So, I picked up my Emerald cartridge again. Emerald is the one 3rd Gen game that I never finished, principally because I was burned out after playing both Sapphire and Ruby. I have the rudiments of an in-game team: three definites, two possibilities. But the changes between 3rd & 4th Gen have made it rather odd going back. Also, I don't want to spend time raising Pokemon that aren't portable to my "real" team in Pearl.
As a lot of us have forgotten 3rd Gen tactics, I'm going to put a star in front of the moves that are Special in Emerald.
Definites:
Groyvle - male, GRASS. Will eventually evolve to Sceptile.
~Overgrow~
1. *Leaf Blade - GRASS - high power, high critical-hit ratio & STAB, what's not to like?
2. *Crunch - DARK - bred on.
3. & 4. *Thunderpunch - ELECTRIC / *Dragon Claw - DRAGON / False Swipe - NORMAL / Counter - FIGHTING / Aerial Ace - FLYING
Aron - female, STEEL/ROCK. Will eventually evolve to Lairon then Aggron.
~Sturdy~
1. Iron Defense - boosts Def by 2.
2. Headbutt - NORMAL
3. Iron Tail - STEEL - for STAB
4. Earthquake - GROUND - because every moveset must have an EQ, it's the law!
Mew
I have a Mew in Emerald that I can't trade due to not having finished Emerald, so I might as well use her. I have no freaking idea of a moveset though, and am guessing that it'll be best to choose one after I've finalised the rest of my team.
Possibilities:
Kirlia - female, PSYCHIC
~Synchronize~
I've been thinking about raising a Kirlia "properly" i.e. with a decent moveset and EVs, rather than the horrible mess that is my Gardevoir from Sapphire. For example:
1. *Psychic - PSYCHIC. For STAB.
2. *Shock Wave / Thunderbolt - ELECTRIC
3. *Magical Leaf - GRASS. Obtainable by trading Kirlia over to FR/LG & using the spare Tinymushrooms at the Move Tutor. But can I be bothered?
4. *Ice Punch - ICE / *Fire Punch - FIRE / Memento / Calm Mind. Not sure if it's worth spending valuable BP on moves that'll be Physical in the 4th Gen, and see above question about Battle Frontier. I have Memento bred on.
It's not actually possible to fix my Sapphire Gardevoir, unfortunately, due to Magical Leaf only being available to Kirlias.
Bagon - female, DRAGON
currently ~Rock Head~ but will become ~Intimidate~ when evolved to Salamence
Choose four from:
Headbutt - NORMAL
Rock Tomb - ROCK
*Crunch - DARK
*Dragon Claw - DRAGON, gets STAB.
Aerial Ace - FLYING, will get STAB when evolved.
*Flamethrower - FIRE.
Then again, I have several Salamences already courtesy of their appearance in the various GameCube games. I need to evolve this one to Shelgon for my Dex, but do I really need to evolve it all the way?
Marshtomp - female, WATER/GROUND
~Torrent~
Mudkip was my Sapphire starter, and just as with the rest of my Sapphire team, my Swampert has a rather n00bish moveset. However, I'm not sure I can think of anything better. What else is there apart from:
1. *Muddy Water / Surf - WATER, STAB
2. Earthquake - GROUND, STAB
3. Ice Beam / Ice Punch - ICE. At least Ice Punch will be Physical when she's migrated to 4th Gen.
4. Random other move e.g. Brick Break - FIGHTING ?
Other Pokemon I haven't used yet and will consider:
Raichu, Wigglytuff, Muk, Lanturn, Linoone, Manectric (has a really awful 3rd Gen movepool!), Wailord, Cacturne (though I think its type is already well covered by Groyvle), Crawdaunt, Machoke?, Vibrava?, Claydol?, Dusclops?
As a lot of us have forgotten 3rd Gen tactics, I'm going to put a star in front of the moves that are Special in Emerald.
Definites:
Groyvle - male, GRASS. Will eventually evolve to Sceptile.
~Overgrow~
1. *Leaf Blade - GRASS - high power, high critical-hit ratio & STAB, what's not to like?
2. *Crunch - DARK - bred on.
3. & 4. *Thunderpunch - ELECTRIC / *Dragon Claw - DRAGON / False Swipe - NORMAL / Counter - FIGHTING / Aerial Ace - FLYING
- Leaf Blade & Crunch are definites, but I haven't decided on the others. One possibility is to make Groyvle a Special Sweeper, with four good Special moves. Ironically enough, all of the Special moves I'm considering are Physical in the 4th Gen, meaning that when he's migrated, I'll have to lose all of Groyvle's Attack EVs and replace them with Special Attack EVs. Gah.
