Pokemon Teams and Complexity Addictions

[Shia]

Pokemon teams are the most important part of any playthrough, and now I've finished Episode 18, I've decided to change up my roster of Pokemon. Problem is, I can't seem to decide on a proper team now. It's been a while since I've played Pokemon, last time I've played being Gen 6, and now I'm not that familiar with most strategies that can be used in the game. Not to mention, I find myself severely limited by what Pokemon I can used based on certain factors.

 

These being..

 

Spoiler

First and foremost now, is exclusivity. More often than not, the Pokemon I like tend to be signature Pokemon of most characters in the game. A big example is Hydreigon, being the key Pokemon of Lin, and Volcarona for Bennett. It's a really weird constraint, but I just have trouble sorting out in my head to use these Pokemon when someone else is already using them. Am I the only one facing this kind of problem? Or is there anyone who thinks that way too?

Second most of all, is themes. Another strange constraint, but I often limit the Pokemon I use based on a certain theme, such as Pokemon being based on a specific aspect or type, and though now I just want to lay back and play the game without any restrictions, it's actually incredibly difficult from breaking that kind of need for complexity and roleplay. Adding to the first factor above, it severely limits the kind of Pokemon you can use. Do you guys do the same thing too? 

 

Third, lastly, is strategy. Sometimes, I might be able to build a team, but since it's been a while since I've played anything Pokemon-related, I'm not fully familiar anymore with how to be competitive in Pokemon, so most of the time the team I've made is lacking in power or other stuff.

 

So I'm asking, what team do you guys use? Do you base it on a theme? Do you not like using Pokemon that other important trainers might have used already? What kind of strategies do you guys use in making your teams and are there any other factors you keep in mind when making your teams? Feel free to sound them off below. 

[Lucreto]

You'll definitely find it hard to use decent pokemon without them being signature pokemon of a major character, be it Gym Leader, rival or villain. Best case scenario, the pokemon you're looking for will just be in their team, but not their ace.

Personally I don't stick to a theme, just try to have a team that each member covers the other one's weaknesses. 

[Zargerth]

I pretty much use whatever I want. I prefer to have some degree of type coverage of course, but other than that I don't put too much thought into it. I mean, in my latest run I use low-tier (when it comes to Smogon tiers anyway) mons like Dodrio, Kingler and Passimian. Reborn is challenging, but not the point where you're forced to run certain mons, cores or strategies to stand a chance.

[Shia]

1 hour ago, Lucreto said:

You'll definitely find it hard to use decent pokemon without them being signature pokemon of a major character, be it Gym Leader, rival or villain. Best case scenario, the pokemon you're looking for will just be in their team, but not their ace.

Personally I don't stick to a theme, just try to have a team that each member covers the other one's weaknesses. 

How do you do that? May I ask what team you're using in Reborn then?

 

11 minutes ago, Zargerth said:

I pretty much use whatever I want. I prefer to have some degree of type coverage of course, but other than that I don't put too much thought into it. I mean, in my latest run I use low-tier (when it comes to Smogon tiers anyway) mons like Dodrio, Kingler and Passimian. Reborn is challenging, but not the point where you're forced to run certain mons, cores or strategies to stand a chance.

Same here, actually. I like low tier mons, mostly Bug types. Do you have any strategy with your team or do you just slap them on en masse?

[Zargerth]

3 minutes ago, SHIA II said:

Same here, actually. I like low tier mons, mostly Bug types. Do you have any strategy with your team or do you just slap them on en masse?

There are times I do slight adjustments for certain battles and generally I try to use the field effects to my advantage. Other than that, not really. At one point I used Protect + Explosion in Doubles but I don't know if that's strategy per se.

[Lucreto]

1 hour ago, SHIA II said:

How do you do that? May I ask what team you're using in Reborn then?

I've had many playthroughs so I don't remember all of them, would probably fill 2 boxes 

 

Most notable ones were: Metagross, Milotic, Slaking, Gardevoir, Gallade, Flygon, Garchomp, Ninetales-A, Electivire, Gyarados, Tyranitar, Galvantula, Cofragrigus. These guys were mostly in the main roster, with others coming in and out.

My starters were Torterra, Infernape, Primarina and Blaziken (wouldn't accept to use another starter even if I got it later in the game, gotta show loyalty to my first partner!)

[keithgun]

I know just what you mean and I was going to ask the same. If it helps, for my first run I just used whatever pokes looked cool or fitting to my character.

