Need some opinions on my Team

[Rayschrantz]

I wanted to showcase my team to get some opinions on the stats I choose. I'm not 100% on all of them so I would really love some other opinions on what I could do better to help me make final decisions.

Right now I'm working on getting a modest Magnemite that has an ice type hidden power, then I'm going to EV train it. I don't exactly know if the EV's I have below is good or not though.

I'm also having trouble deciding whether I want drain punch or high jump kick on my Scrafty since in another post, people told me to go with drain punch because it heals and doesn't have recoil if it misses. But also in that post someone pointed out to me that I should either go for max damage or bulky, which if I went bulky they said I should switch dragon dance for bulk up. I think I've decided that I'm going for max damage, but I'm still unsure of which is better.

The rest of my team I'm pretty sure about, but I just realized that most of my team are sweeper sets except for my Gogoat. So should I change one of them to add some more bulk to my team, or is this good. If I did change one of them to bulky it would be Scrafty.

Now here's my team, and at the bottom I just added in the breeding chains I have to go through to learn some of the moves that I want.

Charizard (Blaze) (Adamant) (252 Att/252 Sp/4 Hp)

-Flare Blitz

-Fly/Dragon Claw

-Rock Slide

-Dragon Dance

Gardivoir (Telepathy/Synchronize) (Modest) (252 SpAtt/252 Sp/4 SpDef)

-Psychic

-MoonBlast

-Thunderbolt

-Calm Mind

Scrafty (Moxie) (Adamant) (252 Att/252 Sp/4 Hp)

-Drain Punch/High Jump Kick

-Crunch

-Ice Punch

-Dragon Dance

Magnezone (Sturdy) (Modest) (252 SpAtt/(252 Hp/SpDef)/(4 SpDef/Hp))

-Discharge

-Flash Cannon

-Hidden Power (Ice)/Barrier

-Thunder Wave

GoGoat (Grass Pelt) (Impish) (252 Hp/252 Def/4 Att)

-Horn Leach/Leaf Blade

-Earthquake

-Rock Slide/Brick Break

-Bulk Up

Dragalge (Adaptability) (Modest/Clam) (252 SpDef/252 SpAtt/4 Hp)

-Sludge Wave/Sludge Bomb

-Dragon Pulse

-Scald/Surf

-Toxic Spikes

Dragon Dance- Altaria> Charizard/Scrafty

Thunderbolt- Eelektic> Gardevoir

Scald- Panpour> Wooper> Skrelp

Ice Punch- Meditite> Mienfoo> Scrafty

Drain Punch- Mienfoo> Scrafty

Rock Slide- Camerupt> Charizard/Gogoat

Edited July 12, 2015 by Rayschrantz

[foovy10]

Your team and ivs and stuff look good to me but i believe you should have like 2-3 pokemon in rotation atleast. Also for scrafty get a wide lens and go for HJK imo.

[Etesian]

Oh sweet mother of baby Buddha, FRESH MEAT A TEAM TO WORK ON! How's long's it been since something for me to work on popped up?!

Anyyyyways!

-Go with Fly. Dragon Claw isn't even a STAB move. Also, both Rock Slide and Dragon Claw on the same Charizard is impossible since nothing that passes DD to Charizard learns Rock Slide. I guess your 4th move can then be Dragon or Shadow Claw.

-I still believe Gothitelle is the much better Calm Mind-er, but oh well. That works, but if you want it to actually stay in once you've set up, give it Shadow Ball instead of Thunderbolt.

-HJK can miss, but just give it a Wide Lens and the chance of that will be reduced to 1%. The power is also much more necessary, better to just set up one turn and kill in the next, than to take the damage of 3 turns of faffing about. You also won't need recovery once Moxie gets you to the point of OHKOing everything.

-I guess. Magnezone is stupidly limited in what it can run, anything works on that thing.

-Definitely make it Sap Sipper. Also make it's moves Horn Leech for the good recovery at the cost of very little power and Rock Slide for actually relevant coverage on things that completely destroy you otherwise; birds. And move it's EVs to Sp.Def cause it's so slow. Bulk Up boosts your defense high enough anyway, so give your Sp.Def any boost you can.

-You're completely wasting time with Toxic Spikes. Why bother with a hazard that chips away at the foe's health if you have 6 hard hitter? Give it T-bolt.

