TEAM BUILDING
Some Basic Stuff
1. Never have two damaging moves of the same type. ex. Hydro Pump and Surf. Waste of space when you can counter your type and stop wasting a turn on switching. One will always be superior to the other, and wasting your time on an inferior move is not good. Most pokemon learn many moves, and you can find many better replacements. Go with listed in the best attacking moves of each type. They have more staying power, less weaknesses to a long battle, and not missing in a crucial moment.
2. Defensive moves do NOT suck. An example is T-Wave. All you need to do is get him fully paralyzed 1 time to pay off. It may pay off anyway, with the lowered speed w/o being fully Paralyzed. Same with Confuse Ray, but one pays off cause you get them damaged, and they waste the turn you supposedly wasted on using Confuse Ray. Poison and Burn suck for the most part, don’t use them, unless poison for Toxicstorm. Freeze should not be counted on to hit, but if it does, you’re lucky. Sleep is decent but if you want to put paralyze or poison in, start the sleeper.
3. Have a balanced team. ex. Don't have 6 water types. One well-placed pokemon will kill your entire team. These teams will be easy to counter, and easy to pick apart. Bad.
4. NO pokemon is unbeatable. NO team is unbeatable. People will make counters, and kick your *** , when they know what you are doing.
5. All two turn moves suck. No exception. Fly and Dig are bad because they let teams set plans in motion. You can also switch out. It’s good if you want that extra turn, on Toxicstorm teams, though. Hyper Beam is also bad. If you are slower than them, 3 hits they’re going to get on you, if you don’t KO them. Most pokemon can’t survive 3 turns. If you switch, that’s another free shot. Any other two-turn moves suck because another move can do more in the time it takes to get one super-powerful move up.
6. Surf is the ONLY good HM. (Fly is useful in certain cases, on a Toxic Crobat or Toxicstorm team to evade using Leftovers, to help Toxic/Sandstorm/Confusion last longer in the long run, or Whirlpool to trap them in and let them do their work)
7. Have one move (at least) that counter your type. ex. Tyranitar usually has Fire Blast so he counter his disadvantages of Grass and Bug. You use this to stop wasting turns from switching out. Switching out results in more damage, and a free move. Not good. Besides, switching a cleaner/tank/BPer out is bad.
8. Try having STAB moves. STAB stands for Same Type Attack Bonus. Using a move of your pokemon's type will make the damage 1.5x the normal damage. For example, if a Charizard and Tyrantitar had the same SA, and they fought the exact same Blissey, and Tyranitar's Fire Blast did 100 damage to Blissy, then Charizard's would do 150. However, don't overdo stab moves. If a pokemon's type if rock and they have incredibly low attack, then you shouldn't use a stab move.
The best conventional attacking moves of each type:
Normal: Body Slam/Return
Fire: Flamethrower
Water: Surf
Electric: Thunderbolt
Grass: Giga Drain
Ice: Ice Beam
Fighting: Cross Chop
Poison: Sludge Bomb
Ground: Earthquake
Flying: Drill Peck (Aeroblast is better but I didn't put it down since only Lugia learns it.)
Psychic: Psychic (Dream Eater is better when your opponents asleep, but that happens rarely)
Bug: Megahorn
Ghost: Shadow Ball
Dragon: Dragonbreath (not that good, use only on Dragons)
Steel: Steel Wing (not that good, use only on Steel types, or guys with bad move selection)
Dark: Crunch
9. Surprise your opponent. Throwing them offguard often means crucial mistakes, and easy wins.
10. Don't have attacks that go against your stats. For example, Jolteon with Double Kick is stupid considering his Attack. Same with Stellix and Crunch, except Steelix has bad SA.
