Replacement for Floatzel?

[LucidRain]

Hello, I have currently finished my second playthrough of Reborn and am trying to build my team up for release of Ep.16 (also because I have nothing better to do other than look at US Presidential Elections). This is my current team:

Charizard: Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Air Slash, Dragon Claw

Standard fire/flying coverage, with Flamethrower for more power and Heat Wave for doubles battles. I am planning to replace Dragon Claw with Fly HM in Ep. 16

Gardevoir: Psychic, Moonblast, Wish, Calm Mind

Recovery with Wish and boost with Calm Mind, I found that she served as an awesome special attacker and the AI couldn't touch her at all after a few calm minds and recovery with Wish and items.

Scraggy: Facade, High Jump Kick, Thunder Punch, Crunch

Aside from obligatory double STAB, I decided on Facade for status absorb and T-Punch for flying coverage. I haven't brought him up to speed in terms of levels, but he'll probably be an all-out attacker.

Magnezone: Flash Cannon, Thunder Wave, Discharge, Mirror Coat

Physical wall and tank for my team. Thunder Wave for spreading the annoying status to things it can't touch, and Mirror Coat to revenge on special attackers.

Arcanine: Close Combat, Flare Blitz, Crunch, Extreme Speed

Another all out attacker, he has a wide coverage and can revenge with Extreme Speed.

Now for the focus - Floatzel: Hydro Pump, Aqua Jet, Surf, Rain Dance

As you can see, he's all water, no coverage. I mostly used him to get around and defeat Charlotte, whom I was having a bad time with. But now, other than the occasional HM Slaving, he has no more use, so I want to replace him with a more competitive member. Who should I pick?

[Shinoda Yagami]

If you want a good coverage water mon I recommend seismitoad. It gets earth power, surf, sludge wave and rain dance which is great. Or you could level up a nidoking and get the same coverage too. E16 has slowbro so maybe you can even keep floatzel till you get one? There arent that many good water types anyway. Thick fat walrein is also decent I guess.

[AnimeFg]

Lapras is a good choice, as it replaces a water type, and gives you ice coverage. Also, it seems you don't have a grass type, in which case, Cradily is one of my personal favorite grass types.

[Anstane]

Lapras and Walrein are good choices, giving extra Ice coverage as well as you don't have a dedicated Ice-user.

[BlackRum]

You have a decent physical/special split in your team. The only thing you might lack is a special wall that doesn't require you to set up calm mind.

For the special route:

-Lapras and Walrain have already been mentioned and they are quite solid because they give you ice coverage which is strong offensively while still being on the bulkier side.

-Seismitoad surely brings a lot of coverage as Shinoda Yagami has said.

-Ludicolo, As AnimeFg stated you also lack a grass type, so this one is an awesomely versatile choice, just make sure not to evolve your Lotad until you get Energy Ball at lvl 36.

For the physical route:

-Barbaracle is a decent physical addition which gets access to Shell Smash buffs.

-Poliwrath, I personally swear by mine, but since you already have a fighting type, I wouldn't recommend it and it needs some setup to shine.

A lot of awesome water pokemon have been promised for Ep 16, so if you can hold out until it's here, you'll get an even better selection.

Frillish, Slowpoke, Tentacool, Staryu and Shellder will be added. All of them have their respective place to shine.

Out of the list I'd recommend Tentacool/Tentacruel to you, as it's a beastly special defense wall with a decent speed. It's sure to help you wrestle down Adrienne provided Ame doesn't give his/her/its whole team discharge like she did with Shade.

Cheers

Edited November 8, 2016 by BlackRum

[Scottieboy2020]

umm...

Me personally?

I would pick Milotic. Yes, still a full water type, but the stats are better and it is a regenerative tank that deals decent damage. It learns ice beam and is reasonably fast, and its abilities are useful.

[BlackRum]

Milotic is strong sure, but does it learn ice beam through level up? I thought neither do we have the TM available in Episode 15, nor can ice beam be bred onto any pokemon other than psyduck. At least as far as I know. I might be wrong though, as I've never used a Milotic in my life.

Edited November 9, 2016 by BlackRum

[Yours Truly]

I would probably choose Seismitoad since it get's ground type coverage which might give you an edge in the next gym (which might be the steel type one); Poliwrath isn't a very good fighting type mon though, and since we have yet to encounter a fairy type gym that might sting a bit; Ludicolo seems like a decent option though; I mean it won't do much against steel types (What with Scizor and Skarmory being there), but at least it gives you a mon that can take down Ground types without having to worry about 4x Rock.

[LucidRain]

Cheers all!

Sorry for late reply, I have been busy with the elections and crying in the corner as the US tears itself to pieces. *cough*

Back to pokemon, I think I personally prefer Lapras or Milotic out of the options, because I've never been fond of ground types.

Also, I've been also planning to switch my team around a little. Perhaps I'll procure a Lucario and replace Scraggy, and Magnezone with another decent Dark type (not sure what). Do you know any good Dark types in Reborn?

[Anstane]

I've heard a lot of good words (and had it suggested for me) for Bisharp. If you're looking for Dark, that might be one of your best options as of right now.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Anstane

[BlackRum]

Drapion is also a very awesome dark type with it's sole weakness to ground and getting the sniper ability along cross poison and night slash.

Honchkrow is a glass canon but it can be a devastating sweeper with sucker punch + Moxie.

[AuthorReborn]

I would recommend Feraligatr, as he can easily destroy a lot of troublesome threats (he has a very good match up against Hardy and Titania, who will both be battled in future episodes). You will have to do a little bit of breeding to get an awesome one, but you said you were looking for things to do anyways. You'll want to breed Dragon Dance from the Kingdra line and Ice Punch from Abomasnow and make sure it has the ability Sheer Force. Then, there's iirc, there's a life orb obtainable somewhere (or as an item on the event Absol in rare cases) which will give you the boost but will prevent you from taking the Life orb damage thanks to Sheer Force. Then there's STAB Waterfall, as well as either Bulldoze from Terra's TM or Crunch via level-up to give you a strong and versatile attacker who can destroy most unprepared teams.