I developed my own 'signature' mons and used the ultra mega chicken, aggron, noivern, f-meowstic, jolteon, banette, arcanine, etc. Mostly my favs without regards to type advantage or strategies. When things started getting more difficult my team adapted and so did my knowledge of the game, realizing that I really was no expert at all.

 

For my second run I'm trying to play using either the counterparts of my original run, or using mons that are greatly suited for exploiting fields. For example, zigzagging may be low-tier, but it learning mud sport basically makes you breeze Julia and pin missile to decimate florinia. 

Or my third (simultaneous) run in which I try using Pokémon that my sister (who cares very little about Pokémon lol) choose for me based only on cute factor.

You could try a dog themed run or maybe imagining your pc to have a personality and using what pokes would befit said personality, just as it happens with the other characters.

 

Lastly, concerning using other characters' aces: capture/breed a shiny of those, that way yours are unique from them (like my shiny garchomp, Otachi)

[Shia]

4 hours ago, Lucreto said:

I've had many playthroughs so I don't remember all of them, would probably fill 2 boxes 

 

Most notable ones were: Metagross, Milotic, Slaking, Gardevoir, Gallade, Flygon, Garchomp, Ninetales-A, Electivire, Gyarados, Tyranitar, Galvantula, Cofragrigus. These guys were mostly in the main roster, with others coming in and out.

My starters were Torterra, Infernape, Primarina and Blaziken (wouldn't accept to use another starter even if I got it later in the game, gotta show loyalty to my first partner!)

I've been able to fill more than 2 boxes honestly, and that's only in one playthrough. I'm THAT inconsistent with teams. But most of those are favorites of mine too, but yeah, too bad Garchomp and some of them are mostly signature Pokemon. Do you employ any strategies with your team?

 

18 minutes ago, keithgun said:

I know just what you mean and I was going to ask the same. If it helps, for my first run I just used whatever pokes looked cool or fitting to my character.

I developed my own 'signature' mons and used the ultra mega chicken, aggron, noivern, f-meowstic, jolteon, banette, arcanine, etc. Mostly my favs without regards to type advantage or strategies. When things started getting more difficult my team adapted and so did my knowledge of the game, realizing that I really was no expert at all.

 

For my second run I'm trying to play using either the counterparts of my original run, or using mons that are greatly suited for exploiting fields. For example, zigzagging may be low-tier, but it learning mud sport basically makes you breeze Julia and pin missile to decimate florinia. 

Or my third (simultaneous) run in which I try using Pokémon that my sister (who cares very little about Pokémon lol) choose for me based only on cute factor.

You could try a dog themed run or maybe imagining your pc to have a personality and using what pokes would befit said personality, just as it happens with the other characters.

 

Lastly, concerning using other characters' aces: capture/breed a shiny of those, that way yours are unique from them (like my shiny garchomp, Otachi)

I can relate. I thought I'd be able to breeze through with just my favorite Pokemon, but the circumstances make it very difficult most of the time. Doable, yes, but not the expert/ace I expected it to be. Oh, that's a good idea for using other character's aces. A bit tedious, but it's a good excuse for me to learn how breeding mechanics work. And yeah, I always base my Pokemon a theme. For most of my Reborn PC's, they're based on time. Savescumming, going back to previous saves and hand-waving it as a form of time travel. 

[keithgun]

Suggestions: I'm currently using shared pc mod to practice my breeding and not having to save scum in my second run. 

Breeding is highly satisfying when you get it  right

[wcv]

Spoiler

I don’t mind Pokemon overlap, so long as it’s not with the villains or rivals.

 

so my current team is Greninja, Blaziken, Naganadel, Mega Gardevoir, Vikavolt, and Aegislash.

 

of these two overlap with another trainer, but they don’t fall under the prior categories.

 

[Lucreto]

50 minutes ago, SHIA II said:

I've been able to fill more than 2 boxes honestly, and that's only in one playthrough. I'm THAT inconsistent with teams. But most of those are favorites of mine too, but yeah, too bad Garchomp and some of them are mostly signature Pokemon. Do you employ any strategies with your team?

