ammonite

the shiny one imo. mainly saying that due to better defensive IVs and low speed IV (for gyro ball+trick room, but this is my preference). Swords Dance can make up for the difference in attack. Aegislash is always going to be slow, but you can make up for it with shadow sneak. Honestly even though the IVs (post game only) and nature can be changed, i think you can get success with pretty much anything as long as youre not doing a challenge run, so all ill say is dont stress about resetting over and over for something perfect :) if you do want some quality of life stuff regarding optimizing your pokemon i reccomend these passwords (spoilered since you discover them in-game):

I see that your Drapion has Merciless, are you using a mod? Just asking in case youre dealing with a non-vanilla Serra here. In general, I think you need more ground resists, since Manectic, Mawile, Drapion, and Garbodor are all weak to it. Its true that Charizard is immune, but it cant help you in Cave field (and similar) where leviating/flying pokemon can be hit. It also helps to have more selection to switch into different moves. I think replacing a Garbodor with a Grass-type in particular would be a good idea -> Charizard cant take Water and Electric moves but Grass types can, and Grass types bait in Bug, Poison, and Flying moves, which you already have resists to. Grass also gives you a super effective answer to those problematic Ground types as well. Im also going to reccomend some other pokemon, so if you need to drop another member, id reccomend ursaring. It is usable later on, especially since Trick Room is really soon. Id personally reccomend Leafeon since Eevee shouldve just become available to you, it learns Swords Dance and Sunny Day for its Chorophyll and Charizard's Solar Power. Even with Serra, it also baits in Ice moves (you can switch Mawile or another ice resistant pokemon into those). For Serra specifically, I usually go for breaking her field, which can be done with boomburst, bulldoze, earthquake, explosion, fissure, hyper voice, magnitude, self-destruct. If you dont want to train up anything special for this, graveler with sturdy can do this (I also think if its low enough level, leading glaceon will try to kill it instead of setting aurora veil). But you can get swinub wild in the railcave, which learns earthquake naturally and gets a field boost from snow cloak - just note that breaking the field kills anything without like, crit-blocking abilities. Also note that breaking the field does lose one relationship point with Serra. Its not a big deal if youre not a jerk to her elsewhere lol. If you dont want to break the field, Alolan Sandslash gets slush rush and super-effective Iron Head (you need to catch A.Sandshrew and not evolve until level 47?) By using Snatch (from an Onyx move tutor), you can steal Aurora Veil for yourself (if your pokemon snatches A. Veil while holding light clay, it will extend the duration) and then send in another pokemon to set up how you like. Taunt can also stop it from going up, but be aware of Magic Coat from the field seed. I hope that helps regardless if youre using a mod? Good luck either way!

Yes and no. the type chart itself is the same, however on some fields, such as Narcissa's haunted field, there can be some changes like normal being weak to ghost in this case. I cant recall any other fields other than haunted and blessed that have similar effects rn but if you check the field effect manual .txt file in the main game folder you can have a look for yourself.

Youre welcome! and yeah it can be tough skipping out on a beloved team member but i feel bad now so Ampharos w/ Ampharosite, leftovers, or healing item thunderbolt/thunder dragon pulse volt switch coverage move of choice mega ampharos is sloww (45) but that means its volt switch is really handy for bringing in other pokemon. Under tailwind mega ampharos basically has base 90 speed (same as klinklang) and regular ampharos has 55x2= 110 same as gengar, so you could absolutely make that work, especially in doubles and on certain fields. Remember theres the post game too, so you have a fair bit of time to use all your team members and have some fun.

