Opinions on team.

[Ramiru]

So I just finished my 2nd Reborn run around a week ago, and I'm currently EV training my team in preparation for E16 and I was thinking, since I've had a fair bit of trouble with numerous gym leaders up to this point resulting in having to reset multiple times in order to win, I might need to replace one or two mons with some stronger ones to get a bit of an advantage.

And due to lack of viable moves, my Alakazam that can be seen here hasn't been receiving as much spotlight as I would've liked considering it's huge stats compared to the rest of the team, so if anyone could say any decent TM's that Alakazam can use that would also be greatly appreciated.

Her current moves: Future Sight, Reflect, Calm Mind and Psychic.

Thanks for your time and have a great day!

[Hect]

To be honest, I think you should replace Klingklang, Magcargo and Sharpedo. But that's my personal preference. I think there's better Pokémon available. I always try to find a compromise between looks and efficiency. Pokémon that I would suggest? Well, I don't know. Magcargo is pretty bad considering it has two x2 and x4 weaknesses each that are fairly common. It's BST is pretty laughable, too. But then again, there's a way to make every Pokémon work. A good, viable replacement would probably be Arcanine. You can get a Growlithe pretty much at the start of the game, but I think you already know that. If you've been lucky enough to have received a Larvesta from your Mystery Egg, definitely go for that.

Sharpedo is an awesome, hard-hitting Pokémon for mid-game, in my opinion. It's bulk, on the other hand, isn't that good. It's frail and won't withstand much punishment. If you're looking for a potential late-game sweeper that's fast, it's probably your type. But I prefer stalling, so I picked Milotic. Good replacements for Sharpedo would probably include Feraligatr, Azumarill and/or Poliwhirl, if you're looking for a physical Pokémon. I'd suggest Milotic, Vaporeon or even Quagsire if you're looking for a bulky special attacker. (If you're into that. It's personal preference, like I said.) The huge downside to Milotic is it's pretty much non-existent availability. You can get Feebas in a specific spot in Ametrine Mountain, but I guess that it'll be an useful asset for Episode 16.

Klingklang is a decent Pokémon if you're looking at the stats, don't get me wrong. But judging from the movepool and it's late evolution (Lv. 49!), it's bound to be dead weight until you obtain better TM's and can provide it with some decent coverage. It'd be good to know it's movepool, but Gear Grind is it's best physical option that has STAB. Really? It doesn't even learn Iron Head or something. In my opinion, the best Steel type that you can get is the Magnetilo line. It has the solid Electric/Steel typing which is basically the same as Steel except for the fact that it has a x4 weakness to Ground attacks. You should also consider the fact that Electric type attacks hit many times neutral/effective, and while it may not be the best offensive typing, it's definitely way up there. The only downside is the fact that you have to wait until Lv. 50-Lv. 60 until you can evolve it. But tell you what.. I played through the game just fine using a Magneton until the end of Episode 15 and it turned out to be the MVP of my team. Oh, and it also learns Thunder Wave by level-up. If you have a spare Heart Scale, you can teach it Thunder Wave and use it on the opposing Pokémon if you're in a pinch. Even more so, when your Magnemite happens to have Sturdy. (I beat El's Ditto that way. My Magneton pretty much ripped it apart with field boosted Flash Cannon's and para-hax. Setting the stage for my Blaziken to seal the deal.)

But yeah, do yourself a favor and look at the suggestions of other people. I'm just a casual scrub.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Lagspike

[Commander]

I know you can get Shadow Ball if you go through the process of Hardcore downloading and transfering the save, but legit ways would be to sadly drop the zam. I love the Pokemon, but it's only good, not great. As for the rest of your team:

-Replace Macargo with Cyndiquil as typhlosion is leagues better as a fire type

-Replace Sharpedo with Rotom as Rotom-W is fantastic and not frail

-You can replace Zam with Reuniclus (TR user) or Jynx as while Jynx is frail, that this is fast and gets some nice status moves, but all three are good choices

-Depending on how good your Sceptile and Klinklang are, you may want to consider replacing. Klinklan should be able to help you with the fairy leader coming up, but you could replace it with...Hariyama afterwards as that's a really good hard hitting tank.

-Sceptile I never liked, but I suppose it has interesting usage with Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, X-scissor, Dual Chop, etc, but Roserade is a nuke if you need a replacement.