 

I can relate. I thought I'd be able to breeze through with just my favorite Pokemon, but the circumstances make it very difficult most of the time. Doable, yes, but not the expert/ace I expected it to be. Oh, that's a good idea for using other character's aces. A bit tedious, but it's a good excuse for me to learn how breeding mechanics work. And yeah, I always base my Pokemon a theme. For most of my Reborn PC's, they're based on time. Savescumming, going back to previous saves and hand-waving it as a form of time travel. 

I mostly try to brute force my way, as you can see from the members of my teams. I had a few tanks to cripple threats and restore the heavy punchers, or used sticky web with galvantula and sweep with moxie gyarados/swords dance gallade. Pretty effective against most trainers.

[Lofty]

In every Pokémon game I have 20-30 Pokémon that can and mostly will feature at some point of the story. But my favourite 4-15 Pokémon invariably get the most face time:
 

Spoiler

 

1. Volcarona (Just my favourite Pokémon by a mile. Standard Heat Wave/ Quiver Dancer)
2. Espeon (have a number of builds I use for Espeon, but mostly it's on special sweep duty)
3. Galvantula (Focus sash - Sticky web/ Volt switch / Thunder/ Bug buzz)
4. Umbreon (Sitrus berry - Toxic/ Curse/ Moonlight/ Payback)
5. Dragonair (standard marvel scale + sleep talking eviolite annoyer and defense tank - there are better options but none of them are Dragonair. Also I hate Dragonite/ orange Barney, probably the biggest design downgrade upon evolution I know of)

Peripheral:

Crobat (especially Z-Haze/ brave bird Crobat, barely ever used Crobat until the day Gen 7 shipped though I always liked it)

Magnezone (punishes and tanks fast teams)

Milotic (Leftovers + Aqua Ring tank w ice/ water/ dragon coverage)

Aerodactyl (the only Mega I like that doesn't suck)

Flygon

Serperior (the only starter I like enough to bring into my continuing adventures - with contrary, of course)

Magmortar (assault vest - 4-way coverage special attacker and pseudo-tank)

Sylveon (if I ever need fairy coverage - though doesn't see that much play since Espeon's non-STAB Dazzling Gleam tends to be good enough)

Garchomp (almost exclusively used as false swipe slave, but I'll mention it anyway since he had a short duty as Mega Aerodactyl's partner in battle tree of gen 7)

Steelix/ Donphan (ground coverage. My least used type.)

Scizor (I think just about everyone likes Scizor but struggle to find a use for this almost-but-not-quite-good-enough Pokémon. Regardless, I almost always level one up if I can)

 

There are some synergies here, and a few different types of tanks to choose from as the situation requires (Magnezone, Umbreon, Milotic and Dragonair)

 

Some Pokémon are obviously almost never used together (Galvantula with Umbreon/ Magnezone, for example, the latter rely on being slower)

 

 

I've also always avoided using legendaries and mythics in my teams mostly because I rarely liked many of them. Notable exceptions are Zapdos in Gen 1, Raikou and Celebi in Gen 2, Jirachi in Gen 3 (also used Kyogre as an HM slave but meh) the lake trio and Cresselia in Gen 4 (though I didn't like Gen 4 much, least favourite gen overall - I legit released Palkia/ Dialga) Zekrom, Virizion, Cobalion, Meloetta, Genesect and Keldeo in Gen 5, (holy crap Gen 5 was goooood! - especially considering it has 2 of my favourites in the spoiler) Yveltal in gen 6 and Tapu Lele in gen 7.

Out of all the legends and mythics, the only one that has ever been central to any of my strats was Cresselia. So I guess that's a redeeming quality of Gen 4.

 

As for multiplayer, I like doubles a lot, so typically my most played Pokémon is sky drop Aerodactyl as he's such a useful partner for just about any other Pokémon I use.

 

EDIT: In terms of complexity, I think the most roundabout strategy (short lived as it was) I've used was one that involved skill swap and Reuniclus, though that's all I remember from it. It was powerful but not enough to validate the hassle haha

Edited August 17, 2018 by Lofty

[iDunno]

13 hours ago, SHIA II said:

 

  Hide contents

First and foremost now, is exclusivity. More often than not, the Pokemon I like tend to be signature Pokemon of most characters in the game. A big example is Hydreigon, being the key Pokemon of Lin, and Volcarona for Bennett. It's a really weird constraint, but I just have trouble sorting out in my head to use these Pokemon when someone else is already using them. Am I the only one facing this kind of problem? Or is there anyone who thinks that way too?