Heres my thoughts on some general sets. They wont necessarily win every battle but they should be solid, and hopefully minimize trips to the move relearner. Metagross - a really good option since it excells with or without the mega, so you can save that for another member that could use it. I think regardless of how you want to run it you should have meteor mash and earthquake. If you want to run mega, you cant go wrong with 4 attacks or rarely 3 attacks + agility, say something like meteor mash, eq, bullet punch/coverage, zen headbutt/situational coverage. Without, I think you have a few more options like stealth rock and/or agility. Those sets could be something like stealth rock, meteor mash, eq, bullet punch/explosion/toxic or agility, meteor mash, eq, explosion/zen headbutt/coverage/bullet punch. Metagross benefits from pretty much any item but I think its great with weakness policy since that item can be annoying to fit on other pokemon. Dragonite is a great user of dragon dance due to multiscale, where as long as you dont take damage (hazards, faster attacks, switching into a move) youre probably guaranteed a turn of d dance. And then you can use extreme speed after that lmao. but you do need a full moveset. Id go with d dance, e speed, roost/earthquake/other coverage, fly/earthquake/dragon rush/dragon claw. Id say if you want a bulkier set up go with roost + fourth move, maybe even dragon tail, but if you want to use z-moves dragonite can use flyinium z or dragonium z on fly or dragon rush respectively. Dragon STAB is very helpful in the endgame, but flying hits more in general super effectively and isnt ignored by fairy (which is common entering endgame). Additionally consider that fly does work well with lefties (though I avoid using fly so i cant speak to how the AI reacts) Infernape is one of the few pokemon that can run mixed sets well, especially with a z move or a gem. Tbh id just pick any of infernape's high powered STAB : close combat, flare blitz, overheat (this one is fun to run with z move on phsyical sets imo), focus blast, fire blast, and some support moves or u-turn. So something like: Fire STAB, Fighting STAB, u-turn/fake-out (egg move!), will-o-wisp/taunt/stealth rock if you really need it. Of course you always do 4 attacks or 3 attacks + swords dance/nasty plot too. Choice items, Life orb, gems, or a generic boosting item are good choices. Just be mindful of infernapes frailty - you really want it to come in easy and scare/knock things out. I think Infernape is a great pokemon but depending on what you want, you could switch it out for charizard,arcanine, chandelure (I dont recomend having all of them on the same team for the most part) I think Krookodile is the most straightforward so far - Earthquake, crunch, knock off, then choice of coverage. I dont normally like outrage as coverage but if youre running choice scarf/tailwind/some kind of speed control it can be helpful in the late game. If you want to be funny, Krookodile does really well on Extreme Evoboost teams with power trip and beat up (both egg moves). go with focus sash or a dark type boosting item. unfortunately Im less confident in lapras and ampharos for the endgame, so its my recomendation that you switch them out with toxapex/a. ninetales/crobat/whimsicott/gengar. Not to say you couldnt succeed with them, but I think you might have to run trick room or some other accomodations to make it work. Ice STAB and Dragon STAB are both good to have, but there are better pokemon that have that. If you want me to elaborate how you could do that or my thoughts on any pokemon i didnt talk about, lmk. Lightening round for those suggestions: Toxapex w/ black sludge baneful bunker/toxic/toxic spikes scald recover haze/knockoff Good for being annoying and sitting on pokemon. baneful bunker is good for scouting the Ai's next move and haze shuts down set up. A. ninetales w/ light clay aurora veil moonblast/dazzling gleam blizzard/freeze-dry icy wind/hypnosis/taunt/encore Very good if you want to set up with dragonite (be wary of hail damage), charizard X, klinklang, or anyone else. Also makes your mistakes less punishing. It was on my elite 4 team! crobat w/ black sludge/focus sash tailwind u-turn taunt/super fang toxic/haze Recommending a more support-oriented set here. You could also do brave bird (egg move) or acrobatics with cross poison/poison fang with a flying boosting move if you wanted something else though. Poison STAB is appeciated late game but there are a few steel types wandering around, so you might get more mileage out of a fast toxic/haze/super fang for big bosses. Whimsicott w/focus sash, fairy boosting item, choice specs Moonblast/dazzling gleam Tailwind leech seed/switcheroo or encore (egg moves) Grass STAB/u-turn/Nature power/leech seed Whimsicott's fairy STAB is very good to have, so take that into consideration. Crobat may be the better tailwind setter in singles imo, but I think Whimsicott has a better balance of offense +support. Prankster nature power is nice to have but isnt always the best choice. Also remember that prankster doesnt work against dark types. Gengar w/ Gengarite perish song/destiny bond/grudge subsitute/taunt/will-o-wisp shadow ball/hex sludge bomb/wave Mega Gengars Shadow tag means as long as you dont switch it in on faster pokemon, you can set up perish song and stall or use destiny bond in a pinch. grudge is a niche pick but it can open up a lot of opportunities for sweeping. Gengar w/ focus sash, boosting item, ghost/fight z-move shadow ball sludge bomb/wave focus blast perish song/destiny bond/grudge/will-o-wisp Regardless of mega, gengar has a very useful STAB combo of ghost and poison + fighting coverage when it hits. It also appreciates any form of speed control, like tailwind, since it is very frail. If I was making a team, I might go with Metagross, Dragonite, Infernape, Whimsicott, Gengar, and A.Ninetales. Though I might switch Toxapex (edit:) or Krookodile in depending on whats going on. Thanks for reading my long post - good luck!

