kostaras

Now that I'm thinking about it we'll probably get CS after the last Gym, since it's pretty powerful. I can imagine a few pokemon that can run through dragon types with CS like hot knife through butter. Band + Specs will carry you through a lot of things. AV on Arcanine for that sweet Intimidate + AV semi-wall will also come through. Good luck on your item hunt!

Your team is pretty good so far. Sylveon with its Misty Terrain is a pretty cool way to deal with Field Effects; since most Gyms rely on them, that's great. Other than that, you really don't have too many answers for Dragon Types which is likely going to be the last Gym (I say likely because something might change in Ep 19). It would be wise to train a couple of Pokemon as Dragon answers (e.g. Ice types, Steel types, Stealth Rocks for Dragonite's Ability) . As stated above, Extremespeed on Arcanine is pretty cool because having the ability to send Arcanine out and reliably kill a Pokemon that is almost dead is pretty important. You could also consider giving Sharpedo Ice Fang instead of Waterfall for the Gym to maybe kill one more Dragon before it has to Destiny Bond away. Now for something a bit weirder that you might want to consider, which is why I think Decidueye is a pretty underrated Starter. It has almost identical Attack and Special Attack and gets Nasty Plot by level up. You could pretty easily have it relearn Leaf Storm, teach it Shadow Ball and have a 4th move of your choosing, creating a pretty powerful Special Attacker. In any case, you would benefit from finding either Grassium Z (or Ghostium but it's not in the game yet) if you're going Special, or Decidium Z if you stick with Physical, so you could go out and try to find them. As for Donphan, you might want to give Mudsdale a shot since it's pretty much Donphan 2.0 but if you like it there's not much more to say. The only thing your team is really lacking in is items. You for sure need to get Leftovers, Assault Vest, Life Orb, a few Z-Crystals and the Choice items. You never know when that extra Speed from Choice Scarf or extra umph from Choice Specs/Band might help you win. And the no other moves restriction is less severe since you can just switch out after a KO instead of having to waste a turn to do it. So in essence, prepare for a possible Dragon Gym, get a couple of high quality items and Z-Crystals, check out Mudsdale, get bored and catch all available pokemon like I did and mentally prepare for some crazy hard battles. Seriously. It's the last episode. We're all gonna die.

Oh yeeeah, I completely forgot about Terra. So yeah, with Dragon types being probably the next step, I was thinking about changing things up a bit. I found out that Kangaskhan can learn Ice Punch which will probably melt most Dragon types through Parental Bond. Now I will probably train up an A-Ninetales in case it's not enough it probably won't be and probably even a Weavile too. Hmmmm, I will probably keep the team as is then for the time being, because I consider Kangaskhan stronger than Gardevoir when it comes to megas. We'll see tho!

Hey! Thanks for the reply! I did try to go for a balanced team that would play off of each other's strengths, so I'm glad it comes across as one! So! Yeah, it would take a lot of convincing to get me to swap Aegislash out for something else after all the amount of work it has put in so far. Wait, Alakazite is in the game?! If so, I do agree that Mega-Zam suits my team quite well and yeah, as you said, Trace is a really cool ability, especially considering we'll probably face too many a lot of strong pokemon in Ep 19. Also, I never thought about Grass Knot, thanks! If Mega-Zam is indeed in the game, it does actually mean that Kangaskhan wouldn't make the final cut. My first instinct is to find an intimidate user, OR a strong electric type because my team doesn't have many of those, although if I'm not mistaken we might be facing a Ground-type leader next, so there's that. I also thought about having Swampert instead of Seismitoad and I have one fully trained in the PC waiting. It is not quite as bulky, but it does hit harder. The reason why I settled for Seismitoad is because it fills the role of a defensive answer to fire types a tad bit better. Oh yeah, I am fully prepared to have to adjust for some really difficult battles. Umbreon would fit nicely in the chance I have to Toxic stall some seriously annoying threat, which I have done in the past against the likes of Arceus. I was also always fond of Tyranitar, so I do consider that a possible option too! A-Ninetales on the other hand I have never tried, although the Ice type Gym certainly made me hate it just a little bit! I have given my Naganadel enough EVs in both Speed and SpAtk so that what gets Beast Boosted depends 100% from the Nature. I will first test out Nasty Plot and Speed+ Boost and if I find that I'm just not hitting hard enough, I will switch it from Timid to Modest and go for 4 offense and SpAtk+ Boost. Also my reasoning behind Dragonium-Z is that it helps guarantee that first Speed Boost, after which I don't think many teams are able to stop Naganadel from running through them. Again, thanks for giving out suggestions, especially when it comes to Alakazam!