 

I'm kind of like that too. I don't like using (at least during main story battles) Pokemon that are other trainer's aces, and I like to keep in my main roster Pokemon that somewhat "rhyme" with other trainer's. For example, I chose a water-type as my starter, because Fern and Victoria have respectively a Grass and Fire starters (Cain gets the water starter later, but his ace/starter is Nidoran, so it doesn't count). Also, considering how much Fern looks down at the player, it would make sense in-universe if the player had a type disadvantage against his starter. I use Gardevoir and Nidoqueen in my main team, because they "rhyme" with Victoria's Gallade and Cain's Nidoking.

 

I also try not to use during main story battles Pokemon like Hydreigon, Garchomp, Electivire or Chandelure (even though I have all of these in my rotation box), because in-universe they have negative connotations, being the aces of the leaders of Team Meteor, and being used during the storyline to kill/torture major characters. I think it would be in poor taste for the MC to use these Pokemon while around the other major characters.

[Shia]

11 hours ago, Lofty said:

In every Pokémon game I have 20-30 Pokémon that can and mostly will feature at some point of the story. But my favourite 4-15 Pokémon invariably get the most face time:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

1. Volcarona (Just my favourite Pokémon by a mile. Standard Heat Wave/ Quiver Dancer)
2. Espeon (have a number of builds I use for Espeon, but mostly it's on special sweep duty)
3. Galvantula (Focus sash - Sticky web/ Volt switch / Thunder/ Bug buzz)
4. Umbreon (Sitrus berry - Toxic/ Curse/ Moonlight/ Payback)
5. Dragonair (standard marvel scale + sleep talking eviolite annoyer and defense tank - there are better options but none of them are Dragonair. Also I hate Dragonite/ orange Barney, probably the biggest design downgrade upon evolution I know of)

Peripheral:

Crobat (especially Z-Haze/ brave bird Crobat, barely ever used Crobat until the day Gen 7 shipped though I always liked it)

Magnezone (punishes and tanks fast teams)

Milotic (Leftovers + Aqua Ring tank w ice/ water/ dragon coverage)

Aerodactyl (the only Mega I like that doesn't suck)

Flygon

Serperior (the only starter I like enough to bring into my continuing adventures - with contrary, of course)

Magmortar (assault vest - 4-way coverage special attacker and pseudo-tank)

Sylveon (if I ever need fairy coverage - though doesn't see that much play since Espeon's non-STAB Dazzling Gleam tends to be good enough)

Garchomp (almost exclusively used as false swipe slave, but I'll mention it anyway since he had a short duty as Mega Aerodactyl's partner in battle tree of gen 7)

Steelix/ Donphan (ground coverage. My least used type.)

Scizor (I think just about everyone likes Scizor but struggle to find a use for this almost-but-not-quite-good-enough Pokémon. Regardless, I almost always level one up if I can)

 

There are some synergies here, and a few different types of tanks to choose from as the situation requires (Magnezone, Umbreon, Milotic and Dragonair)

 

Some Pokémon are obviously almost never used together (Galvantula with Umbreon/ Magnezone, for example, the latter rely on being slower)

 

 

Do you use these Pokemon for Reborn too? Legendaries aren't available in the game after all.

 

13 hours ago, Lucreto said:

I mostly try to brute force my way, as you can see from the members of my teams. I had a few tanks to cripple threats and restore the heavy punchers, or used sticky web with galvantula and sweep with moxie gyarados/swords dance gallade. Pretty effective against most trainers.

Hyper-offense can be tricky in Reborn, especially in the late game because of fast attackers + fields. My Gengar and Weavile probably have return cards to the Pokemon Center now. Sticky Web + Set-up is a very good combo though.

 

10 hours ago, iDunno said:

I'm kind of like that too. I don't like using (at least during main story battles) Pokemon that are other trainer's aces, and I like to keep in my main roster Pokemon that somewhat "rhyme" with other trainer's. For example, I chose a water-type as my starter, because Fern and Victoria have respectively a Grass and Fire starters (Cain gets the water starter later, but his ace/starter is Nidoran, so it doesn't count). Also, considering how much Fern looks down at the player, it would make sense in-universe if the player had a type disadvantage against his starter. I use Gardevoir and Nidoqueen in my main team, because they "rhyme" with Victoria's Gallade and Cain's Nidoking.

