Teambuilding Advice Before Agate

[Ecsentret]

Okay, I'm right before the point of no return and I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for Pokemon to breed for my rotating team before I'm unable to come back for the rest of the episode, especially Pokemon that are useful against the next gym leaders? I feel like I need more special attackers. Thanks in advance for the help!

Somewhat related: I'd really love to set up a Trick Room team before next episode, too, so I'm sure Reuniclus would be great for that. If you have any other suggestions specifically for Trick Room, please let me know!

Note: please assume the Pokemon have the best possible IVs, I'm about to rebreed everything and these are my plans based on what I already had in my team. The team should all be around level 60 when I actually enter Agate City. Here's a list of my team members at the moment.

Physical Attackers/Tanks:

Blaziken

Adamant, Speed Boost

4 HP/252 Attack/252 Speed

-Blaze Kick

-Sky Uppercut

-Brave Bird

-Bulk Up? Slash?

Excadrill

Adamant, Mold Breaker

4 HP/252 Attack/252 Speed

-Earthquake

-Rock Slide

-Metal Claw

-Swords Dance

Malamar

Adamant, Contrary

252 HP/252 Attack/4 Speed

-Superpower

-Night Slash

-Psycho Cut

-Topsy-Turvy (not sure about this)

Drapion

Impish, Battle Armor

252 HP/100 Attack/158 Defense

-Knock Off

-Thunder Fang

-Acupressure

-Toxic Spikes

Gourgeist

Impish, Insomnia

252 HP/4 Attack/252 Defense

-Phantom Force

-Seed Bomb or Protect

-Leech Seed

-Will o Wisp

(I'm tempted to breed Protect onto this since I'd have to do E12 breeding anyway, but I thought the extra coverage with Seed Bomb might be more useful since I don't have another Grass type in my rotation yet. Thoughts?)

Special Attackers/Tanks

Dragalge

Modest, Adaptability

252 HP/252 Sp Attack/4 Sp Def

-Sludge Wave

-Dragon Pulse

-Hydro Pump

-Double Team (not sure about this)

Magnezone

Modest, Analytic

164 HP/252 Special Attack/92 Speed

-Thunder Wave

-Discharge

-Flash Cannon

-HP Fire (yes, I love to spend hours breeding)

Florges

Bold, Symbiosis

252 HP/252 Defense/4 Sp Attack

-Moonblast

-Grass Knot

-Misty Terrain

-Aromatherapy

(not sure about the last two moves, but Calm Mind isn't available right now, right?)

Gimmicky Stuff:

Murkrow

Jolly, Prankster

252 HP/4 Attack/252 Speed

-Foul Play

-Brave Bird

-Tailwind

-Perish Song

Other Pokemon in my box that I think might be useful, though I'm willing to get pretty much anything suggested to me:

Yanma (I would really love to use Yanmega, but is it possible to get Giga Drain on it yet?)

Eevee

Solosis

Scraggy

Litwick

Noibat

Nidoran

Archen

Horsea

Ralts

Tyrogue

Yamask

Edited June 20, 2016 by Ecsentret

[Shad_]

Since you have Ralts and you want more Special Attackers, then i'd suggest training it and make it a powerful Gardevoir, super useful against Samson. Noivern is also quite good for the incoming Gyms (it does well against Samson, Terra and Charlotte as well as Ciel), plus even it is a Special Attacker.

Also yeah you could use TR with Reuniclus combined with Chandelure (evolve Litwick), Dragalge and Scrafty (evolve Scraggy). Plus once you're inside the circus make sure you catch a Ryhorn and make it a Rypheryor (so bring a Protector and a Link Stone with you), that thing combined with Noivern sweeps Charlotte if used in a TR Team.

[Timber Dragon]

I recommend an Eelektross or Ampharos if you need any backup Electric-types (for Eelektross, you'd need a Thunder Stone if you don't have one). And this is just me but I evolved my Eevee into Sylveon to get some Fairy-types going in there.

... honestly I have Ciel in mind when I'm giving out these suggestions.