...well, that wasn't a lot, so much for my hype. Also, you really might wanna check the guide in this section, that's not how TM-breeding works. It also lists a chain for T-bolt and Scald on Dragalge.

[Rayschrantz]

The second moves on each pokemon are alternative moves in the case where I can't learn that first move yet. For example, since Charizard can't learn fly right away, I wrote dragon claw as an alternative while I'm waiting for fly. Surf is an alternative because I need surf, but if I didn't need surf I'd use scald.

I agree with you about changing Gogoat's EVs, but grass pelt makes it tank, I used it in my first run, and in the case where sapper would be useful, they're most likely not going to use non grass moves.

I do have Gyarados in rotation, but he's not EV trained and doesn't have a good nature. I'll probably add Krookodile into the mix and one more; either Staraptor, Galvantula, Rotom, Gengar, or Cofagrigus. I'm thinking a ghost type would be the best choice, but I don't know which I should pick. If I do end up rotating later in the game I may breed a Gyarados with a better nature and EV train it, same with the other two.

I've decided to go with High Jump Kick since the wide lens will lower the risk of missing.

I see what your saying about toxic spikes, but its helped me heal through some tough battles. It is true that it's not that useful cause I only use it in boss, gym, or rival battles, so there are some trade offs. I think I'll try thunderbolt and see how it goes. I switched Wooper with Stunfisk to shorten the breeding chain.

I can breed Camerupt with Charizard to learn rock slide, I've already got it in my PC, but I'm still waiting on finding a Swablu, which I can't get until Aventurine Woods. I don't need a single pokemon to know both moves, I can just breed twice.

Quick question though, is it "Aventurine Woods" or "Adventurine Woods" and where is it on my map. People keep making references to both of these and it's been confusing the hell out of me cause I can't find it on the map and I don't remember it from my first run.

Also, which EV should I train on Magnezone, Hp or SpDef?

Thanks for the help and I appreciate the enthusiasm Etesian.

[Etesian]

Oh, gotcha. Still, you may want to get a HM slave, not like you can relearn Scald at any point (not for free anyways). Grab a Bibarel, they learn all field moves except for Flash and Fly.

Well, keep in mind that only 2 Field effects activate that thing, the Grassy and Foresty one, which we only saw on and around Route 1 and Jasper/Beryl, where no important fights happened in which the defense boost would've helped.

I really don't think you need a rotation. I only ever had more than 6 members once and that was 8 just because I couldn't decide which 6 I liked most. If your main 6 are doing their job, stick with them. If you need some 7th to help, it'd be better to get the best possible something for that specific situation and use it only for that, cause your main 6 are good enough.

Well, Rotom really isn't that good since it's mostly used as a wall in comp, because that's what it does best. And it doesn't get it's favorite toys in-game, so it's really not that great. If you really want to use it, it's best option is a bulky Charge Beaming set, but I really wouldn't expect too much from that.

Well, you can with Gengar, but it's obviously veeeery frail. While Gengar could hit hard once and die the same turn if it doesn't OHKO, Cofagrigus could take way more hits and it's still got 95 Special Attack, that's nothing to scoff at. There's also the fact that a lot of your team members really aren't that fast, so a Trick Room setter would be very helpful. I'd go with Cofagrigus, make it Max HP, Nasty Plot, Shadow Ball and HP Fighting and watch it sweep.

Another option for the ultimate physical wall is Gourgeist, but it doesn't really fit into your team, so I'd still go Cofagrigus (still don't think you need a rotation, just swap Gardevoir for Cof).

Unless you're facing some wall, slowly chipping away at the foe's health percentage-wise isn't that useful at all. And even then, if it's a wall, it really can't do much to stop you from setting up in front of it and just overpowering it.

Yes you do. See, Egg Moves are passed on by both parents in E13 and onward, so DD is no problem, but Rock Slide is a TM, which can only be bred in E12 or prior, when only the father passes on moves, so you can't breed a Charmander with DD and a Charmander with Rock Slide for one that has both. Your only options are going through the pain of mining up a Helix fossil, then doing a series of side-quests to get Tyrunt, breeding DD onto that and getting it to be a level 68 Tyrantrum, then breeding that with a female Charmander/meleon/izard.

The best answer I can give you is "just keep playing" it's an area you have to go through, the earliest you'll get to it is when the plot needs you to, which is after your ninth badge.