[Ramiru]

I know you can get Shadow Ball if you go through the process of Hardcore downloading and transfering the save, but legit ways would be to sadly drop the zam. I love the Pokemon, but it's only good, not great. As for the rest of your team:

-Replace Macargo with Cyndiquil as typhlosion is leagues better as a fire type

-Replace Sharpedo with Rotom as Rotom-W is fantastic and not frail

-You can replace Zam with Reuniclus (TR user) or Jynx as while Jynx is frail, that this is fast and gets some nice status moves, but all three are good choices

-Depending on how good your Sceptile and Klinklang are, you may want to consider replacing. Klinklan should be able to help you with the fairy leader coming up, but you could replace it with...Hariyama afterwards as that's a really good hard hitting tank.

-Sceptile I never liked, but I suppose it has interesting usage with Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, X-scissor, Dual Chop, etc, but Roserade is a nuke if you need a replacement.

It actually turns out that both Rotom and Cyndaquil had absolutely wondrous stats already so I don't need to go to the therapist or anything which is great. Though I don't actually remember where the place you change Rotom's form is at. Oh and I should ask. Do I EV train Def or Sp Def on Rotom? Since both base stats are exactly the same.

I looked at Reuniclus and while it has the potential to do a lot of damage, it's TR strategy doesn't really sit right with me considering the overall speed level of the rest of my team, and I've never actually used TR as a move on any of my teams in any games so far so I guess Zam is staying for now. I've never really liked Jynx looks-wise and it's basically a weaker version of Alakazam with slightly better moves.

Sceptile has proved to be one of the strongest members of my team with Giga Drain, Leaf Blade, X-Scissor and Nature Power to get a slight advantage on the special fields. I never really liked using either Leaf Storm or Dual Chop since Leaf Storm lowers your Sp Atk and Sceptile can't get Contrary, and Dual Chop does too little damage for me to feel comfortable with it. So I don't really feel that Sceptile needs replacing as of right now.

Just like Sceptile, Klinklang has been surprisingly good compared to what you might think, with Gear Grind on the Factory field I don't really think Klinklang needs replacing either.

To be honest, I think you should replace Klingklang, Magcargo and Sharpedo. But that's my personal preference. I think there's better Pokémon available. I always try to find a compromise between looks and efficiency. Pokémon that I would suggest? Well, I don't know. Magcargo is pretty bad considering it has two x2 and x4 weaknesses each that are fairly common. It's BST is pretty laughable, too. But then again, there's a way to make every Pokémon work. A good, viable replacement would probably be Arcanine. You can get a Growlithe pretty much at the start of the game, but I think you already know that. If you've been lucky enough to have received a Larvesta from your Mystery Egg, definitely go for that.

Sharpedo is an awesome, hard-hitting Pokémon for mid-game, in my opinion. It's bulk, on the other hand, isn't that good. It's frail and won't withstand much punishment. If you're looking for a potential late-game sweeper that's fast, it's probably your type. But I prefer stalling, so I picked Milotic. Good replacements for Sharpedo would probably include Feraligatr, Azumarill and/or Poliwhirl, if you're looking for a physical Pokémon. I'd suggest Milotic, Vaporeon or even Quagsire if you're looking for a bulky special attacker. (If you're into that. It's personal preference, like I said.) The huge downside to Milotic is it's pretty much non-existent availability. You can get Feebas in a specific spot in Ametrine Mountain, but I guess that it'll be an useful asset for Episode 16.

Klingklang is a decent Pokémon if you're looking at the stats, don't get me wrong. But judging from the movepool and it's late evolution (Lv. 49!), it's bound to be dead weight until you obtain better TM's and can provide it with some decent coverage. It'd be good to know it's movepool, but Gear Grind is it's best physical option that has STAB. Really? It doesn't even learn Iron Head or something. In my opinion, the best Steel type that you can get is the Magnetilo line. It has the solid Electric/Steel typing which is basically the same as Steel except for the fact that it has a x4 weakness to Ground attacks. You should also consider the fact that Electric type attacks hit many times neutral/effective, and while it may not be the best offensive typing, it's definitely way up there. The only downside is the fact that you have to wait until Lv. 50-Lv. 60 until you can evolve it. But tell you what.. I played through the game just fine using a Magneton until the end of Episode 15 and it turned out to be the MVP of my team. Oh, and it also learns Thunder Wave by level-up. If you have a spare Heart Scale, you can teach it Thunder Wave and use it on the opposing Pokémon if you're in a pinch. Even more so, when your Magnemite happens to have Sturdy. (I beat El's Ditto that way. My Magneton pretty much ripped it apart with field boosted Flash Cannon's and para-hax. Setting the stage for my Blaziken to seal the deal.)

But yeah, do yourself a favor and look at the suggestions of other people. I'm just a casual scrub.