 

I also try not to use during main story battles Pokemon like Hydreigon, Garchomp, Electivire or Chandelure (even though I have all of these in my rotation box), because in-universe they have negative connotations, being the aces of the leaders of Team Meteor, and being used during the storyline to kill/torture major characters. I think it would be in poor taste for the MC to use these Pokemon while around the other major characters.

Yay, someone who agrees. I just don't like using Exclusive Pokemon because well, it removes the exclusiveness. Then again, Zero and Luna both have an Umbreon as an ace, and on a minor degree, Aster & Eclipse share a Lycanroc with Hardy, though all three use the three different forms. The rhyming thing is pretty unique though, haven't tried that before, but it really does fit the player, similar to the rival themes in normal Pokemon games.

[wcv]

5 minutes ago, SHIA II said:

Do you use these Pokemon for Reborn too? Legendaries aren't available in the game after all.

There are no legendaries on that list.

[Lofty]

8 hours ago, SHIA II said:

Do you use these Pokemon for Reborn too? Legendaries aren't available in the game after all.

There are no legendaries in there. Using the SWM mod I made Larvesta my starter because of the obnoxious way to obtain Larvesta in this game, and I will not play a Pokémon game without my favourite Pokémon. Dragonair is the only one in the list of 5 I have not got yet, but once I do it goes straight in. (E18 needed I guess)

[DevR]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:39 PM, SHIA II said:

What kind of strategies do you guys use in making your teams and are there any other factors you keep in mind when making your teams?

I tend to do themed runs (monotype, monogen) on occasion, but I settle on a team after 2-3 playthroughs. The non-themed teams (like the one I'm using atm) are based on a Fire-Water-Grass and/or a Dragon-Fairy-Steel core for stability. I try and avoid using NPCs' ace 'mons as much as possible, but if I like the Pokemon enough then I'll use it regardless. A Reborn / Rejuvenation-specific rule I have for non-themed runs is to only use event Pokemon.

 

As of the end of E18, my team is:

 

Salamence

Clefable

Empoleon (completes the Dragon-Fairy-Steel core)

Arcanine

Rotom-Wash

Naganadel* (it'll be my ace since no other NPC uses it, and I can't let it waste after all that effort)

 

*The last slot was previously filled by the mystery egg reward (Volcarona) and my first mega (Heracross).

[Shia]

58 minutes ago, DevR said:

I tend to do themed runs (monotype, monogen) on occasion, but I settle on a team after 2-3 playthroughs. The non-themed teams (like the one I'm using atm) are based on a Fire-Water-Grass and/or a Dragon-Fairy-Steel core for stability. I try and avoid using NPCs' ace 'mons as much as possible, but if I like the Pokemon enough then I'll use it regardless. A Reborn / Rejuvenation-specific rule I have for non-themed runs is to only use event Pokemon.

 

As of the end of E18, my team is:

 

Salamence

Clefable

Empoleon (completes the Dragon-Fairy-Steel core)

Arcanine

Rotom-Wash

Naganadel* (it'll be my ace since no other NPC uses it, and I can't let it waste after all that effort)

 

*The last slot was previously filled by the mystery egg reward (Volcarona) and my first mega (Heracross).

Interesting! I honestly really like Salamence, and I think he's the perfect Fly Pokemon but sadly Heather already has one as an ace. That said, I'm intending to use Naganadel someday too, but that someday will be in a very long time. May I ask what specific roles you have for Clefable and Rotom-Wash, since they're both mostly just walls?

[Leokachu]

Oh this is an interesting thread!

In every single Pokemon game I played, I always used the same team throughout the game (not counting HM slaves when needed obviously), meaning that usually by the 4 or 5th badge my team would be set for the rest of the game. Usually, I never play legendaries, and I don't like dragons. I play with Pokemons that I like (both in design and stats) and try not to have 2 pokemon of the same type in the team, all of my teams have one fire and one water pokemon (the only exception was a Poison mono I did once in Reborn). And then everything changed, when the Reborn nation attacked.

 

I feel like in Reborn it's impossible to stick to a single 6-member team throughout the game (not counting if you build your team before actually starting the run, been there, done that). So I tend to catch more Pokemons than I'm used to, and as a result (and also given the fact that I probably did something like 15 runs (not all completely) of Reborn) I really struggle to build a main 6-member team. The 6 pokemon in my signature are my actual team members. If I had to pick an Ace, I'd choose Excadrill, because this guy saved me so many times (Volcarona as well, but it's Bennett's Ace already, so that's a no-no for me), but then again, these 6 have all earned their places, as they were all the MVPs of the various runs I did. But still I could not consider my Ace to be the same as some other character's, it just takes the "special" out of the Pokemon if you see what I mean, sucks for Volcarona, but oh well.