Go with HP, it's not supposed to defend against a specific side of the spectrum. Also, the difference between only one defense or health is next to nothing. An Abomasnow with EQ does against a Max HP/0 Def Magnezone does up to 96.5% while a 0 HP/Max Def one takes up to 95.3%. The exception being stuff like Dragalge, which won't take physical hits well no matter what, so you might as well go with max Sp.Def, and things that boost one side of the spectrum, like your Gogoat.

No prob :]

[Another Felix]

What does the Clam nature do? Increase defense?

[Noir]

It's Calm, not Clam. It increases Special Defense but reduces Attack.

[Rayschrantz]

I did not know that only the male can pass on moves in episode 12, I thought the breeding mechanics were the same as in Black and White where the female can pass on any egg or tm moves it learns. I used to breed stuff with multiple egg moves all the time that way. Are you absolutely sure the mechanics aren't the same?

If they are different. I could breed a Charizard with earthquake instead of rock slide, which will actually cover two weaknesses. The breed chain is rather long though, It's Wooper> Arbok> Altaria> Charizard. I'm still working on getting a modest Magnemite with HP Ice; there's literally a 4% chance that it will be modest and a 5% that that modest one will have an ice type HP. Overall I only have a 0.22% chance of finding the one I want, and that's not even including the ability, but I have ability capsules so it doesn't matter. Quick question though, is there a move tutor that can teach my Scrafty HP Ice?

[Etesian]

I think you're getting something wrong here. Until Gen 6, it was always so that the father passes on Egg and TM moves while the female is what the Egg's species depends on. Since Gen 6, TM moves can't be passed on at all, but both parents pass on Egg moves (and the female retains it's old role of species-setting). I'd advise reading that guide that's pinned here in detail.

And yes, absolutely sure.

Not possible, Swablu doesn't learn EQ, so Altaria has no way of getting EQ. For the Magnemite, Everstones and the Nature Changer in 7th Street exist, so don't concern yourself with it's nature. And for the right IVs, get the Power Items from the 4th floor of the Department Store.

Also:

Quick question though, is there a move tutor that can teach my Scrafty HP Ice?

que. Whatever you mean for Scrafty, of all the moves it can get via tutors, only an Iron Tail tutor exists.

[Rayschrantz]

Whatever you mean for Scrafty, of all the moves it can get via tutors, only an Iron Tail tutor exists.

So is there a way Scrafty can learn Ice Punch and Dragon Dance? And I guess I'll just teach it Ariel Ace, Crunch, or Brick Break then-_-

For the Magnemite, Everstones and the Nature Changer in 7th Street exist, so don't concern yourself with it's nature. And for the right IVs, get the Power Items from the 4th floor of the Department Store.

How do I use those items to make it's Hidden Power become ice type?

[Simon]

Yea you can get both of those moves on Scraggy. You just have to make sure you one knows Ice Punch while the other knows Dragon Dance to pass down the moves together.

Scraggy Egg Moves <- Use that to assist with the breeding, but if you have any other questions, do ask.

And about the Power Items, you're using it pass down certain IVs that you intended to. For example, if I give a mon a Power Bracer, the Attack IV of that mon will be passed down. In order to get HP Ice, you need to have a certain set of IVs to get it, thus you should use the Power Items as well as the Destiny Knot.

[Drymus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Power items alter EVs, not Ivs. I'm pretty sure IVs can't be altered after the pokemon is generated (hatched, caught, received, etc). The type of Hidden Power is entirely dependent on the IVs. So basically, you can't change the Hidden Power of your pokemon without soft-resetting.

EDIT: Nvm didn't realize power items did that. Gonna change the way I breed from now on...

Double EDIT:

http://3dspedia.com/iv-spreads-hidden-power-types-pokemon-xy/

This site tells you what IVs will yield which types. Hope this helps!

Edited July 16, 2015 by Drymus

[Etesian]

Simon's got it right.

But to be more specific about Scrafty, read the guide both DD and Ice Punch are Egg Moves, so you can do what you thought you could do with Charizard. But seriously, read.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Power items alter EVs, not Ivs. I'm pretty sure IVs can't be altered after the pokemon is generated (hatched, caught, received, etc). The type of Hidden Power is entirely dependent on the IVs. So basically, you can't change the Hidden Power of your pokemon without soft-resetting.