Hello everyone! This is going to be my second post ever so here's hoping it is well structured! Anyway, on to the topic at hand. With ep. 19 on the distant horizon, I thought about making a really good team to prepare for what Ame might have in store. I did some heavy grinding and decided to catch them all. With so many options available to me I tried to come up with something good, but I don't know where to take it from here. For anyone that hasn't yet seen what the prize for catching 731 pokemon is, mild spoilers ahead for what it may be! Damocles (Aegislash) holding Leftovers Steel/Ghost EVs: 252 HP, 40 Atk, 218 SpDef Impish Nature - Shadow Sneak - Iron Head - King's Shield - Swords Dance Oh man I love this pokemon so much. King's Shield is an amazing move and the amount of battles in which Aegislash simply ended up sweeping with 1 or at most 2 SDs is so damn high. The only part I don't know whether I did correctly was the EVs. My idea was that with its amazing defensive stats it could tank 1-2 shots from pokemon and then proceed to hit them back with +2 or +4 Attack. Now there are some pokemon that I simply can't do that against, but with King's Shield and Leftovers it's possible to potentially outlast them. Metagrass (Ferrothorn) holding Rocky Helmet Grass/Steel EVs: 252 HP, 2 Atk, 92 Def, 164 SpDef Relaxed Nature - Gyro Ball - Power Whip - Spikes - Leech Seed Ever since BW came around, I've always been a fan of Ferrothorn. With only 2 Leftovers being available in-game afaik, I decided to go with Rocky Helmet and give it Leech Seed for some passive recovery. The great reliability of being able to switch Ferrothorn out on so many threats is really valuable to me, especially if some of my pokemon are in need of a Revive Potion or two. I've grown quite fond of this small wall of grass. Croax (Seismitoad) holding Leftovers Water/Ground EVs: 252 HP, 40 Def, 218 SpDef Impish Nature - Scald - Earthquakepls Stomping Tantrum - Toxic - Stealth Rocks As you might have noticed my team so far has a huge weakness against fire types. Seismitoad is here to fill the role of a good anti-fire pokemon, but Toxic and Stealth Rocks are two undeniably good moves too. My only question is whether or not Tantrum is better than Bulldoze. I don't know if the loss of power is worth the -1 Speed, so I'm looking for suggestions on that one! Spoudini (Alakazam) holding Life Orb Psychic EVs: 252 SpAtk, 252 Speed Timid Nature - Psychic - Dazzling Gleam - Shadow Ball - Shock Wave With Alakazam being one of my favorite pokemon out there, I got Abra as soon as I was able to. Its insane Speed and the fact that it hits like a truck are some of its advantages, with its really limited movepool being the only major downside. I really couldn't find a better move for that 4th slot, although suggestions are again quite welcome. Marzilla (Mega-Kangaskhan) holding Kangaskhanite Normal EVs: 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed Jolly Nature - Fake Out - Return - Power-Up Punch - Sucker Punch For my mega slot I chose Kangaskhan simply because I find Parental Bond to be a crazy powerful ability. I made sure to give it a lot of haircuts and pokesnax so Return can hit for absurd amounts of damage and Power-Up Punch because who doesn't like a +2 with a side of damage! I haven't actually tested it in a serious battle because I got the stone way after beating Ep. 18 so this is probably the pokemon that I'm least attached to. Trypanophobe (Naganadel) holding Dragonium-Z Poison/Dragon EVs: 4 Def, 252 SpAtk, 252 Speed Timid Nature - Sludge Wave - Draco Meteor - Flamethrower - Nasty Plot I can say, I really didn't expect this to be the prize for catching all 731 available pokemon, but I'm not going to complain about it. While, similarly to Kangashkan, I haven't tested this pokemon out, I can really tell that if this monster of a pokemon gets going it can easily sweep through almost anything. I'm looking forward to using it when Ep 19 comes around. And that's it! I hope this isn't too hard to read and thanks in advance for making it this far!

