Seel The Deal

Togekiss should always use Serene Grace; 60% flinch Air Slash on a super bulky 'mon with good speed is hella busted and lets you cheese a lot of stuff you have no right to be beating otherwise lol And yeah, I think the rain team I mentioned should be fine against most other teams. The only real issue would be other weather teams (particularly Sun) or fields where Rain can't be set, and in that case you might struggle, but both of those tend to be very rare. (keep in mind I was suggesting Shedinja as a temporary measure just for Amaria if you still struggle, I would never recommend Shedinja for a team lol) Infernape is available on the renovated Azurine Island, I think it's time specific too. Excadrill isn't pre-Arclight, it's a wild encounter in the desert I believe.

@D0ublesh0ts Enemies' HP also isn't that high yet. It should be a consistent 3/4HKO throughout the game as long as you keep your Blissey as high a level as it can be. The only exception would be overleveled PULSE/boss 'mons that Blissey wouldn't be useful against anyway without Toxic.

Over 200 hours after EV-Training and grinding a full box of team members as well as completing the dex to get Naganadel.

Cofagrigus is one of the best Ghost 'mons in Reborn thanks to the combination of amazing bulk (58/145/105 is nothing to laugh at, even beating out Aegislash in the physical defense department), Nasty Plot via breeding with Spiritomb, and Trick Room via TM. It can also very effectively play a strictly defensive role with Will-O-Wisp, Hex and Infestation. Drifblim isn't bad, but if you're looking for a tanky Ghost, nothing beats Cofagrigus and nothing ever will. I'd still say that getting the Drifloon is worth it, though. It's not hard to catch and you have to fight it at some point anyway if you want all the dept. store stickers.

Remember: since pokemon won't disobey if they level up in battle anymore, you're safe to train to the cap for any leader that increases your level cap. This turns your level 32s and 33s into 35s, which seems minor, but makes a HUGE difference in being able to 1HKO/2HKO certain things. One thing I've learned about Shelly in my playthroughs of Reborn is to not get stuck on trying to abuse her weaknesses, especially Fire. If Rain gets up, abuse it better than she does. Or just load up on bulky 'mons which prey on the secondary types of Shelly's team - Electric types are particularly effective. Burning the field and throwing birds at her can be very effective, but if it's not working, try something different.

Ludicolo will do amazingly against Amaria. Shedinja is immune to her entire team outside of Lapras' Perish Song in the Doubles versions of the battle, so you can also just train one of those up quickly and stall her out with Toxic + Phantom Force.

I'm gonna second Ludicolo, then on top of that, have a rain setter (Pelipper and Politoed are the only options for Drizzle but plenty of 'mons can use Rain Dance effectively), and possibly round it off with Swampert for when the mega stone is available. It just seems like your team is really well set up to turn into a rain team overall. Kingdra is another good option for a Rain abuser (I'd put it over either Greninja or Swampert, or even keep a rotation so you can use all 7 'mons), and can run either a physical set with Dragon Dance/Waterfall/Outrage/whatever or a special set with Scald/Hydro Pump/Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse or Icy Wind or whatever else seems good. Nice thing about this is, even though it's a lot of water types, the secondary types balance it out to leave very few shared weaknesses. Greninja and Swampert share Grass, Greninja and Togekiss share Electric, Mega Ampharos and Kingdra share Dragon, Ludicolo and Togekiss share Poison, and Mega Ampharos, Greninja, and Kingdra all share Fairy - but realistically, Greninja's Protean makes the first 2 irrelevant. Offensive type coverage wouldn't be an issue either, as between Water, Flying, Electric, and Dragon you already have perfect neutral coverage, and Grass, Electric, Flying, Dark and Ground allow you to cover most things super-effectively.

The level cap for the next leader is 35, it'll be fine at 32. Easily accessible Dark types include the Poochyena and Purrloin in the Peridot alleyways.

I'd recommend swapping Noibat for something that beats Chatot, evolving Pancham (level 32 + dark type in party), and then leading with Pangoro + Meowstic. Have Meowstic set up Light Screen and let Pangoro go wild - Pangoro has a good matchup against 4/6 'mons in this fight and every single one of their Pokemon is a special attacker bar Umbreon who's 4x resisted.

You can get Calm Mind if you fight Radomus on a previous episode, but on E18 it's not obtainable. EDIT: Mawile wasn't moved to the wasteland! Just encountered it in the part of the railnet accessible with Rock Smash. @satchit

Oh, did Mawile get moved to the wastelands? That's a little bit further, I think 2 gyms away, but still not too far from where you are. The matchups in between aren't great for Blissey, so definitely wait for Seismic Toss. I'd recommend the second moveset more partially because Leftovers isn't available until much later and partially because Seismic Toss is probably your best bet for damage in most cases (Blissey's Sp. Atk for using Round is only 75, which isn't awful considering Lopunny makes due for quite a while with 76, but Lopunny also has a ton of strong moves available and a lot of great coverage).