 

What really really troubles me though, is the absence of a starter Pokemon. Now I have a few starter pokemon in my PC, but they have nothing on these guys (stat-wise). I really want to use a starter Pokemon as I feel that the starter should be the player's Ace. I think I'll replace Gyarados with Feraligatr that I really like (this guy comes in the 3rd place of my favourite starters, after Venusaur and Blaziken). But the thing is, Gyarados, DD, Moxie, OP, it's hard to say no to that, especially since Gyarados is a cool pokemon with a nice design. But if I do change these two, then Feraligatr becomes my Ace for sure, a unique Pokemon that none of the other main characters play.

 

[DevR]

1 hour ago, SHIA II said:

May I ask what specific roles you have for Clefable and Rotom-Wash, since they're both mostly just walls?

Clefable is my secondary win-condition and only form of terrain control. It's carried me against most of the difficult boss battles through a combination of Misty Terrain + Cosmic Power (Clef + Empoleon actually beat Aya on the first try). 

 

On the other hand, Rotom-Wash is part of my bulky trio that's meant to tank hits and spread status conditions. It's physically defensive and spreads burns, while Empoleon handles the special side and spreads toxic poison. Arcanine supports them through Intimidate + Snarl, which makes is perfect for doubles. I absolutely recommend trying them out whenever you can!

[Angelkitsune]

Well for me i tend to use Hyper-offensive strategy, this is how i beat some gyms the other gyms i have to tweak my team a bit 

 

my team consist of my starter/signature Blaziken (My first starter is a torchic since i play pokemon Ruby so yeah i love that cute sh*t),Serperior(Contrary is gud!!!),Garchomp/Hydregion depends on my mood also i use flygon because it has earthquake,Lucario(extremely speedy also only focuses on sp.attack),A-Ninetails(thank god it outspeed Terra's and Solaris's garchomp),Silvaly(very useful i luv it,i max out it's attack and speed EVs)

 

sometimes i switch them out for swampert ,Dragalge(this pokemon is actually really useful slow but VERY bulky),Umbreon(The bulkiest sh*t i have seen in my team can you believe that it survives a FOCUS BLAST once and it only decreases half of its hp holy sh*t),Volcarona(cool bug type i luv to use it),A-raichu,Gardevoir(not very fast but very stronk),and Tyranturm(very surprising but very good save my butt a few times)

 

i know running a hyper-offensive team is risky because if you got outspeed you r ded just like Hardy  but hey i have been using this strategy since i picked up the game and it works fine for moi maybe you can tell me how is your experience using this strat ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

[Neco]

For me it's actually depending on the playthrough I'm doing. In an official game, I choose a team of 6 I want to use and  build it, whereas in Reborn or other fangames I tend to build a larger roster and catch/train whatever I feel the need or urge to, without paying too much attention to coverage and the like (hell, I regularly encountered a type which could give my team major problems, even if it is just a coverage move).

 

However, as I by now prefer to do a mono or differently themed run, I am forced to strategize to somehow cover my weaknesses (especially when using a type like Grass with its many weaknesses) or finding other strategies to overcome different situations. In my mono-Grass run I have a box of more or less trained mons I used throughout my run, with E18 probably being the first Episode I managed to beat with just a team of 6.

This Team consisted of my starter Chesnaught (I like a stalling approach and it blocks physical attackers pretty well, as long as they don't have Flying coverage), Cradily (another tanky mon, good partner for my Ludicolo and its typing helps with coverage), Ludicolo (a typical Swift Swimmer who could help with my teams lacking Speed in rain, as well as dealing with Fire types), Roserade (paired with a Life Orb, Roserade became my hardest hitter), Rotom-M (T-Wave helps with crippling opponents and it could deal some damage, especially with better TMs being finally available) and Whimsicott (Prankster turns it into an amazing support mon, priority-Nature Power helps to abuse a lot of fields, or simply setting up Tailwind).

 

This team obviously lacks physical offense (Chesnaught isn't really the hardest hitter if you use it as a physical Wall), but it worked out for me. I doubt those 6 will be able to deal with what E19 will throw at us, but I still have other mons I could use.