I get where you're coming from with Klinklang but I'd have to disagree with you a bit, up to this point Klinklang has been a very viable part of the team even when it was just Klank, and Gear Grind, which you're right is it's best STAB move available through level up, can actually do very high damage, at least in my experience. And while I agree with you that Magnezone would probably be a better option the 4x weakness to ground gives me the wrong vibes, I'm planning on replacing the Magcargo and I don't really want another pokemon with a 4x weakness to ground.

Thanks both of you for your helpful advice and I will try to make my team at least a little bit better before E16 comes out.

[Tartar]

There are many Pokemon available throughout the game, here are some you may want to consider using:

- Gardevoir: Is a good replacement for Alakazam, as it knows some great moves (Psychic, Moonblast, Calm Mind, Wish, Hypnosis), and it should be useful as Dragon Types are gonna be more prevalent in the future.

- Galade is also great, learning great moves (Leaf Blade, Swords Dance, Close Combat, and Shadow Sneak through breeding with Duskull). It is a great set-up Pokemon with a fast speed and access to Swords Dance which is frankly speaking, amazing.

*Lucario fills more or less the same role, and just as well. Pawniard and Weavile is also good. In general all of these are better than Sceptile.

- Metagross: Again, a super defensive, but powerhouse Pokemon that can take and dish out damage easily, and has a great movepool (Meteor Mash, Hammer Arm, Bullet Punch, Zen Headbutt) and is a good addition to any team.

- The Eeveelutions are also great, though without TM's Glaceon and Espeon are probably the most useful.

You may want to consider replacing Sharpedo, possible replacements are Milotic, Feraligatr and Empoleon. There are a ton of great Pokemon out there

Edited October 11, 2016 by Tartar

[Commander]

Rotom requires a data chip to change forms which it can in Ametrine city in that one house with the machine. You badly need a levitate use and given Rotom can change type with ease, it'll be an MVP for you.

I think Zam/Typhlosion/Kinklang/Rotom/Sceptile/Nidoking with Sharpedo as a reserve should be able to get you very far in the game. Why should Sharpedo be in the reserve? Well given it's Mega isn't too powerful, I could see it coming in pretty soon.

Klinklang you'll definitely want to give shift gear back ASAP. That thing can become a nasty boss level Pokemon if someone is skilled enough to use it.

[Ramiru]

Rotom requires a data chip to change forms which it can in Ametrine city in that one house with the machine. You badly need a levitate use and given Rotom can change type with ease, it'll be an MVP for you.

I think Zam/Typhlosion/Kinklang/Rotom/Sceptile/Nidoking with Sharpedo as a reserve should be able to get you very far in the game. Why should Sharpedo be in the reserve? Well given it's Mega isn't too powerful, I could see it coming in pretty soon.

Klinklang you'll definitely want to give shift gear back ASAP. That thing can become a nasty boss level Pokemon if someone is skilled enough to use it.

Ok I'll do that to Klinklang then. Also actually I decided to drop Zam after all in exchange for a Gardevoir, since Gardevoir's BST is only slightly worse than Zam's and Gardevoir also gets access to Moon Blast and Shadow Ball (whenever we get that TM), and I was also thinking of using it as the main Mega of my team, which is nice. As you say I'll most likely keep my Sharpedo as reserve if I ever need it, and I still need a pokemon that can learn Waterfall, since none of the current 6 can.

Another thing I've been looking over is the move pool for Typhlosion. The only moves it gets from leveling up I could see myself using is Eruption and Flamethrower, Eruption for forest fields & when I'm at high HP, and Flamethrower otherwise. Got any other good moves? I was thinking like Solar Beam or something but I wouldn't want to use that final move spot for Sunny Day. If I manage to figure something out I'll just edit this post.

EDIT: Oh and another thing I completely forgot about until now. Can you get magnetic powder (or whatever it's called) that you need to "un-corrupt" Ralts' pokeball before 7th street? Or is 7th street the earliest possible location to find it?

Edited October 11, 2016 by TheMoltenGuy

[KuroCovers]

If you do end up going Typhlosion, you could rock Eruption/Flamethrower/Extrasensory/Hidden Power Ice. This move set might be a bit wacky, since I just came up with it on the fly, and you'll probably have to do a bit of breeding for it, but it hits 9 types super-effectively, and it might be one of your best options for coverage. There might be better move options, but I'm just spitballing.

Also, magnet powder can be found in the Flash section at the bottom of Blacksteam Factory, if I'm not mistaken. You go through that way before 7th street.

Edited October 11, 2016 by KuroCovers