Round is a TM you can get with 4 stickers and will be your best attacking move for a long while. Charge Beam also exists. Fling will do absolutely nothing off of Blissey's base 10 attack, even with an Iron Ball or a fossil. Light Screen at level 50 and Sing at 31 are probably your other best moves. Honestly though, even though it seems like a lot of trouble, I really would recommend breeding. It doesn't take as long as you'd expect, actually; IIRC since Happiny is a baby Pokemon you'd need an incense to get it, meaning you'll get Chansey when you breed and won't need to mine a new Oval Stone. Even if you do need to breed to Happiny for some reason, the Oval Stone isn't too uncommon so you can just reset in front of a glowing rock until you get one. Counter isn't an egg move you can get for a very long time, unless you happened to get Shroomish in your mystery egg. Seismic Toss should be available if you've got a mining kit since that means you have Rock Smash too. Heal Bell/Aromatherapy isn't an awful egg move to consider since you don't really have many other good options this early. It is worth noting that there's a mod which lets you relearn egg moves at the move relearner in Obsidia. That'll be a few more badges down the line, but if you really can't be bothered to breed, it's probably your easiest option.

Well, Infernape would be neutral to the Chess attacks in particular, but I think he still has non-Chess psychic attacks on his physical attackers. So yeah, you'll want to consider some team switchups. It's probably doable but not really worth it. Honchkrow can put in good work against him with Sucker Punch (ignores Trick Room) + Moxie, and really any strong physical attacker not weak to Psychic will put a dent in one or two of his 'mons. Bring a Fire type for his Metagross and you'll be golden. Don't rely too heavily on Dark types, because his Gardevoir will fuck them up big time, as will his Malamar.

The only 'mons on this team that will scale well into lategame are Muk (if it's Alolan) and Meowstic (but only as a suicide screen setter). This team will be amazing throughout the midgame but after a certain point you might want to consider some changes. I'd recommend catching whatever you come across and keeping your options open. I'd also recommend a 6th team member. Being on even terms with the gym leaders is huge.

Seconding Mankey, in addition to what Vinnie said it gives some AMAZING egg moves to some Pokemon very early on, particularly Close Combat, Thrash, Outrage and Stomping Tantrum.

I don't know the strength glitch myself, someone else would have to comment on that. But since you're post-Ciel you don't need to worry about it anyway, it would only help you on future playthroughs.

Maybe I'm misremembering and it's Citrine Mountain? It's whichever one you're able to reach from Aventurine Woods. Replacing Zen Headbutt isn't really an easy decision to make and it really depends what you value more: coverage or power. Keep in mind Steel/Fighting or Ice/Psychic is already fairly solid coverage. As for items, Assault Vest, Choice Band, and Iron Plate/Metal Coat are my personal favorites, but Rocky Helmet and Expert Belt aren't bad options either. Whatever you pick, make sure it isn't compromising Metagross's role as a bulky attacker (e.g. nothing with self damage). If you're replacing Flare Blitz I'd probably go with Blaze Kick, since with Wide Lens that's 99% accuracy and trading 1% accuracy for an extra 10 power over Fire Punch is very worth it. Personally I wouldn't replace Baton Pass since passing +1 attack and defense and a fuckton of speed to something else once Blaziken comes up against a hard-counter is absolutely amazing, but if you're going with coverage, Stone Edge and Thunderpunch are your 2 best options. Ampharos can get Electric Terrain through breeding, then for your last slot Signal Beam is probably more valuable than Power Gem since the latter has some redundant coverage (Flying) and is resisted by Ground. Whichever one you choose still leaves you walled by Steel/Ground though, so it doesn't matter too much.

It's possible to get a Life Orb from Ametrine Mountain the moment you beat Ciel (or pre-Radomus with a Strength glitch), and you can get a 2nd from the event Absol. I don't know about any 3rd Life Orb after Hardy though... Bullet Punch and Agility on the same set for Metagross is somewhat redundant and only having STAB moves leaves you walled by a lot. I'd recommend Hammer Arm or Fire Punch over one of those two moves (probably Agility). Ice Punch and Thunder Punch are also good options. You can also forego Zen Headbutt for even better coverage at the cost of a STAB move. Your Blaziken is extremely suicidal. It's not a bad set by any means and Flare Blitz + HJK as STAB has its advantages but consider a more reliable STAB, so you can have one for raw power and one for frailer 'mons that you OHKO anyway. You have two Light Screen users; I'd consider replacing it on one of them (can either learn Reflect?) Garchomp is probably best run with Outrage/Dragon Claw, Stone Edge, Flamethrower/Fire Fang/Iron Head, and Stomping Tantrum/Bulldoze. Jolly Nature is recommended (Naive if you go for Flamethrower). Choice Band, Life Orb, and Rocky Helmet are all generally good options, while Garchompite is only really useful if you have Sand up or desperately need the bulk. There are a few good Fairies to choose from atm - you can get Togekiss not long after Titania and Azumarill isn't too far in the future either. Gardevoir is also a great option, and a more defensive option is Clefable.

^ You can also go with Mankey, as its STAB Cross Chop is not only by far the strongest Fighting move available at that point (tied with the same move used by Guts Teddiursa), it also has a high crit rate to get around Stockpile.