[Shia]

18 hours ago, Leokachu said:

What really really troubles me though, is the absence of a starter Pokemon. Now I have a few starter pokemon in my PC, but they have nothing on these guys (stat-wise). I really want to use a starter Pokemon as I feel that the starter should be the player's Ace. I think I'll replace Gyarados with Feraligatr that I really like (this guy comes in the 3rd place of my favourite starters, after Venusaur and Blaziken). But the thing is, Gyarados, DD, Moxie, OP, it's hard to say no to that, especially since Gyarados is a cool pokemon with a nice design. But if I do change these two, then Feraligatr becomes my Ace for sure, a unique Pokemon that none of the other main characters play.

 

I'm having troubles fitting in a starter for me too, honestly. While I do have lots of starters that I like, I don't really consider any of them as Aces, and often, I can find a better Pokemon for their role or in terms of favoritism. 

 

14 hours ago, Neco said:

This Team consisted of my starter Chesnaught (I like a stalling approach and it blocks physical attackers pretty well, as long as they don't have Flying coverage), Cradily (another tanky mon, good partner for my Ludicolo and its typing helps with coverage), Ludicolo (a typical Swift Swimmer who could help with my teams lacking Speed in rain, as well as dealing with Fire types), Roserade (paired with a Life Orb, Roserade became my hardest hitter), Rotom-M (T-Wave helps with crippling opponents and it could deal some damage, especially with better TMs being finally available) and Whimsicott (Prankster turns it into an amazing support mon, priority-Nature Power helps to abuse a lot of fields, or simply setting up Tailwind).

Whimsicott is a really good Pokemon to use, especially if it's in Misty Terrain or the like. Priority Nature Power is nothing to sneeze at, and Prankster Tailwind can make a fairly impossible fight into a cakewalk. (Looking at most of Episode 18's battles)
 

17 hours ago, DevR said:

Clefable is my secondary win-condition and only form of terrain control. It's carried me against most of the difficult boss battles through a combination of Misty Terrain + Cosmic Power (Clef + Empoleon actually beat Aya on the first try). 

 

On the other hand, Rotom-Wash is part of my bulky trio that's meant to tank hits and spread status conditions. It's physically defensive and spreads burns, while Empoleon handles the special side and spreads toxic poison. Arcanine supports them through Intimidate + Snarl, which makes is perfect for doubles. I absolutely recommend trying them out whenever you can!

Does Misty Terrain amplify Cosmic Power even further? That's a pretty cool strategy. A bit too stall-ish for me, but nonetheless, a viable strategy. Intimidate + Snarl is a really cool idea though, I like that. But maybe I'll use it for my Luxray instead of Arcanine. Also, quite nitpicky, but if you managed to have a Grass type to spread Toxic instead of Empoleon, it would be a cool FWG core, though that might mess up its compatibility with your Clefable.

 

17 hours ago, Angelkitsune said:

i know running a hyper-offensive team is risky because if you got outspeed you r ded just like Hardy  but hey i have been using this strategy since i picked up the game and it works fine for moi maybe you can tell me how is your experience using this strat ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

What set do you run for your Silvally? It's a cool Pokemon that no one has as an Ace yet, so I want to try using it. That said, Hyper Offense is fun, but either they get sweeped or you get sweeped. Often I have something with Tailwind/Trick Room/Sticky Web to make sure my team outspeeds the other. E18's battles definitely warned me there.

[Angelkitsune]

@SHIA II just like my team my Silvally focuses on attack and speed,i make sure that my silvally have perfect IVs on attack and speed and EV trained it also i choose Adamant nature since all it's move is physical anyway its not that fast but fast enough to outspeed alot of pokemon

 

and yeah fighting a ribombee with prankster sticky web is kinda challenging but thank god my pokemon is fast enough to OHKO all of the other pokemon.(￣▽￣)"

[Alisae]

tl;dr: The way I approach my mon choices in Reborn is A. I use what I want to use B. What is going to help me out at that point in the game and C. TRY If Possible to experiment with a new mon I haven't played with before or just look at the area and see whats cool that I could possibly want to use. I also take into consideration what converage I have. I didn't pick up a Houndoom in my most recent run because I had a Typhlosion and a Hounchkrow.

