Post-Radomus, adding new members.

[laggless01]

After beating Radomus and accessing 7th Street, I have been in a bind on my team composition.

Currently, I have quite a few members on rotation, but I mostly am using Diggersby, Blaziken and Roserade (Don't attack me for Blaz, Brace was my first ever pokemon). I do have on rotation Thatcher the Cofagrigus (RIP Solaris), Nidoking, Chandelure, Drapion, Pachirisu, Ribombee (RIP Serra), Meowstic-M and Galvantula.
Of these, Drapion, Pachirisu and Galvantula feel like they're at their limits, so they might be considered for swaps later on.

(I did prepare a special surprise for a particular hacker, I can't wait to try it).

 

Given the leaders and challenges (and fields) coming before returning to the city, I wanted to add or change a few members on my team.
 

-I am likely going to train a Thick Fat Hariyama with Bullet Punch, as I expect it to help tremendously in a particular area, and I don't have great Ice-resists. Suggested moves or better alternatives are appreciated.
 

-I am considering swapping out Roserade, as despite the power, Toxic Spikes has had limited function, Sleep Powder missed more than the frail flower can handle, and its available attacks are too strong for technician but lacking in power. Due to this, I am deliberating on adding Amoongus or Tangrowth in her place, but can't decide what would be better for my team, especially with the ice, flying and sewer in mind.
 

-The biggest issue is on adding a Water-type. I am stuck on deciding between Empoleon and Crawdaunt, and how that would affect adding additional members. Crawdaunt would add a Dark-type, which would help replace Drapion too as I have a lot of Poison-types now, and add a strong physical attacker with prority. On the other hand, it gets wrecked by Freeze-dry and Fighting-types, and good steel-types are rather rare at this point in the game, maybe except magnezone if you go looking for it.
Empoleon would grant me a coveted Steel-mon, add defensive backbone and possible utility. Having its amount of resistances would help with pivoting, one of the reasons why I'm considering swapping the Rose out. (I'm not ruling out other options like Kingdra, Lanturn, Gastrodon or Swampert, but I doubt they work well with what I have and might be hard-pressed in the coming parts of the game.)
Given the differences, such a choice would affect what other members I could add. If going for the Crawdaunt, I think the other choices for Steel-types atm would not be great or fitting well on the team. On the other hand, Empoleon's tools will be limited in the short term, and I'd have to seek mons for handling Ground-types as I'm lacking in useful resistances to them right now. For both I'd have consider how to handle fighting types, as Ribombee is a bit frail to do that.

 

I'd prefer to prep teammates before going through the Agate gate, as I can breed for egg moves and the like before it.

 

Any advice?

[gingerbreadman]

I'm at around the same place in the game, so here's my two cents:

 

A lot of my most useful mons in the past have had a lot of doubles functionality; Ampharos and Esavalier (Spinel trade) are strong for me, as are Mamoswine (with priority), and Camerupt. Klinklang's a stalwart, as is Cinccino if you have it, which I've not used before and having a rock blast with.

As for a specific Water-type, Byxbysion Squirtle or Vaporeon might work, but I've used a Carvanha in previous episodes, tons of coverage! I've not been using any of them this time round though, because I landed Azurill from the mystery egg, took really good care of two types that are hard to cover early on.

Lastly, you might want to pick up a dedicated flyer, not least because they're really nice for later-game doubles with Earthquake functionality - Archeops and Talonflame are very good (particularly Talonflame's priority), but this time round I walked into the Taillow event, thought 'Huh, haven't used Swellow before' and then found out precisely how brutal it can be, particularly early-game...

 

Happy team-building!

[Sheep]

Considering the gyms that are coming up I feel like Steel types are a bit of a liability. You've got Dark, (which Dazzling Gleam Ribombee should be a huge asset for), Fighting, Fire, and then Ground (in which Steel loses it's offensive STAB thanks to the Glitch field getting rid of the Steel type). I reckon Crawdaunt goes into all of that better than Empoleon does, at the very least you've got a strong Aqua Jet. Be aware than neither will be particularly good for Terra though, as Empoleon is weak to Ground, and Crawdaunt becomes special (and also loses its Dark type STAB). As for the Grass types, Amoongus is probably better than Tangrowth, Spore is nice and a lot of the time Grass/Poison is a better defensive typing than pure Grass. You're right though, I wouldn't be bringing either to the fights you mentioned, I don't think this is the greatest time to be a Grass type if I'm honest.

 

As for other general 'mons to include, I'm a huge believer in Archeops for this portion of a run, it does great things against Samson, Charlotte, and Ciel, and gets to keep its physical STAB for Terra. Fighting types are also really good for the next bit, but you have a Blaziken so you've got that covered. If you're struggling with the Swalot, I find bringing something with Blizzard makes the fight a lot more manageable, as it doesn't much enjoy fighting on the Icy field. Ice types generally do pretty well post Charlotte as well, as most of them match up well on the Glitch field, and they do well against Terra and Ciel.

[RebornFan7]

Since you want a new grass type and a water type that doesn't lose to ground I recommend Ludicolo for role compression. I don't know if you can still do it, but a Lotad or Lombre could be found at Coral ward when the weather is rainy.

 

For a good steel type, I second the Escavalier you can get from the trade in Spinel town. You see I don't recall a certain boss having a fire move and you should KO it in return with your bug move. Also I could be wrong since I never used it, but you should have access right now to Metagross for a good steel type. I don't think I need to list reasons why that mon is great.

 

As for countering fighting types I definitely second Talonflame, this mon trivializes Samson with its acrobatics which gets a boost in his arena.

 

Another mon I would suggest is Noivern, its move boomburst gets a boost in a certain arena and it's pretty fast, faster than Garchomp and that's important, though I doubt it will be able to KO a particular Garchomp, it should be helpful against the fighting and fire gyms that are coming up. Remember a water type won't be enough for the fire gym since the arena makes water moves less powerful. Freezing the arena with Blizzard is a good idea (that I have personally used in my ice monorun) , but you'll have to find a really fast ice or water type that knows the move. I think Jynx should do but double check if you will that it learns the move and that it will outspeed the leading mons before it will get obliterated by a fire move. And Jynx can help against the fighting gym too, just postpone it's evolution until it learns psychic at level 38 I think. And as it was suggested ice types have strong match ups in the following gyms. A pokemon with wide guard should be useful against the fire and rock gyms, which are double battles and also I suggest you at least have a pokemon in your rotation that can learn trick room. It could prove useful.  

[laggless01]

I checked for the beldum event, but it has effectively been scrapped. No pre-agate Tauros shenanigans anymore it seems. Metagross is kinda cracked on ice, so it makes sense. Still checking for the Karrablast and co have an additional safety.

Based on suggestions (and figuring out I could get Swinub), I took Archeops, Crawdaunt and Amoongus in as additional members, and keep a makuhita on the side in case of emergency. Terra will likely be the most difficult one, but we'll see if I really got nothing to handle that.

Thanks for the suggestions!