12. Combos rule!
Rain Dance/Thunder
Mean Look/Fissure or Horn Drill or Guillotine/Lock-on or Mind Reader
Sunny Day/Solar Beam (don’t use on Grass, suicide, when a Fire-type comes out)
BP/Mean Look (pass Mean Look) (they can’t switch, they become that more predictable)
Toxic/Spikes/Sandstorm/Swagger or Confuse Ray (slowly waste them down)
Confuse Ray/T-Wave (evil, they hit you rarely, super annoying)
Double Team/Rest (pure evil, hard to take down, hard to hit)
Reflect/Light Screen/Safeguard (psuedopassing, hard to real damage, hard get in something)
Curse/Return (hits hard, OHKO’s)
Mean Look, Whirlpool, Wrap, Fire Spin, Clamp/Perish Song (kamikaze)
Psyche Up/Roar (destroys BP teams)
Psyche Up/Swagger (make their stats good, but when they hit themselves that’s a lot of damage, get those stats with Psyche Up, knock them out with max attack)
Rest/Mint Berry (another life in one turn)
13. Play to your surroundings. If your neighborhood has a bunch of teams with only Normal-Type pokemon, bring in a fighting type, like Machamp. If your neighborhood has no Hazers, bring in a bunch of DT’ers, Curser’s and BP’ers. If your neighborhood has nothing Haze works against, don’t have Haze.
14. Good defensive moves (quality is as good as the best attacking moves of each type, quality MUST be as good as a STAB move from best attacking moves of each type, feel free to add on):
Spore (100% sleep, what's not to like)
Recover (huge PP, half your Hp back, you can keep using Recover till your back to full health)
Thunder Wave (slows the opponent and Paralyzes them sometimes)
Confuse Ray (half the time they hit themselves)
Softboiled (same as Recover with less PP)
Double Team (use with Recovering move, full Double Teamed full Recovered, if the opponent don't have a Hazer, you are dead meat)
Haze (anyone with DT and a resting move will kill you w/o this, or any good team with stat changing)
Moonlight (powered up by Sunny Day, 1/2 your HP back in link battles)
Morning Sun (same as Moonlight)
Synthesis (same as Moonlight)
Sunny Day (use with Fire move/Solar Beam/Moonlight/Synthesis/Morning Sun)
Rain Dance (use with Water move/Thunder)
Toxic (use when opponent is down to last pokemon or with a move that traps the opponent, two types ex. Mean Look/Wrap, kills the opponent, also used in Toxicstorm)
Heal Bell (All Status's gone, what's not to like)
Reflect (can be passed, makes physical moves do little)
Light Screen (can be passed, makes special moves do little)
Safeguard (No status changers for the next 5 turns, can be passed)
Agility/Curse/Swords Dance/Acid Armor/Amnesia (Owns team w/o Haze)
Baton Pass (Only when you know what you are BP’ing)
Choose a theme
Before you do anything with your team, before picking the pokemon, before deciding the name, you need to pick a theme. There are several themes. All of them have weaknesses and advantages.
Neutral
Neutral is basically anything. It doesn't need to follow any of the other themes, but can have a little bit of just about anything. If you're not good at following other themes, you'll probably want to go with this. This is also ones that are not listed below and are original.
Pseudo passing
Pseudo passing is where you have about 3 paralyzers, 2 Safeguarders, 2 Light Screeners, 2 Reflecters, and usually a Heal Beller. This has good status conditons coverage, and can halve the damage done to you for a while.
ToxicStormSpikes
In this theme you need a pokemon that knows Spikes, and should probably start out with it. Then you have pokemon with annoying moves such as Toxic, Sandstorm, confusion, Leech Seed, draining moves, Screech confusion, etc. Eventually your opponent will probably switch and get hit by Spikes. This is the most annoying of the themes, and can be very strong on Baton Passing teams.
Parafusion
Another annoying theme. This is combining paralyze with confusion, making your opponent not hit you most of the time. (what's the percentage?) However, a Heal Beller is a major weakness of this theme. You can also bring this to even more annoyance with flinching attacks or King's Rock and Attract.
Baton Passing
Baton Passing has pokemon Baton Passing to each other. Chains should be avoided, since you'll have set up a lot for nothing if they Haze your second or third Baton Passer. This requires at least one Haze killer.
Fun Teams
Fun teams are teams based on a fun theme, such as Eevee evolutions or mono type teams. These usually aren't as competitive as others, but they can be fun to use.
There's also newbie teams, which have pokemon with very inaccurate moves, all attacking moves, and moves such as Faint Attack on Scizor. Hopefully after reading this or Silver_Denyruu's you won't have a newbie team.
Which Pokemon?
Now you're ready to choose your pokemon. At least one of them has to know Haze. Haze is a necessity on all teams. A Heal Beller is also recommended. Consider theses things
1. Do your pokemon cover each other's weaknesses?
Most 2x weaknesses should be covered.