 

So, I never really thought about what mons I used or was really picky about them (well except for uber legends if they were ever passed down to me cuz lol tho this game is different cuz its Reborn I take what I get) but there is one common mon I seem to pick up in just about all of my runs ever since my 2nd run of the game which is Rattata, Slugma (Sometimes but not all of the time), Amoonguss, Rotom-W, and I told all of my friends to pick up mamoswines and use one myself cuz of how good the mon is when its offered. Aegislash is also considered apart of this category.

I don't think I really need to explain why Rotom-W and Mamoswine is just in general good mons but I ALWAYS picked up a Rattata early game. The thing learns Hyper Fang at level 16 and with Hussle it just chews through mons early. The timespan it starts to fall off, u get access to mons that do its job better. I also used Amoongus cuz Regenerator is great and it tanks things amazingly well at the point u get it.

I kinda don't need to explain Aegislash but I kinda want to add that Wide Guard makes it amazing for the plethora of doubles u have to fight after u get it.

 

There were some other mons that I slept on that are also around pre-Julia (Ariados) that I recently found are really cool, and a mon pre-Julia that I might want to try out in a future run (Cherubi mostly maybe Surskit) but basically I feel like my approach to the game is I'm try to see what mons work extremely well early till I find something that I want to use and that outclasses it.

 

Also I always pick up the mystery egg because whatever is inside that egg can be really amazing and can help out before the double battle with Taka and ZEL.

I also got this monster from that mystery egg during a mono fighting run

  

its ability was originally huge power and its nature was an attack lowering one but I transfered it over into the save where I did a new fresh run of the game and gave it a sap sipper perish trapping azu

The only reason why its not in here: 

Is because I rebread my entire team and more once I finished E18 and the things IVs are godtier from when I first got it.

 

I could probably explain why I picked every mon I picked: Typhlosion because I wanted to try out how strong it was with the field effects and oh boy I was not dissapointed, Ariados because Infestation is disgusting, Night Shade Early is also disgusting, Swords Dance upon Level-up is great, and Priority on a slow setup mon with Shadow Sneak lmfao. Like, this thing was amazing and I would have never picked it up if I didn't encounter it while trying to get my Rattata. Anyways, Rattata level 16 Hyper Fang literally broken, Meowstic I wanted something that could setup screens, and I saw Tynamo was offered early and I wanted to try it out. Turns out it was the worst decision I have ever made, it might have been worthwhile RIGHT before Shade but otherwise fuck that. I also decided to import this Azu to my save and that was my team going into Julia. I wanted the Joltik but rip RNG.

 

I got Starmie from my Mystery Egg and I wanted to try it out and it was fun.

Houchkrow was also fun early and swept things extremely well. Its what replaced Ratticate once I got it since it pratically covers the same things Ratticate covers.

Mamoswine no explanation needed

 

Amoonguss I never really got to use the thing till after Serra but I picked it up and it still put in work, but not as much work as Sylveon which the support it offered was great, though I fucked up and was using that for my Misty Terrain for half of the game because I dismissed it as a move on Meowstic for some reason. Then I thought "shit, why aren't I using Prankster to setup Misty Terrain" when I got to Amaria.

 

Heracross is a great mon for when its offered (before a psychic gym and before a dark gym)

Conkeldur put in a ton of work for Samson and Charolete, though I was not very smart and forgot to pick up a Rockruff before Charolete.

This was on E18 so I didn't realize that

I can get Rotom before Agate. If I did, I 100% would have gotten Rotom before Agate. Samson would have been a completely different story if I had that.

 

And from there I kinda just picked up mons that I thought were good and would help me out. Beldum is great pre-Adrienn, Rotom-W is just a great tank, and I wanted to use a Gallade.

 

Now I think it goes to show that once I beat EP 18, I spent 3 days breeding for cool shinies and about 2 boxes worth of mons for me to use (and probably sitll ongoing since I am probably going to breed more stuff). Here is what all of the mons in my rotation looks like

  

(How to read other: Klefki, Meowstic-M, and Ninetales are Support, Skarmory-Sylveon are DEF Tanks, Gliscor-Toxapex are SpD Tanks, Gliscor-Excadrill are Doubles/SandStorm/Trick Room Orientated teams, Dragonite-Metagross require certain Z-Crystals and Megas for them to be at their full potential. I also have some Froakies I want to use but I have no idea what coverage to give them because I'm already covering everything)

 

I think the point of this wall is to go to show that I just use what I'll probably enjoy using.