[Jiggle]

Take with grain of salt~

Blaziken

Flare Blitz

High Jump Kick

Earthquake/Rock Slide/Stone Edge

Bulk Up/Swords Dance

Drop Blaze Kick for Flare Blitz. Stronger move, better accuracy

Drop Sky Uppercut for High Jump Kick. Stronger move,

Drop Brave Bird. Niche move useful for only weird type combos and bulky fighters. Use Earthquake/Rock Slide/Stone Edge for better type coverage.

Last move, do whatever. Bulk Up if you care about defense, Swords Dance for more oomph. Or you can add in another attacking move for more coverage.

Excadrill

Fine as is. Wish we could teach it Iron Head, though.

Malamar

Don't know much about Malamar. Looks like a defensive typing to me, but I'm too lazy to think up a moveset

Drapion

I see what you're trying to do with him, but I don't like it. Pick one, either

physical sweeper

adamant/jolly

6hp/252atk/252speed

swords dance

knock off

earthquake/[elemental fangs]/dunno if skorupi can learn aqua tail here

poison jab

or entry hazard tank

careful

252hp/4def/252sdef

Whirlwind

Toxic Spikes

Taunt/Rest

Knockoff/Sleep Talk/Fill

Gourgeist

Don't know much about Gourgeist.

Dragalge

Sludge Wave

Dragon Pulse

Scald

Fill

Scald for Hydro Pump to fish for Burns and better accuracy, I guess.

Fill for whatever. A lot of people use Toxic Spikes.

Magnezone

Not sure what you want to do here. You have Discharge AND Thunder Wave. Pick one. If you want to keep Thunder Wave, swap Discharge with Thunderbolt.

HP for whatever. Common ones are Fire/Ground/Ice

Florges

You have Misty Terrain and Aromatherapy. Stick with Aroma and swap Misty with Synthesis.

If you want a partial support Florges, try

Wish

Moonblast

Aromatherapy

(unsure about calm mind as well) If you can get calm mind, go for it. Otherwise, Synthesis

I see you have Ralts and Eevee. You can probably breed and level up Gardevoir and Jolteon/Espeon if you want more special attackers.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Jiggle

[Ecsentret]

Since you have Ralts and you want more Special Attackers, then i'd suggest training it and make it a powerful Gardevoir, super useful against Samson. Noivern is also quite good for the incoming Gyms (it does well against Samson, Terra and Charlotte as well as Ciel), plus even it is a Special Attacker.

Also yeah you could use TR with Reuniclus combined with Chandelure (evolve Litwick), Dragalge and Scrafty (evolve Scraggy). Plus once you're inside the circus make sure you catch a Ryhorn and make it a Rypheryor (so bring a Protector and a Link Stone with you), that thing combined with Noivern sweeps Charlotte if used in a TR Team.

Yeah, I think I'm definitely gonna go with Gardevoir and Noivern, plus the other slow Pokemon you mentioned. I think I have a spare Link Stone and the Protector, so I should be able to get Rhyperior. Do you think Magnezone is okay for Trick Room, or is it not slow enough?

I recommend an Eelektross or Ampharos if you need any backup Electric-types (for Eelektross, you'd need a Thunder Stone if you don't have one). And this is just me but I evolved my Eevee into Sylveon to get some Fairy-types going in there.

... honestly I have Ciel in mind when I'm giving out these suggestions.

I completely forgot about Mareep as an option, so I'll definitely consider Ampharos. Since I reset a bunch for a female Eevee, I might do Jolteon as well as Sylveon but I'm not sure? I dunno if Jolteon or Ampharos would be more useful for Ciel, especially.

Take with grain of salt~

Clipping the quote for length, but here's my responses -

Blaziken: no worries, I'm definitely planning on replacing Blaze Kick and Sky Uppercut with Flare Blitz and HJK asap, it's just I know my Blaziken doesn't have either of them yet at level 60 so I didn't list them. Unfortunately I don't think any of those TMs are available yet so I'll probably keep Brave Bird as a last resort, and either Swords Dance or Bulk Up.

Malamar: generally Malamar's greatest strength is Contrary switching the stat boosts on Superpower to increase Attack and Defense, and then sweeping from there with its STAB moves. I'm mostly just not sure what the fourth slot should be, since it doesn't have much other level-up coverage.