2. Are the stats balanced?
Don't have a team with all the pokemon lacking Special Defense or Defense. And don't have them all having bad Special Attack so that you'll only be using non-special attacks on your team. Balance out the stats. Have some speedy pokemon, balanced out Special Defense and Defense, (Light Screen and Reflect can help here) and a mix of special attack based pokemon and attack based ones.
3. Do the pokemon fit your theme?
If you have a ToxicStormSpikes theme, then you'll probably want some good tanks and a Spiker. If you have parafusion, then don't have lots of pokemon with bad defense since you'll probably be using Swagger.
4. Do you have any 3x weaknesses?
This is one of the most important. You shouldn't have 3 pokemon weak to fire on your team. If you have a 2x weakness with one of the pokemon being 4x weak to that type, such as Scizor and Venusaur on the same team, with Scizor being 4x weak to fire and Venusaur being 2x weak, you must have a way to counter it.
5. Do you have a way to Haze?
This means you need a pseudo hazer, which is a pokemon with Roar or Whirlwind, a hazer, a pokemon that knows Haze, or a Perish Songer, since it can be Baton Passed. Haze is needed because a Baton Passing team can easily beat you if you don't have a Hazer, or pseudo hazer or Perish Hazer.
Which attachments are the best?
Attachments are very important. Make sure your starter always has Miracle Berry, because many times status conditions happen on turn 1. If your pokemon knows Rest, attach Mint Berry. If you're using a Marowak, then attach Thick Club to it. And Leftovers is always useful, especially with tank. Don't bother with items such as Charcoal and Magnet if you don't have to follow the Stadium2 item clause, or if you're going to Explode and have nothing better to attach, in which Pink Bow can be useful. Don't ever use Focus Band. It has an 8% chance of saving you. Bright Powder probably shouldn't be used without Double Team or parafusion or something. Don't use Scope Lens unless you have Focus Energy as one of the moves on your pokemon. The best overall items are Miracle Berry and Leftovers, but don't go overboard with them. If you have a slow pokemon with no speed decreasing move, then don't have Miracle Berry attached, because paralyze is very common. If you have a really slow pokemon that knows Curse, then you should probably attach Quick Claw or Leftovers.
Here is a list of attachments and whether you should use them or not:
Leftovers: One of the best items. It recovers 1/16 of your HP per turn, and while that doesn't seem like much, it can save you from being KOed a turn earlier.
Miracle Berry: If you become burned, confused, poisoned, paralyzed, frozen, or fall asleep, this'll immediately heal you. This comboed with Safeguard and Heal Bell can make your team strong against status conditions.
Mint Berry: This is good if your pokemon knows Rest. Don't use it otherwise.
PRZcureberry: Probably at least one of your pokemon should be holding this if your team is for Stadium2. Paralyze is very common. But don't use it if you can use Miracle Berry and not break the item clause.
PSNcureberry: Cures poison. Not good. Don't use.
Bitter Berry: Confusion isn't as common as paralyze, so PRZcureberry is better, while Miracle Berry is the best berry of all.
Burnt Berry: Cures the uncommon freeze. Don't use it.
Ice Berry: Cures the very uncommon burn. NEVER use it.
Gold Berry: Heals 30 HP for your pokemon. Don't use it for link battles. This can be useful for the lower level Stadium2 cups though.
Berry: Heals 10 HP of your pokemon. NEVER use it. Gold Berry does 3x as much and is still pretty bad.
Quick Claw: Let's your pokemon go first about 30% of the time if it's slower than it's opponent. Works well along with Curse. Or on extremely slow pokemon.
Bright Powder: Lowers your opponent's accuracy. Not that great because it's only about 7% for some attacks, but can be useful with Double Team or parafusion.
King's Rock: Makes your opponent flinch 30% of the time, but doesn't boost the flinch rate of attacks that already flinch like Bite. This works well with parafusion too, making it paraflision.
Focus Band: Has an 8% chance of saving you with one HP left. Don't use it. Leftovers, Miracle Berry, Quick Claw, even King's Rock is better.
Pink Bow: Increases Normal type attacks by 10%. Just use it with Explosion or for Stadium2.
