Ultra

Goldeen completely sucks in all other regards. Having a niche use for the first part of the game isn't a dealbreaker, it's fine.

Just a few notes - Get an hm slave(s) and don't waste moveslots on your main pokes - Consider Spikes for Greninja instead of Rock Smash - Consider Haze on Crobat instead of Bite - Give Sawk Retaliate or Counter to replace Rain Dance - Give Venusaur Leech Seed and Sleep Powder, forget strength and Nature Power - Give Arcanine Thunder Fang, Extreemspeed.

I think that Fern's not taking the whole Team Meteor thing very seriously, he's just rolling with it for now to get ahead/spite us. I can see him abusing/trying to take over a PULSE of his own, or some other powerful device of Meteor's, and getting sliced to pieces by Solaire's Garchomp. But hopefully, Ame will allow us the pleasure of Fern's demise.

Great line up. Glad to see some strong ghost pokemon being added. I love me some Trevenant. Druddigon is also a baller.

Get a shiftry. Gives you two cores for your team: Fire-Water-Grass and Dark-Psychic-Fighting, which is a nice offensive/defensive balance. If not shiftry then I would still either go for a good grass (Venusaur, Gogoat, Cradily) or Dark (Scrafty, Drapion, Umbreon) type options.

At least you didn't find the Helix fossil and revive it before discovering the Helix club and realizing what you wasted. *sobs*

Real answer: Get Drapion

It should be okay, but Baton Pass opens up soooo much more possibilities. If OP wants to breed that.

Interesting about Kiki. Is there a source for all this information about the characters/peeps they're based on? I didn't say it was silly for character arcs to bebased on RL events, just to say that it was silly to claim they had to be constrained by them. I think it's pretty cool, but since this is a fictional environment I also think there's some elbow room with what you can do with the characters, there has to be in order to translate actual, living people into a pokemon game. I disagree that RL based characters are automatically more interesting, however. Good writing can make fictional characters relatable and even bad writing can make realistic characters flat. It's all about execution.

Blaziken has an easier time setting up if you have knowledge on an opponent's pokemon/moveset, so I guess in the case of having a pre-planned set-up sweep Blaze Kick is superior. Since you have first hand experience I'll acknowledge that Blaze Kick is a valid option. Still think BP>Acrobatics, though.

Wait, you can save while playing Voltorb flip? ... That would have SAVED me a lot of time. Hahahaha ha.... Ugh.

I would like to see the furious reactions from people who can't handle a battle without "muh free switches".

...But they're still characters. Just because they're based off people doesn't mean their story has to reflect a real person's, that's silly. But if the real person suffers from memory loss, then I suppose that's more plausible. I still see no reason as to why that event would be captured in Shade's gym, since other characters seem to suffer from memory loss as well. 3/4 of the depictions in Shade's gym are deaths (2 confirmed, the other pretty obvious). So, Amaria dying is the most likely outcome.

Even after a Bulk up getting a KO with a Neutral STAB Blaze Kick is questionable on something with decent Bulk. You could use an extra Bulk up, but Blaziken is kind of frail and will struggle to survive a few hits from a decent attacker. Flare Blitz is better because you can KO many things even after 1 Bulk up, and a decent amount with no set up. I didn't say remove Bulk Up, I said get rid of Acrobatics in favor of BP. While Blaziken can 6-0 a team, it's fairly difficult to pull off unless it's a team that has a large disadvantage to him. You're probably better off on reliably taking out a few and then BP'ing your boosts on to something healthy

Bold prediction incoming: Amaria dies

Even considering that it's not really better. Coverage. Well, I'm assuming the other pokemon have SE coverage because of the standard moves they carry, can't be bothered to double check. 2 Night Slashes = 50% chance one is a crit = 2ko.

Funny how even plain grass is more OP than grass - the type.

No it's not. You're forgetting HP. Fine, with a fresh switch in Exca can just barely pull off the boost provided that there are no entry hazards, it doesn't get hit with status, and the opposing pokemon does not carry one of its common weaknesses as coverage. At the only pokemon you listed that you could set up on is Bisharp, maybe. Does Excadrill being able to set up in only highly specific situations make it THAT much better than Donphan? Not really.

Am I the only one who thinks Grassy Terrain amplifying fire moves is kinda stupid?

The rest of the team checking what hits it neutrally doesn't prevent neutral/special coverage from hitting Durant, which Donphan deals with better. Uh, didn't feel the need to address Gengar or Tyranitar, as you admitted they 2KO'ed. What's the 5th? And I don't see any more reason to bring this point up, I said Neutral stabs should 2KO as a rough estimate and I was fairly right. Doesn't change the fact that coverage merks him in the majority of cases.

Durant does have a decent amount of resistances, but 1/2 attacks still hit him neutrally, while Donphan is hit neutrally by about 3/4 of attacks. Not enough to make up for the physical bulk discrepancy. There. So...I did address all the Neutral stabs? Good. Also would like to point out that your calcs are off: You're calculating based off lv 100 damages. At lower levels attacks do more percentage wise.

Clefable

Relax. If the core of this discussion was about the viability of Durant than I would entertain you, but it isn't really that important in regards to the discussion, and there's no gaining leverage on that point if you're going to reach for straws by bringing up flinching as a defensive attribute, so....yeah. Uh, of course I didn't address the other ones. They weren't neutral STABS. I stated the "Basic bitch" thing in jest, a point in Excadrill's favor for being able to take that. Assuming it doesn't crit and that it doesn't get smacked with priority after being left with minimal HP.

Because some of your arguments are silly. Case in point: Durant isn't as bulky as Donphan, there's no arguing around that. wops, forgot Iron Head was a 5th gen move. Doesn't change the fact that two set up moves is unreasonable, that is, if you're expecting to get off both. Are these all accounting for the Gym Leader's best possible attacks against Excadrill? Becuase your point is moot if they have a SE attack to hit him with anyway, despite not being able to 2ko with a neutral move. Also, note that I specified a neutral STAB move should reliably 2KO. Lapras being an exception due to poor offense and Bisharp being a basic bitch for not carrying knock off.

I'm not missing what you're saying, I'm dismissing it because it's silly. That flinch chance doesn't take into account switching into other pokemon to take a hit, getting outsped and taking a hit, missing (in Durant's case), etc. It's not a factor that closes the gap in bulk. If you're at +2 Speed and Attack, then I supposed you don't need additional coverage. But, I've already addressed why Sandstorm + SD is terrible, so an extra move (Such as STAB Iron Head, or a move to cover Exca's vulnerabilities) is more useful. You don't need a SE move to kill Excadrill in two turns. A neutral stab from an average attacker will do.