- Grass is weak to Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying and Bug. Annoyingly, four of these types could be eliminated with a Rock-type move, but the only one that Groyvle can learn in Emerald is Rock Tomb, which is relatively low power and only 80% accurate.
- Thunderpunch is 2 x Super Effective against Flying types and normally effective against most other types. It is also one of the Emerald Move Tutor moves that can be learned over and over again, although at the relatively expensive cost of 48 BP. Though I'm not sure if you can even visit the Battle Frontier prior to completing the Elite 4?
- Dragon Claw is only Super Effective against Dragon types, and I'm not quite sure why I'm considering it, though it is power 80 and normally effective against everything other than Steel.
- I'm not sure that False Swipe is useful for anything other than catching legendaries, but they are annoying enough.
- And I'm considering Counter purely and simply because it would return an Ice- or Steel-type hit at twice the power, and I don't currently have anything on Groyvle that's Super Effective against Ice, nor any moves that are even normally effective against Steel.
Aron - female, STEEL/ROCK. Will eventually evolve to Lairon then Aggron.
~Sturdy~
1. Iron Defense - boosts Def by 2.
2. Headbutt - NORMAL
3. Iron Tail - STEEL - for STAB
4. Earthquake - GROUND - because every moveset must have an EQ, it's the law!
- Having a decent Steel-type move + Earthquake are par for the course (Earthquake was bred on so didn't cost me a TM). I'm not sure whether Iron Tail is the best Steel-type move, though. It's twice as powerful as Metal Claw, but only 70% accurate, and it seems to fail an awful lot of times.
- Not sure whether to replace Headbutt with another Normal-type move. Facade seems pointless due to Aron's immunity from poisoning, but Return, Secret Power or Body Slam are possibilities. Unfortunately, she's a Sturdy Aron, not Rock Head, otherwise I'd be going with Double-Edge all the way.
- Iron Defense vs a Rock-type move? I may not have used the Move Tutor in FR/LG, meaning that Rock Slide is a possibility - much less crap than Rock Tomb. However, currently Iron Defense has been saving my Aron in fights against e.g. Norman's Vigoroth's Counter. Perhaps this won't be necessary once she's evolved to Aggron?
Mew
I have a Mew in Emerald that I can't trade due to not having finished Emerald, so I might as well use her. I have no freaking idea of a moveset though, and am guessing that it'll be best to choose one after I've finalised the rest of my team.
Possibilities:
Kirlia - female, PSYCHIC
~Synchronize~
I've been thinking about raising a Kirlia "properly" i.e. with a decent moveset and EVs, rather than the horrible mess that is my Gardevoir from Sapphire. For example:
1. *Psychic - PSYCHIC. For STAB.
2. *Shock Wave / Thunderbolt - ELECTRIC
3. *Magical Leaf - GRASS. Obtainable by trading Kirlia over to FR/LG & using the spare Tinymushrooms at the Move Tutor. But can I be bothered?
4. *Ice Punch - ICE / *Fire Punch - FIRE / Memento / Calm Mind. Not sure if it's worth spending valuable BP on moves that'll be Physical in the 4th Gen, and see above question about Battle Frontier. I have Memento bred on.
It's not actually possible to fix my Sapphire Gardevoir, unfortunately, due to Magical Leaf only being available to Kirlias.
Bagon - female, DRAGON
currently ~Rock Head~ but will become ~Intimidate~ when evolved to Salamence
Choose four from:
Headbutt - NORMAL
Rock Tomb - ROCK
*Crunch - DARK
*Dragon Claw - DRAGON, gets STAB.
Aerial Ace - FLYING, will get STAB when evolved.
*Flamethrower - FIRE.
Then again, I have several Salamences already courtesy of their appearance in the various GameCube games. I need to evolve this one to Shelgon for my Dex, but do I really need to evolve it all the way?
Marshtomp - female, WATER/GROUND
~Torrent~
Mudkip was my Sapphire starter, and just as with the rest of my Sapphire team, my Swampert has a rather n00bish moveset. However, I'm not sure I can think of anything better. What else is there apart from:
1. *Muddy Water / Surf - WATER, STAB
2. Earthquake - GROUND, STAB
3. Ice Beam / Ice Punch - ICE. At least Ice Punch will be Physical when she's migrated to 4th Gen.
4. Random other move e.g. Brick Break - FIGHTING ?
Other Pokemon I haven't used yet and will consider:
Raichu, Wigglytuff, Muk, Lanturn, Linoone, Manectric (has a really awful 3rd Gen movepool!), Wailord, Cacturne (though I think its type is already well covered by Groyvle), Crawdaunt, Machoke?, Vibrava?, Claydol?, Dusclops?