DPPt/HGSS Rate my team !!!11!!eleven!!

[baratron]

This is a team for Colosseum's Mt Battle 100 trainer challenge. Double mode, & with Colosseum's annoying held item restrictions (i.e. only one of each type).

Can't do much about natures now as Pokemon are mostly trained. Snorlax & Starmie have appropriate natures and EVs (and Starmie has decent IVs as well). The rest are older and have whatever they came with. I lack motivation to make an entire 6 pkmn from scratch :x.

Snorlax - lvl 50 @ Lum Berry
~Thick Fat~ *Impish*
Rollout
Body Slam
Substitute
Focus Punch

Sweeper w/ Subpunch. Nice. Especially cute on Colosseum, where the substitute is a little toy dinosaur .

Starmie - lvl 50 @ King's Rock?
~Natural Cure~ *Modest*
Cosmic Power
Thunderbolt
Psychic
Surf

Special Sweeper. 3 x special attacks + Cosmic Power to boost Def & Sp Def so it stays around long enough to use them.

Salamence - lvl 50 @ White Herb
~Intimidate~ *Naughty*
Crunch
Dragon Claw
Overheat
Earthquake

I dunno what this is called strategy-wise. Basically filling in some gaps from the two main sweepers. I might find myself using Charizard rather than Salamence because according to Pokefor my Shelgon (that I've been training for 20 levels) has worse stats than an average wild Shelgon!

Skarmory - lvl 61 @ ??
~Keen Eye~ *Quirky*
Metal Sound
Drill Peck
Spikes
Roar / Taunt

Annoyer? Thought about making it a Toxishuffler but am worried about enemies having Facade. Spikes + Roar or Taunt is probably annoying enough. Not sure that Metal Sound really goes with Drill Peck, but this is a Double Battle team so my Special attackers can use it. Only problem is, Skarmory is already really high level, so the others would need to be raised 11 levels too.

Exeggutor - lvl 50 @ Shell Bell?
~Chlorophyll~ *Quiet*
Sleep Powder
Leech Seed
Giga Drain
Dream Eater

a.k.a. The HP EATER!! Can consume lots of enemy HP while restoring his own. Only problem is, he has the scariest list of vulnerabilities I've ever seen. Grass/Psychic is: 2 x vulnerable to Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Ghost and Dark, and 4 x vulnerable to Bug ! So I don't know whether he would actually hold up too well against balanced teams. Recommendations for a straight Grass-type that could pull this off welcomed.

Umbreon @ Leftovers?
Confuse Ray / Taunt
Screech / Toxic
Moonlight
Faint Attack

Combined Annoyer/Tank. Probably going for Confuse Ray and Screech to be annoying, Moonlight & Leftovers to be Tanky, and Faint Attack just so he has one actual attack in case of emergency .

I welcome comments on ways to improve this (QUICKLY - because I'm going to use my TMs!) and especially need help with items! Colosseum limits your use of items, so you can only have ONE of each item in a team. So I can't have 6 x Leftovers.

Can Starmie use King's Rock? (i.e. do Special attacks count as "hits" on the enemy for the 10% possibility of flinching?). What can I give Skarmory? (I have no idea) Focus Band? Or an anti-paralysis/anti-sleep/stat-boosting Berry or Sharp Beak?

Edit: Eeep, I just noticed I have no Ice attacks for anti-Dragon-ness! *edits Starmie to have Ice Beam instead of Psychic?*

 

[Linkachu]

Sorry for not replying to this sooner (mainly because I have to go very soon and won't be able to give it a proper look right now) but I wanted to make a comment about your Salamence choice. I like your variety in attack choices, but I see problems with Overheat. Since the majority of your attacks are based on Sp. Attack and Overheat puts that down it could end up screwing you over. White Herb will help the first time, but after that you basically can't use Overheat again without putting Salamence at a big risk. Personally I'd put something like FT or Fire Blast over it (FT more so because of its high accuracy). Overheat tends to be better left to Pokemon who don't rely much on Special attacks (ie. the standard Blaziken moveset).

Oh, and about Starmie - I'm not sure which you should do, but I didn't need Ice Beam to beat Mt. Battle. I had a trusty Salamence w/Dragon Claw instead ^^ Might not have been as effective as Ice Beams 4x strength against flying dragons, but it got the job done. I'm just basically thinking that Psychic on Starmie would be useful because of the STAB for it. Have you possibly considered Ice Beam over T-Bolt, though?