Power Items make you earn more EVs with a Pokemon that holds 'em and they make a Pokemon that holds one in the daycare pass on the IV associated to the stat that said Power Items would give you more EVs for.

[Rayschrantz]

And about the Power Items, you're using it pass down certain IVs that you intended to. For example, if I give a mon a Power Bracer, the Attack IV of that mon will be passed down. In order to get HP Ice, you need to have a certain set of IVs to get it, thus you should use the Power Items as well as the Destiny Knot.

You can't breed a Magnemite cause it's genderless, so what EXACTLY do I need to do to get a Magnemite with HP ice? I have one thats modest with sturdy, but it has a poison type HP. It's IV's are 31 Hp, 22 Att, 20 Def, 20 SpAtt, 14 SpDef, and 23 Sp. What items do I need and what do I need to have to make it ice type?

Edited July 16, 2015 by Rayschrantz

[Drymus]

You breed it with Ditto, the only thing that can breed with genderless pokemon.

[Etesian]

You can't breed a Magnemite cause it's genderless, so what EXACTLY do I need to do to get a Magnemite with HP ice? I have one thats modest with sturdy, but it has a poison type HP. It's IV's are 31 Hp, 22 Att, 20 Def, 20 SpAtt, 14 SpDef, and 23 Sp. What items do I need and what do I need to have to make it ice type?

Riiiiiiight, I forgot that thing is genderless. Anyways, I'll say it again, there's a nature changer, so don't bother with that. Even if you get an Adamant one, just take it and you can change it at 7th Street. Abilities are the same, you can buy them at 7th and there's random ones here and there all over the place. Also, IVs really don't matter much, the difference between perfect and average is just 15 points at level 100, so just throw a Ditto and a Magnemite in there and settle for anything that actually is Ice.

And check my guide for CE stuff to greatly speed up this whole thing. Even without Power Items, it only took me like 15 minutes to get an HP Rock

[Rayschrantz]

Oh is see what you're saying, just keep breeding until it's ice. I never really cared about the IVs as long as I got ice type, but that should work way better since I just bought an everstone and caught one that's already modest. I even have ability capsules so I can change it once I find one with ice type HP. I'm not at 7th street yet anyways so I couldn't do that if I wanted to.

[MetrololAce]

Ya as has been said a lot here, this game is best played with a versatile team in mine.
I admire people who built hyper competitive teams that can take on any challenge and expect victory, but I personally love the mix and matching that a game of this difficulty can allow.

[nsbwinner2]

The movesets look pretty good. As for Scrafty, personally I would recommend the Dragon Dance set with High Jump Kick rather than the Drain Punch/Bulk Up set, only because sweepers tend to work better in Reborn. Also, Scrafty has enough bulk as is to take a few hits while Dragon Dance stacking.

Gardevoir looks good as is, Synchronize is better than Telepathy if you ask me, because Telepathy is only useful in double battles whereas Synchronize works in singles and doubles.

For Charizard, I would recommend Dragon Claw over Fly, because it simply does more damage. Also when megas actually come out, Mega Charizard X with Dragon Claw is a lot to deal with.

For Magnezone, I would say Thunderbolt instead of Discharge, possibly also Magnet Rise in place of one of the moves (HP Ice/Barrier or Thunder Wave) to avoid Ground types.

For Gogoat, Horn Leech over Leaf Blade anyday, there's only a 15 difference in power and Horn Leech heals you. Along with Bulk Up it would work nicely. I would prefer Rock Slide to Brick Break because fire types tend to be more common in Reborn than ice types.

For Dragalge, Sludge Wave is better than Sludge Bomb, due to the power being 5 higher, same accuracy, and not much lower poison chance. Also, Scald is better than Surf, as it only has 10 lower power than Surf and the fabulous 30% burn chance which can patch up Dragalge's low defense.

Edited July 16, 2015 by nsbwinner2

[Etesian]

The movesets look pretty good. As for Scrafty, personally I would recommend the Dragon Dance set with High Jump Kick rather than the Drain Punch/Bulk Up set, only because sweepers tend to work better in Reborn. Also, Scrafty has enough bulk as is to take a few hits while Dragon Dance stacking.

Gardevoir looks good as is, Synchronize is better than Telepathy if you ask me, because Telepathy is only useful in double battles whereas Synchronize works in singles and doubles.

