Force. Protect and SF leave you invulnerable every 2 out of 3 turns while LS and WoW remove 25% of the foes health while you're gone. You basically make the foes pay 75% of their health to finally hit you once for a physical hit that won't do a thing.

Going back to pre-E13 gets you Scald instead of Bubblebeam, as well as Ice Beam. Or, since your team isn't the fastest in the world, you should maybe use the Icy Wind tutor on 7th Street instead of Ice Beam. I also don't think you need Leech Seed.

IMO, Confuse Ray is a waste of a moveslot. You can use Stockpile instead to buff your defenses by a ton. And instead of Brine, I'd say use Wrong Out. On a full health foe, it's even stronger than STAB Giga Drain.

Keep that Exeggutor and make sure it gets Trick Room later and make sure you have a Focus Sash, it's invaluable against Charlotte. Never use Parasect though, it sucks.

For other Pokemon to consider, Gogoat is good, but it adds nothing new, it's like your Torterra, it just has a bit more HP at the cost of a lot of Defense, making setting up a lot tougher initially.

Meganium shouldn't be bothered with. It's a screener and will never be anything else, sadly.

Lilligant was invaluable on my Mono Grass. QD, Petal Dance, Sleep Powder and HP Rock are the way to go.

Don't bother with Chesnaught, as a slow set-up sweeper, it's outclassed by Gogoat/Torterra; as a physical wall, it's outclassed by Gourgeist.

Leavanny is great in general, but I think your team really would appreciate the Sticky Web support it would provide.

Leafon is also something that can work, especially since it actually has a new move with Iron Tail since that new tutor exists.

That's about all I've got, unless you may be interested in reworking your team into a sun team.

[Mimmu]

Hmm I like your ideas especially with SB, I didn't know I'd be able to get a useful poison move for this team o.o

Cacturne is mixed just because i wasn't able to change the nature yet and energy ball is stronger than needle arm.
So i was going to get seed bomb and change this thing to a physical one anyway...

I was going to get icy wind and surf for this ludicolo but til then I'd have to go with either hydro pump or bubble beam and
since it somehow didn't learn hydro pump there's bubble beam.

thanks for the help, I might consider switching cradily for exeggutor after radomus.. I won't use leavanny since I just really don't like it..
Lilligant I've used in another playthrough and it wasn't that amazing.. I wanted to be in the team chesnaught because of its typing. fighting types would be nice
especially since I'm about to fight Luna.

[Etesian]

Fair enough, though I'd say keep Cradily for now. It's Rock typing is great to have and, if you're not doing any sun shenanigans, Exeggutor is not all that good. I only really used mine for Trick Room against Charlotte.

Chesnaught, like I said, is sub-par. You can try using it for Luna, but I don't think you'll need it. Torterra handles Bisharp and everyone handles Tyranitar, while Malamar, Sableye and Honchkrow aren't the best opponents for Chesnaught and I forget what her 6th was.

Considering that you'd have to train it up from an Egg to level 60-70, I don't think that's worth it unless you're really having trouble. Instead, should you feel like having a good Fighting move, Sawsbuck is actually rather good and it learns Jump Kick and Megahorn, which lets it do quite well against her. It can even use that Agate tutor to get Bounce for Samson.

[Follow]

The recovery in roserade with giga drain is kinda pointless since we have potions. Roserade has a powerful STAB move in technician magical leaf, and can also use the same ability for hp fire/rock. And I think extrasensory is not that good for rose, sleep powder and sludge bomb chain is probably better.

You'll end up with

Roserade

Timid

Some item

- Magical Leaf

- HP fire

- Sludge bomb

- sleep powder

Edited May 26, 2015 by Follow

[BIGJRA]

Actually relying on a certain hidden power in game isn't the smartest idea, but that's just me...

[Etesian]

The recovery in roserade with giga drain is kinda pointless since we have potions. Roserade has a powerful STAB move in technician magical leaf, and can also use the same ability for hp fire/rock. And I think extrasensory is not that good for rose, sleep powder and sludge bomb chain is probably better.

You'll end up with

Roserade

Timid

Some item

- Magical Leaf

- HP fire

- Sludge bomb

- sleep powder

I actually forgot about ML, nice catch. Although HP Rock is better than Fire IMO. Rock covers 4/5 types Grass is weak to, while Fire's only advantage would against Steel types, which are much less problematic than Ice or Fire.

Actually relying on a certain hidden power in game isn't the smartest idea, but that's just me...

Why not? It's a great move in general for stuff that has no other way to cover a certain weakness, especially for Grass since Rock covers almost everything, and Technician even makes it have 90BP.

[Jacobliterator]

Impressive setup, but I'd like to recommend a Tangrowth. A very impressive physical brute.

[Etesian]

Impressive setup, but I'd like to recommend a Tangrowth. A very impressive physical brute.

Tangrowth gets only 2 usable non-Grass moves and it's special defense is nothing. It's jealous of even Leafeon coverage-wise, which has a bit less physical bulk, but a noticable bit more power and SD.

[Mimmu]

tbh giga drain saved me a lot of times and i like the recovery that comes with it. Would I put sleep powder on roserade ML would definitely make more sense though.

Ye, tangrowth is not that useful here, Leafeon though will be quite nice with SD.

But there's something else I'd like to ask (might be the wrong place, but since u mentioned it..) : I put destiny bond on cacturne to beat arceus but it didn't work (It missed Focus Blast, I used destiny Bond, he killed me, didn't faint afterwards) so is this a 14.1 specific thing?

[Etesian]

tbh giga drain saved me a lot of times and i like the recovery that comes with it. Would I put sleep powder on roserade ML would definitely make more sense though.

Ye, tangrowth is not that useful here, Leafeon though will be quite nice with SD.

But there's something else I'd like to ask (might be the wrong place, but since u mentioned it..) : I put destiny bond on cacturne to beat arceus but it didn't work (It missed Focus Blast, I used destiny Bond, he killed me, didn't faint afterwards) so is this a 14.1 specific thing?

Ah, it is, in all iterations of E14 I believe. I think it's been fixed for E15.

Since DB is still broken for now, I think your best bet for beating it would be to either have something set up sunlight and bring an army of Chlorophyll Jump Kick Sawsbuck ir use Exeggutor to set up Trick Room and bring an army of regular Sawsbuck. Can''t think of much else.

[Mimmu]

nah i still beat it but I was kinda disappointed nothing happened.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Mimmu