All other items that power up a type of attack: Only use that for Stadium2's item clause. Leftovers or Miracle Berry can help you far more than power-up items.
Thick Club: Doubles Marowak's attack. Always use it on Marowak. NEVER ever use it on anyone else.
Stick: Increases Farfetche'd's Critical Hit ratio. Not that great since Farfetche'd isn't good anyway.
Metal Powder: Increases Ditto's defense. NEVER ever use Ditto.
Light Ball: Doubles Pikachu's Special Attack. NEVER use Pikachu.
Berserk Gene: Maxes out your pokemon’s attack and confuses it. This is very dangerous since you’ll be doing heavy damage to yourself when you hurt yourself in confusion, and isn’t that great.
Lucky Punch: Increases Chansey’s accuracy. Don’t use it, because you shouldn’t be using Chansey.
Scope Lens: Increases the Critical Hit chance for your pokemon. Only use with Focus Energy and a move that had a 25% chance of a critical hit before, like a Machamp with Focus Energy and Cross Chop.
Here is a list of pokemon's stats, from best to worst, sorted by type, and evolved forms only.
Normal
1. Blissey-1773 Overall Value
1. Snorlax-1773
3. Porygon2-1723
4. Ursaring-1693
5. Kangaskhan-1673
5. Miltank-1673
5. Tauros-1673
8. Clefable-1639
9. Pidgeot-1631
10. Stantler-1623
10. Dodrio-1613
12. Girafirag-1603
13. Granbull-1593
14. Noctowl-1577
15. Fearow-1577
16. Persian-1573
17. Wigglytuff-1543
18. Furret-1523
19. Dunsparce-1523
20. Raticate-1521
21. Togetic-1503
22. Lickitung-1463
23. Smeagle-1193
Fire
1. Ho-oh-2053
2. Moltres-1853
2. Entei-1853
4. Arcanine-1803
5. Charizard-1761
5. Typhlosion-1761
7. Flareon-1743
8. Ninetales-1703
9. Houndoom-1693
9. Rapidash-1693
11. Magmar-1683
12. Magcargo-1513
Water
1. Suicune-1853
2. Kingdra-1773
2. Gyarados-1773
4. Lapras-1763
5. Blastoise-1753
5. Feraligatr-1753
7. Vaporeon-1743
7. Cloyster-1743
9. Starmie-1733
10. Tentacruel-1723
11. Golduck-1693
11. Poliwrath-1693
11. Politoed-1693
14. Omaster-1683
14. Kabutops-1683
16. Slowbro-1673
16. Slowking-1673
18. Octilerry-1653
19. Dewgong-1643
20. Mantine-1623
21. Lanturn-1613
22. Seaking-1593
23. Quagsire-1553
23. Qwilfish-1553
25. Azumarril-1513
26. Corsola-1453
Electric
1. Zapdos-1853
1. Raikou-1853
3. Jolteon-1743
4. Denyruu-1693
5. Electabuzz-1673
6. Electrode-1653
7. Raichu-1643
8. Magneton-1623
9. Lanturn-1613
Grass
1. Celebi-1893
2. Venusaur-1743
2. Meganium-1743
4. Exeggutor-1733
5. Victreebel-1653
5. Bellosom- 1653
5. Vileplume-1653
8. Jumpluff-1593
9. Tangela-1563
10. Sunflora-1543
11. Parasect-1503
Ice
1. Articuno-1853
2. Cloyster-1743
2. Lapras-1743
4. Dewgong-1643
5. Jynx-1603
6. Piloswine-1593
7. Sneasel-1553
Fighting
1. Machamp-1703
2. Poliwrath-1693
2. Heracross-1693
4. Primeape-1603
4. Hitmonlee-1603
4. Hitmonchan-1603
4. Hitmontop-1603
Poison
1. Crobat-1763
2. Venusaur-1743
3. Tentacruel-1723
4. Muk-1693
4. Gengar-1693
6. Nidoking-1683
6. Nidoqueen-1683
8. Weezing-1673
9. Vileplume-1653
9. Victreebel-1653
11. Venomoth-1593
12. Arbok-1569
13. Qwilfish-1553
14. Beedrill-1463
14. Ariados-1463
Ground
1. Steelix-1713
2. Donphan-1693
3. Nidoking-1683
3. Nidoqueen-1683
5. Rhydon-1663
5. Golem-1663
7. Sandslash-1593
7. Piloswine-1593
9. Quagsire-1553
9. Gligar-1553
11. Marowak-1543 (1791 w/ Thick Bone ^_^)
12. Dugtrio-1503
Flying
1. Lugia-2053
1. Ho-oh-2053
3. Dragonite-1893
4. Articuno-1853