The main reason I have Alomomola instead of any other Water with good Def is the fact that it gets that juicy protect. I haven't really had a chance to see it perform against many pokemon, but the theory behind it is I can always have it as an option About Amoonguss, I really like Clear Smog, it's helped me way too much against set up pokemon and unlike Breloom it will 100% live a hit to fire off Spore, whereas Breloom could easily fall to a super effective move, especially flying type. Besides that, I have thought about switching up the defenses. For example have a physically defensive Grass type (ex. Ferrothorn, Tangrowth) and then a specially defensive Water type (ex. Tentacruel) The biggest reason I opted for a physically defensive Water type is so that I could have some sort of answer for Exca because it base outspeeds Blaziken so that answer is out of the equation. I have it with Scald specifically to deal with those types of mons. I do agree tho that EQ as a move is the bane of my team. Skarm is a good option. Would it go in place of Metagross? Pure Ghost types could be a problem yeah. My biggest answer to them is Metagross' Pursuit and zam's Shadow Ball. Shadow Claw is that last resort option, which I hope to some day replace with Knock Off, because a +1 Knock Off that knocks an item will probably 1-2 hit any pure Ghost types. But I usually target Ghost types on their secondary type. I do agree though that my options against Ghost types are a bit limited. To be honest, I had Blaziken with Jolly because it was the first out of the 2 natures to pop up at the nature change building. I spent over 30-40 Heart Scales (had to reset a few times) to get it there. Flare Blitz does have a nasty recoil, but realistically Blaziken's job is to outspeed stuff and kill it. Rarely will it survive a hit, so in the grand scheme of things the raw power it adds helps a lot, especially against stuff that Blaze Kick couldn't hope to KO. A change I was debating was removing the 2 recoil moves in HJK and Flare Blitz by getting Low Kick instead. I'm guessing a lot of mons in the end game will be on the heavier side and I know a Low Kick will destroy Hydreigon's life when we get there (if we get there) Amoonguss is one of those mons that doesn't look appealling until you use it. I like having the ability to simply switch to it any time some water type shows up. The only issue is it doesn't get Leech Seed. Roserade I have actually never used, so I might give it a go. While Alomomola isn't the most exciting mon ever, it's not bad. Its main advantages over Vaporeon is that Wish can be used to allow something else to switch in and get fully healed (because at base 165 hp it WILL heal whatever I switch in to full) and the physical defense lets me deal with ground types a lot better. Slowking is one of my other options, as is Starmie. Out of the rest, I can see Gyarados working. Immunity to Ground types and Intimidate are both things my team could use. No, since the move gets "overwritten" by Devastating Drake. I actually didn't consider Wide Lens MM (and Zen Headbutt). I will lose the bulk of AV but it might be just fine. It's a funny thing. I used to have Zam and Gengar on the team some time ago, but Gengar couldn't pull its own weight anymore, especially since Levitate was removed. I couldn't agree more on Zam's atrocious movepool, combined with the fact that we don't get a lot of the good TMs you could slap on it. But its main role on the team is to be a very very strong special attacker, just like Garchomp is a very strong physical attacker (esp with that Z-move). With that in mind, I would swap it out for another strong special attacker, so that I have a way to deal with high Def low Sp.Def pokemon. Unfortunately Dark types have been heavily shafted in the strong Sp.Atk department (unless it's a legendary or Hydreigon). Still, I am quite open to getting rid of it, since as a type Psychic is really underwhelming. If I'm not mistaken, LBP2's suggestion was to add a Levitate or Flying mon to be able to deal with EQ easier. I really liked your Gyarados suggestion and I'm really fond of Garchomp and the ability to open up with it every single battle and either set up Rocks or kill something. The 25 power I lose from not having EQ is a lot, but I think it's worth the sacrifice. Thanks for the feedback, I will mess around with some of the options before E18 hits! I was thinking about Mega Pinsir, but the issue is that Blaziken becomes better at what MP does after 1-2 turns. I will give it a shot though, since MP is a very powerful mon

So, having completed the main story of EP17 (and some of the sidequests) I want to focus on making a good team to prepare for EP18. Any suggestions about movesets and/or different pokemon are appreciated. Here is the comp as it stands now: Blaziken: Jolly @ Expert Belt (or Blazikenite Ame pls) Ability: Speed Boost EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP Bulk Up Hi Jump Kick Flare Blitz Shadow Claw My starter. Can be a force to be reckoned with after setting up 1 or 2 Bulk Ups with Speed Boost. Even if it falls in battle, it will usually take 1 or 2 enemy Pokemon with it. Amoonguss: Calm @ Black Sludge Ability: Regenerator EVs: 252 HP, 40 Def, 216 Sp.Def Spore Giga Drain Synthesis Clear Smog Spore is the best move in the game. I can't tell you how many times I've had Amoonguss switch in on a threat, Spore it and then safely go out to something else to beat it. Alomomola: Bold @ Leftovers Ability: Regenerator EVs; 40 HP, 252 Def, 216 Sp.Def Scald Toxic Wish Protect I had Milotic in this slot, but the healing from Wish and the ability to stall against some Pokemon brings a lot of utility. Garchomp: Jolly @ Dragonium-Z Ability: Rough Skin EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 Sp.Def Stealth Rocks Stomping Tantrum (Soon to be Earthquake... soon) Outrage Stone Edge A very solid Pokemon. I can start with it up front on almost every battle and either set up Rocks or kill something if it feels like a big enough threat. Metagross: Adamant @ Assault Vest Ability: Clear Body EVs: 252 HP, 160 Atk, 98 Sp.Def Meteor Mash Bullet Punch Pursuit Thunder Punch This pokemon took so long to train that I'm sweating at the thought. Whenever I see a Psychic or Fairy type, Metagross will most likely be there to beat them to the ground. I hope. Thunder Punch could be swapped out for Ice Punch, I haven't decided yet. Alakazam: Timid @ Life Orb Ability: Magic Guard EVs: 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP Psychic Dazzling Gleam Shadow Ball Recover Last but not least, we have Alakazam. Thank God we got Dazzling Gleam because Alakazam's movepool is absolute trash, only saved by how powerful a STAB LO Psychic can be. And that's it. This is my main team. I was hesitant at first having 2 Psychic types on the same team and one of my main thoughts is whether or not I could (and should) swap Metagross out for say an Aegislash. Feel free to suggest things, and I hope the formatting isn't too bad. Thanks in advance.