Swoobat works wonders with a bit of luck - Charge Beam on something that can't hurt it much to get +2 boosts 70% of the time and then Air Cutter to rip her team to shreds (at +6 it does around 75% to Cradily I believe, everything else is OHKO). (You can also switch train the Swoobat to level 29 where you get Calm Mind for guaranteed +2 to SpAtk and SpDef, then de-level it so it obeys you for the fight). You can catch a level 15 Woobat in the Obsidia entrance to the Railnet. Klink can also be found there and will take care of Cradily well. Toxic Spikes from a Trubbish will help a lot with everything but Ferroseed.

If you happen to have done the event pre-agate that gets you a Plume/Cover fossil and picked Plume and restored it, Archeops literally solos the gym as long as it outspeed Typhlosion (215 speed, so you need 216) If not, I'd at least recommend switching out your Fire-weak 'mons for some hard-hitting Water and Rock types. pix~ Ametrine Mountain is home to Sealeo (Thick Fat means it's still Fire-resistant despite being part Ice) and Floatzel, and Route 2 has Rhyhorn and Rhydon. pix~ Sealeo in particular can certainly live a few hits to remove the field with Blizzard (level 49) and can spam STAB Surf freely against her whole team. pix~ Just watch out for Rotom-H. pix~ You can also use her own field against her - set it on fire and spam Heat Wave, Lava Plume and Eruption with any 'mons you have that can get those moves. pix~ Her Typhlosion has Flash Fire but everything else on her team should fall to this. pix~

Well, the nice thing about Hail's residual damage is I can build my team in any way to get around it/mitigate it, by bringing 'mons like Serperior and Mienshao who can heal themselves and avoiding 'mons that damage themselves or rely on having full HP like Dragonite or Staraptor. But it could be annoying in some scenarios, I'll give you that. My only problem with Mamoswine is I've just used it too much. Almost every playthrough I grab a Piloswine with Icicle Crash the moment I beat Shelly. It's a great 'mon and would definitely fit on the rotation but I want to try something a little different. But with all that being said...

My plan for Saphira's gym is actually to abuse the Cave field with Rock Tomb/Slide/Stone Edge spam, since it's likely we'll fight on the Dragon's Den field and one use of Hydro Vortex makes that a Cave. Ice types would definitely work too though, and I'll probably consider Ninetales because it's a good Specs user and I actually have nothing making use of that item yet. I have a level 75 Mimikyu sitting around, but haven't raised it because the IVs are kinda shite and Swords Dance isn't here quite yet. Could definitely breed a better one, though. My main problem is the lack of a strong Ghost STAB on it - Shadow Claw is the best one-turn move you'll get, and coming off of only 90 base attack, that's... not exactly impressive, even at +2. I want a ghost type that can abuse its STAB a bit more. Still, it's not an awful option - just not one I'm necessarily looking for. Unfortunately, as you said, Trevenant just gets shut down a bit too easily. It has a ton of defensive utility and an amazing movepool, but it doesn't have the bulk or speed to make use of it.

Mega-Pinsir is an incredible sweeper as is Gyarados, Gliscor and Togekiss are probably the best bulky Flying types around, and Archeops is the very definition of hyper offense. Talonflame is underrated; priority Brave Bird isn't so spammable anymore but it's still fast enough to outpace literally everything anyway and if you really need the priority Acrobatics works wonders. Talonflame is also one of the best Will-O-Wisp users because it can burn things before they get the chance to attack and has a decent physically defensive typing.

I made a post like this a little while back before I fought Hardy, and I've made quite a few changes/additions to my roster since then, so I figured I'd make a post like this again. Just looking for team and moveset suggestions (no egg move suggestions for existing members though, each individual member takes multiple hours to EV train and raise to level 90+ and I don't want to deal with that on top of having to do breeding shenanigans). I was considering training up an Aegislash but decided against it as I already have 5 Steel types lying around, but I do need a Ghost, since I retired my Mismagius. I'm also fine on Dragons atm; between Naganadel, Dragonite and Salamence I should have that type covered sufficiently enough. I'll probably add the 2 most agreed upon team members, since that'll make a full box of members. I'll post my mons' current movesets in a spoiler here, with moves/items/abilities in bold being ones I'm unsure about, crossed out being unobtainable but planned to be a substitute for whatever is currently there (not a full replacement) and italics being temporary until something else becomes obtainable: Everything I currently have is between levels 92 and 95 except for the 5 most recent additions - Gyarados (Lana), Blaziken (Kiyo), Rhyperior (Ujiyaso), Lucario (Maylene) and Naganadel (Aya) who are all between 70 and 72 and are still in training. (Suggestions for where to raise them would be nice - Grand Hall trainers give jack for EXP through EXP Share and are too strong for most of these guys to fight them on their own still). also lowkey taking name suggestions Edit to avoid a double post: Decided to train an offensive Trick Room Cofagrigus with Shadow Ball/Trick Room/Nasty Plot/either Hidden Power if it's Fighting or Grass Knot (to be replaced by Energy Ball) if it's not. I've got a full box now, but suggestions are still welcome!