4. Zapdos-1853
4. Moltres-1853
7. Gyarados-1773
8. Crobat-1763
9. Charizard-1761
10. Aerodactyl-1723
11. Xatu-1633
12. Pidgeot-1631
13. Skarmory-1623
13. Mantine-1623
15. Dodrio-1613
16. Jumpluff-1593
17. Fearow-1577
17. Noctowl-1577
19. Gligar-1553
20. Togetic-1503
21. Murkrow-1503
22. Yanma-1473
23. Ledian-1473
24. Butterfree-1463
25. Farfetch'd-1401
Psychic
1. Mewtwo-2053
1. Lugia-2053
3. Mew-1893
3. Celebi-1893
5. Espeon-1743
6. Starmie-1733
6. Exeggutor-1733
8. Slowking-1673
8. Slowbro-1673
8. Alakazam-1673
11. Hypno-1653
12. Xatu-1633
13. Mr.Mime-1613
14. Jynx-1603
14. Girafirag-1603
16. Wobbuffet-1503
Bug
1. Shuckle-1703
2. Heracross-1693
2. Scizor-1693
2. Pinsir-1693
4. Venomoth-1593
5. Parasect-1503
6. Ariados-1473
6. Ledian-1473
6. Yanma-1473
9. Beedrill-1463
9. Butterfree-1463
Rock
1. Tyranitar-1893
2. Aerodactyl-1723
3. Shuckle-1703
4. Kabutops-1683
4. Omastar-1683
6. Rhydon-1663
6. Golem-1663
8. Magcargo-1513
9. Sudowoodo-1513
10. Corsola-1453
Ghost
1. Gengar-1693
2. Misdreavous-1563
Dragon
1. Dragonite-1893
2. Kingdra-1773
Dark
1. Tyranitar-1893
2. Umbreon-1743
3. Houndoom-1693
4. Sneasel-1553
5. Murkrow-1503
Steel
1. Steelix-1713
2. Scizor-1693
3. Magneton-1623
3. Skarmory-1623
3. Forretress-1623
Movesets
Movesets is THE most important thing about your pokemon. Pokemon should not learn two damaging moves of the same type, unless it’s something like Whirlpool and Perish Song on a Perish Trapping Lapras. But do NOT do something like teach a Typhlosion Flamethrower and Fire Blast. It creates less versatility, and you’ll be able to have less super effective moves on a wide range of pokemon.
Defense
Use defensive moves too. Like if you have a Kingler, who has awesome defense but low special defense, don’t give it Reflect to help it survive non-special moves even more- give it Amnesia to help it’s special defense. You should also consider the pokemon’s weaknesses. If a pokemon has a 4x Ice weakness and can learn Light Screen, you might not want it since Ice is still 2x effective against you and it’ll still be dangerous. But if it’s a 2x weakness and you can cover it with something like Barrier and a damaging move, then it’ll be ok, as long as you can survive set up. Safeguard is also an important move. It can help you a lot in battle, with 20 PP and lasting five turns unless it’s hit by a status condition. Try to have at least one or two Safeguarders on your team if you don’t have a Heal Beller. Moves like Charm can even be useful sometimes. And of course, if your pokemon can get a move like Recover, then use it.
Offense
Carefully plan your offense. Do you have 3 pokemon that know Thunderbolt on your team? Take out Thunderbolt on at least one of them. If you don’t have anyone with an Ice move, then you can replace Thunderbolt with Ice Beam, Ice Punch, or HP Ice. Do your pokemon moves match your stats? If a pokemon gets stab for a move and their attack/SA stat is below 220, then you probably shouldn’t use it without stat boosting support. If they don’t get stab and they’re attack/SA is below 230, then you probably shouldn’t use it without stat boosting support. Also try to cover most of your team’s 2x weaknesses.
Other
Status conditions are important. Don't have paralyze and poison and burn on the same team, because they conflict with each other. |