 

[baratron]

Sorry for not replying to this sooner (mainly because I have to go very soon and won"]

Really? I didn't know White Herb gets used up... the impression I got from the Guide book was that it's a permanently held item. Hrm.

Nonetheless, only 2 of Salamence's 4 attacks are Special: Dragon and Ground are both normal. Aren't they?

Oh, and about Starmie - I'm not sure which you should do, but I didn't need Ice Beam to beat Mt. Battle. I had a trusty Salamence w/Dragon Claw instead ^^ Might not have been as effective as Ice Beams 4x strength against flying dragons, but it got the job done.

I wasn't just thinking about Ice Beam against Dragons... it's also useful against Grass types. I've deliberately gone for move types that are powerful against a range of enemies where possible, and fill in defensive gaps. Starmie without Ice has no protection from Grass. Besides, when it comes to dragons, I can't guarantee that my dragon will be faster than theirs. Already established that Colosseum cheats like mad. Seems safer to switch out...

I'm just basically thinking that Psychic on Starmie would be useful because of the STAB for it. Have you possibly considered Ice Beam over T-Bolt, though?

Ack - I REALLY don't want to lose Thunderbolt. I know it's only Super Effective against Water pkmn, but it's pretty powerful, and the possible paralysis is useful. I figured I didn't really need two Psychic attacks in one moveset (Exeggutor has Dream Eater).

The thing to do, obviously, is to try it and see if it works (and try not to throw my GameCube controller across the room when I find out it doesn't after 5 hours ). I'm a bit stuck at the moment, though, 'cos I have to finish the other Level 50 Colosseum before I can train my best pkmn past level 50, and I have to train my new Staryu up and evolve it before I can do that... argh.

 

[Linkachu]

Really? I didn't know White Herb gets used up... the impression I got from the Guide book was that it's a permanently held item. Hrm.

Nonetheless, only 2 of Salamence's 4 attacks are Special: Dragon and Ground are both normal. Aren't they?

White Herb will come back when you start your next match, but for that specific battle it'll be gone. And no, Dragon isn't Attack-based. It's a Special Attack, too ^^

As for Starmie, trying it out to see if it works probably is your best bet...

I'll just say this. For Mt. Battle I basically only used two main Pokemon and rotated between the others. The one who basically lead all my battles, though, was my Salamence with this moveset:

Dragon Claw
Aerial Ace
Flamethrower
Crunch

If I were going to do it again I'd probably put Dragon Dance over Crunch, but for the purposes of Mt. Battle my Salamence was basically able to beat everything it came up against (including most of the Legendaries). When Salamence failed, I usually had another oober ready to take up the fight:

Metagross, with the attacks...
Psychic

EQ
Meteor Mash
Light Screen

I know many people say Psychic is wasted on Metagross because of its lower Special Attack stat, yet it came through when it was needed. 'Gross didn't perform as awesome as Salamence, but having it around was nice.

After those two my team was comprised of Blaziken, Zangoose, Absol, and Armaldo (the weakest link). Sometimes I'd rather use Blaziken over Metagross because of its speed, and Zangoose/Absol came in handy, too. They both had crap for defenses but with one Sword Dance they could basically OH-KO anything.

So, you see... I didn't have a single Grass attack, Ice attack, or Water attack during those 100 matches, but I still managed to break through rather easily. I lost two fights (possibly three, but that'd be the most) through out the entire thing, and I had over 85 continues backing me up. Even if my team was horribly unbalanced it wasn't impossible. Guess what I'm trying to say is... With a few good Pokemon you should have no problems taking it on. The odd fight will give you a challenge, but that won't start happening until after 60-70+ matches, and with all the continues you'll have racked up it won't make much difference. Just find six Pokemon your satisfied with and give it a shot. If you play your type advantages right chances are you'll get through without much trouble at all.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

How can you stand using an Umbreon? :shock: No, seriously, it's sub-standard attacks and special attack combined with rubbish speed is the main thing that puts me down about it.

IMO, Absol would beat an Umbreon in terms of sheer power. I'd go for:

Absol@Leftovers? Silk Scarf? *Gasp* BLACK GLASSES?
Modest

Slash
Swords Dance
Future Sight/Faint Attack
Aeriel Ace

But then again, that's just me.

 

[Linkachu]

I wouldn't bother raising Special Attack for Absol. Since Shadow Ball does everything Faint Attack will (except damage Normal-types) and it's boosted by SD I'd stick that on instead and give it an Adamant nature (or possibly something that raises speed/defences). IMO, Absol is a perfect example of STAB not mattering. Unless you're going to use its SP. Attack more fully there's no point for it.