Sounds awesome If you didnt get Gengar fom the mystery egg Magneton and Salazzle should be pretty soon. Yeah its criminal Pangoro doesnt get like mach punch close combat or sucker punch :(

I think this team has a lot of potential, and should be decent for the point youre at, but here's the changes i'd make: Noivern: Agreeing that you should remove steel wing in place of boomburst, but id also reccomend removing roost for taunt/tailwind. Noivern unfortunately doesnt have the bulk where roost is effective, especially later on. If you want to run both taunt and tailwind, id drop hurricane/air slash unless youre heading into an area where those moves benefit from field/weather. And if you cant decide between taunt or tailwind, taunt is better if youre struggling due to hazards/reflect et al./opposing tailwind/status (bulkier teams) and tailwind is better youre struggling more with speed (more offensive teams), especially in doubles. Some item ideas could be sash, z-move, seed (best if it gives noivern a free turn via a protection effect like spiky sheid or stat buff), gem, or a generic boosting item. Alakazam: Yeah zam does benefit from dazzling gleam though icr if its available at the 9th badge. Id reccomend any of the following in the meantime: grass knot/energy ball, thunder wave, shadow ball,hidden power (ice, ground, fire, fairy are usually the best if no other coverage options are available). Id also slap calm mind on that beast too. A good multipurpose set for later could be: psychic, d.gleam, shadow ball, calm mind with life orb (magic guard=no recoil!) focus blast is another good option, just be aware of the accuracy. Luckily zam has a good movepool so its easy to customize for upcoming battles. Gogoat: Im gonna assume that youre not gonna breed a new gogoat with grassy terrain, so id reccomend something like horn leech, rock slide and/or earthquake, milk drink and/or bulk up with lefties or another recovery item if you dont want to use big root. If you do breed a new gogoat with grassy terrain because changing the terrain is very broken, do not run earthquake. Run stomping tantrum instead. Shockingly gogoat doesnt get swords dance??? bulk up is good though. Arcanine: Arcanine can get away with a lot of sets but one I really like is intimidate with snarl. If you keep Pangoro on your team, you dont really need Arcanine running a strong dark type move like crunch. Snarl is here for mainly support. Id reccomend a general set like: Flare blitz, snarl, extreme speed, bulldoze/outrage/wild charge/will'o'wisp/crunch. You could do heat wave over flare blitz especially for doubles and if you went all bulk on the evs. A bulky set would be heat wave, snarl, and any of e. speed/will'o'wisp/bulldoze with a recovery item. Empoleon: I have a lot of thoughts on empoleon cause it spends a lot of time waiting for its best moves to be available, so I find it a little annoying. However it does still get some nice tools and its typing is excellent. Before you get scald + flash cannon, I might go with stealth rock/knock off, aqua jet, hydro pump/surf, icy wind/knock off/mist (mist changes field, but only for like,,, 3 turns). Im not sure this set will be dishing out massive damage anytime soon but stealth rock and knock off are good additions to any team. When you do get some more options id suggest a late game set of scald, flash cannon/ice beam, aqua jet, hydro pump/knock off/stealth rock/icy wind. If you run hydro pump id run it as a z move to fix its bad accuracy, otherwise i reccomend a choice scarf/specs or lefties. If you wanna be funny heres a physical set: aqua jet, earthquake/rock slide, liquidation/rock slide, swords dance with defiant. Pangoro: Take my thoughts with a grain of salt since pangoro disappointed me a little when i was recently playing deso. I would first change the ability to something other than scappy since Pangoro's dark STAB solves its ghost problem. Mold breaker is mostly situational, so id go with iron fist. Pangoros best move imo is parting shot, since it can take adavantage of its slowness and give a free switch to a teammate, while dropping both attack and sp. attack of the opponent. I disagree in getting rid of bullet punch. Pangoro needs a speedy option and its one of the moves it gets that benefits from iron fist too, though a poison type coverage is a good idea in a pinch. Get rid of shadow claw instead. Additionally, while hammer arm is stronger, the speed lowering doesnt do you any favours. Unless you have a crazy trick room strat Id just go with drain punch for the recovery. Lastly, Id also run knock off, though crunch is also good. (knock off is stronger than crunch if and only if the opponent holds an item). So something like parting shot, knock off, drain punch, poison coverage/crunch is good. Overall: I like your team compositon - its very well rounded! You have the fire-water-grass core and alakazam does well paired with pangoro since it gets rid of ghost, dark, and steel types for it, and noivern and gogoat helps with both empoleon and arcanine being weak to ground. If i had to switch out a pokemon Id probably switch pangoro out for scrafty since it can do pretty similar things while also boosting with dragon dance, giving you a second intimidator, and giving you fake-out support too. Set for that: fake-out, dragon dance (these are egg moves!), drain punch/high jump kick, knock off/crunch. Id also say you should consider a pokemon that can check/counter fairy types more easily since pangoro and noivern are weak, and while arcanine can switch in, it cant threaten too much. Maybe consider an offensive steel or poison type that resists fairy. Sorry if this was too long :/ good luck!