Drapion: yeah, I think I might switch to the entry hazards set instead since the Thunder Fang stuff was mostly because I didn't start working on Magnezone until recently. I'm not a big fan of Rest for in-game stuff since I have a huge amount of Moomoo Milk/other healing items, so I might use Acupressure over that (mostly because I love the chance to get evasion, honestly, but I know it's hit-or-miss) or Taunt as suggested.

Dragalge: I don't think Scald is available as of E15, though I do plan on replacing Hydro Pump with Surf at the very least as soon as I get it. I might go for Toxic Spikes in the last slot, though.

Magnezone: I thought having Thunder Wave with Discharge might be useful when I need a guaranteed paralysis, but yeah, I should probably replace it, maybe with Mirror Coat for the niche usage?

Florges: I think I will go with Wish or Synthesis over Grass Knot, and I checked just now - Calm Mind isn't out in E15 and because I didn't think to go back to an earlier episode for the Radomus battle, I don't have the TM. I do like having Misty Terrain as an option to get rid of some of the weirder terrain effects and I don't see the point in having multiple healing moves, so I guess I'll keep that as a last slot filler?

Thank you so much for your input, everyone, btw! I really appreciate it a lot. c:

Edited June 21, 2016 by Ecsentret

[Imperial]

Flare Blitz and High Jump Kick are not TM, they are moves Blaziken learns lvl 1, so you can reteach them using a heartscale.

And if I were you I would keep Topsy-Turvy on Malamar. If I remember correctly, it's the only move able to create one of the new E16 field effects. A field that change battles into inverse battles, so great to completely destroy a leader's strategy.

[Ecsentret]

Flare Blitz and High Jump Kick are not TM, they are moves Blaziken learns lvl 1, so you can reteach them using a heartscale.

And if I were you I would keep Topsy-Turvy on Malamar. If I remember correctly, it's the only move able to create one of the new E16 field effects. A field that change battles into inverse battles, so great to completely destroy a leader's strategy.

Oh, I know Flare Blitz and Hi Jump Kick aren't TMs for Blaziken; in the spoiler Jiggle suggested Earthquake, Rock Slide, or Stone Edge as other moves to fill out Blaziken's moveset, and that's what I was referring to. However, I did completely forget that those two are level 1 moves, so I should reteach them asap. Sorry for the confusion!

I'll definitely keep Topsy-Turvy on Malamar then. The Inverse field sounds great, especially when combined with the Amplifield Rock for E16. Thanks for your input!

[Jiggle]

I completely forgot about Mareep as an option, so I'll definitely consider Ampharos. Since I reset a bunch for a female Eevee, I might do Jolteon as well as Sylveon but I'm not sure? I dunno if Jolteon or Ampharos would be more useful for Ciel, especially.

Ampharos can learn Power Gem and is bulkier than Jolteon.

But...I, personally, lean towards Jolteon because Ampharos is so slow. But if you can make Ampharos work, more power to you. HP Ice Jolteon can do some serous work on Ciel.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Jiggle

[Shpee]

Your Blaziken set would be better with Hi Jump Kick and Flare Blitz, but you can switch flare blitz for fire punch if you want reliable damage without recoil. Also, I don't really like Brave Bird with Blaziken, so I would recommend shadow claw to hit ghost and psychic types.

I personally haven't used Gourgeist, but protect makes you take damage every 3 turns with phantom force and protect, which is very neat, and with Leech Seed going on, even better, but Will o Wisp makes checks physical attackers.

I believe your Magnezone set is very good as I don't believe we have access to the Thunderbolt TM atm, however, if you don't want to use T-wave, you can substitute it with Metal Sound/Screech so you can hit your opponent really hard specially/physically, Electric Terrain to change the field to your advantage, or Magnet Rise to counter ground type attacks.

Your Florges set is fine, but maybe have Wish instead of Misty Terrain/Aromatherapy for recovery and relearn Petal Blizzard instead of Grass Knot.

I see you have an Archen, so I would recommend you to train that into a powerful Staraptor Archeops, but chain-breed Earthquake with Corsola-Wooper-Archen for extra coverage as it destroys Ciel with Acrobatics.