For Charizard, I would recommend Dragon Claw over Fly, because it simply does more damage. Also when megas actually come out, Mega Charizard X with Dragon Claw is a lot to deal with.

For Magnezone, I would say Thunderbolt instead of Discharge, possibly also Magnet Rise in place of one of the moves (HP Ice/Barrier or Thunder Wave) to avoid Ground types.

For Gogoat, Horn Leech over Leaf Blade anyday, there's only a 15 difference in power and Horn Leech heals you. Along with Bulk Up it would work nicely. I would prefer Rock Slide to Brick Break because fire types tend to be more common in Reborn than ice types.

For Dragalge, Sludge Wave is better than Sludge Bomb, due to the power being 5 higher, same accuracy, and not much lower poison chance. Also, Scald is better than Surf, as it only has 10 lower power than Surf and the fabulous 30% burn chance which can patch up Dragalge's low defense.

Um, a lot of that has already been said an decided on, but anyways:

-Already addressed.

-With how frequent double battles are Telepathy is more useful, especially because of how rare status moves are. As far as I remember, there'S been no important foe that's used Will-o-Wisp, only Luna's Umbreon used Toxic (I think) and nothing fast would be using T-Wave, so Synchronizing that would be pointless.

-There's this little thing called STAB. And even without that, Fly is 90 BP while Dragon Claw is 80 BP.

There's also no way to know when we'd get both the Mega Stone and Mega Ring. He can just Heart Scale Dragon Claw when he gets X's Mega Stone, but Fly is the superior move until then.

-T-bolt is only 10 BP more while having a great 30% para chance. Magnet Rise is also useless on something that slow, no way in hell it can outspeed a Ground type and Magnet Rise. Also no need to, we can buy Air Balloons.

-Already addressed. And Fire types are hit by Earthquake anyways, you can see the real reasoning above.

-It's only 5 pathetic BP while being 3 times as likely to poison. And already addressed.

[nsbwinner2]

Um, a lot of that has already been said an decided on, but anyways:

-Already addressed.

-With how frequent double battles are Telepathy is more useful, especially because of how rare status moves are. As far as I remember, there'S been no important foe that's used Will-o-Wisp, only Luna's Umbreon used Toxic (I think) and nothing fast would be using T-Wave, so Synchronizing that would be pointless.

-There's this little thing called STAB. And even without that, Fly is 90 BP while Dragon Claw is 80 BP.

There's also no way to know when we'd get both the Mega Stone and Mega Ring. He can just Heart Scale Dragon Claw when he gets X's Mega Stone, but Fly is the superior move until then.

-T-bolt is only 10 BP more while having a great 30% para chance. Magnet Rise is also useless on something that slow, no way in hell it can outspeed a Ground type and Magnet Rise. Also no need to, we can buy Air Balloons.

-Already addressed. And Fire types are hit by Earthquake anyways, you can see the real reasoning above.

-It's only 5 pathetic BP while being 3 times as likely to poison. And already addressed.

LOL thanks (though I feel you went a bit overboard). I should probably pay attention to previous discussions before posting

[Etesian]

LOL thanks (though I feel you went a bit overboard). I should probably pay attention to previous discussions before posting

Oh, um, sorry if that sounded harsh, wasn't meant to. I can be rather dense when it comes to noticing that at times, haha

[nsbwinner2]

Oh, um, sorry if that sounded harsh, wasn't meant to. I can be rather dense when it comes to noticing that at times, haha

That's OK, no problem!

[Rayschrantz]

I've been thinking of keeping Draining Kiss on my Gardevoir instead of learning Moonblast. Just one or two calm minds and I one hit almost anything and then heal fully. It allowed me to beat Kiki easily. What do you guys think?

[Etesian]

I've been thinking of keeping Draining Kiss on my Gardevoir instead of learning Moonblast. Just one or two calm minds and I one hit almost anything and then heal fully. It allowed me to beat Kiki easily. What do you guys think?

Well, looking at her Kiki's line-up, there's no Sp.Def monster there, so no wonder. Moonblast is almost twice as strong. And the health regain doesn't matter, you'd be setting up on Special attackers anyways, CM will get your Sp.Def so high, you can easily just use a potion to heal off all damage.

Then again, it's a Gardevoir, you're doomed the moment a physical attacker comes out anyways, just do what you will