Thanks for the advice guys. I suppose with the low effort needed to complete the game I could just train eight or nine Pokemon. For now, Sunny Day Emboar compliments Chloro Sawsbuck pretty well. Might look at a Ninetales combo when I start training seriously.

Thanks for the advice as well!

 

@Mask: I looked into those two extensively, and am considering Reuniculus.

 

@Foursideking: I was thinking of the Elektross, but I was never too sure--I have a weird aversion sometimes to electric types, but I'll look into it. But I'll be honest, your recommendation of Ferro surprised me. A lot, simply because I never examined his beneficial stats before. It was surprising, but my Shuckle already has a place as something with high defensive, then Lucario and Machamp (plus my Castform) go into the offensive. So, seeing how this is my primary party, I'll definitely try to include Ferrothorn in one of my future parties.

 

In the meantime, I'll look more into Elektross and Reuniculus.

 

As a side note, what does everyone think of Zoroark? I personally like him as a cheap trick against an opponent if they have an aversion to a certain Pokemon within my party that they may have withdrawn from previously.He also has some pretty good Special Offensive capabilities. I was thinking of using him but I'm not all-too-fond of dark types in most cases, but I was wondering what everyone else thought?

Meh...zoroark is a pretty dumb pkmn. Sure, it has great offenses mixed in with decent speed. Only problem though is that the ability practically kills it. Get zoroark to copy a defensive pkmn, and chances are people'll either try to hit it hard (usually ohko'ing zoroark), or they'll pick up on the moveset irregularity and stab-kill it easily. Sure, sometimes his tricks work, and he goes unnoticed while effectively set-up sweeping a team. Unfortunately, the rarity of that happening is too low.

 

 

In other news: my new smeargle lead works too well on the singles train. Moveset is a pretty simple one: fake out to break sashed/sturdy leads, spore to nerf'm, shell break to gain 2-4 'd-dances', and baton pass to send'm to either tornadus or axew. Scary part about this is that even after just 1 boost, tornadus ohko's skarmory with flying-gem acrobatics, a common wall for my team. Oh, and I gave up on the wobbu-lead, after I realized I'd be sacrificing the lefties I normally use on ferro.

 

Oh, and @seph: you use shuckle? Shuckle remained nu for a reason though this gen. He has no reliable recovery outside of rest, and aside from being able to nerf the offense of sweepers with power share, he effectively remained the same old cruddy pkmn. Remove shuckle asap, replace with a type-c variant ferro, and if you don't want to immediately lose/get laughed at, then I'd also suggest replacing castform for either a type-b variant of reuniclus, or a lead victini (once v-burst comes out, of course).

Lol. You'd be surprised that my Castform helped KO an entire team of legendaries as a test against a couple of people with one hit each--Arceus took one hit with its max stats and insta-killed, and then Castform significantly handled the rest. I also beat their regular teams, which are also pretty well-built as well Its very reliable, and furthermore, I am laughed at but its power always surprises people. As for Shuckle, he's supposed to be a distraction and incredible defensive tank, and is definitely reliable. I don't understand why he wouldn't be. Nevertheless thanks for the criticism I suppose? I studied up on Ferro and I'm not a big fan. However, I love Victini over many of the pokemon I have seen thus far--I'll probably end up using him in he end, but its still debatable at the time.

 

Again, thanks for the criticism. But surprisingly, those Pokemon can handle themselves quite well.

 

Edit: Maybe scratch the Victini idea. I don't use legendaries anymore, under any circumstances. I feel cheap using them. :P

Castform has pitiful base stats, and is pathetically useless against every pkmn in the ou tier (minus crobat, should people actually use'm). Shuckle, well, he's not as good a 'defensive tank' as you'd think. The term tank in pkmn literally means 'a defensive pkmn that turns offensive'. The word 'defensive pkmn' generally refers to any pkmn with one/two high defensive stats AND high hp. Shuckle has a scarily low base hp, which usually means that his defensive stats get put to shame when facing things such as stats and/or hail. Also, aside from the ever-useless power trick, shuckle can rarely put dents in certain common steel pkmn (namely skarmory, heatran, registeel, magnezone, klinklang, and the afformentioned ferro). This usually means that while shuckle is busy either using toxic or his power moves, those said pkmn can use that free turn to setup for themselves. And even when shuckle does use power swap, his horrid/unusable base 10 speed means that he is easily outsped by the entire metagame.

 

Shuckle remains to this day the 'fools gold' of the pkmn universe. People see his high defenses/power trick and immediately assume 'too good, I want'm on my team'. Then they use him against someone else's team and see how bad he really is.

 

Seph, visit smogon. They'll show you how to build a good team there...

No offense, but there's no need to be an [wagon]. It seems like you''re acting like an elitist, intentional or not. I've been playing Pokemon since it first arrived here on th shores of the US, and I don't play it for competition as much as I do for fun. But you do have a nerve to basically say to me that I don't know how to build a party due to your analysis on these two particular Pokemon. That being said, this isn't my only party at all, I use this one against friends and in random match up's online.

 

I mean, literally, your analysis on my terms is pretty...well, pathetic. And I'm sorry if thats flaming.

 

In terms of your Power Trick idea, I have NEVER used that with my Shuckle. NEVER.

 

I said thank you for the advice, but I am no longer extending that hand of gratitude. Maybe in the future you'll eliminate the disingenuous attitude and will also stop trying to act like an elitist. Thanks and goodbye.

Weird...I didn't mean to act like a 'wagon'. You simply seemed like someone who was new to the game, and was picking out all the wrong pkmn to use competitively. I too have been playing for as long as the games hit the north american shores. Only difference though is that, unless requested, I've been solely playing competitive. Maybe next time, you'll clarify that you're not playing competitively. Then you won't have people giving you advice on how to build competitive teams.

 

Oh, and we should also probably now clarify in our posts which types of teams we need help building (ie: competitive/non/subway, etc)

 

In other news, the flawless axew I hatched a few days ago is now lv100. Checked serebii, and apparently I 'accidentally' ev trained it to have perfect attack/speed. Still kept a bunch of the babies, should anyone want one. Current mission now: obtaining a focus sash for my smeargle lead, and/or breeding off a few flawless axews as a treat to the people of this thread.

 

Oh, and I also have a question: is there any other move that axew learns that is better than shadow claw while offering good type coverage? Been trying to find something to kill flying types like skarmory, which have been constantly putting dents into my win streaks (namely, the 48 one that ended due to skarmory somehow killing my +6 curse ferro-tank).

As a side note, what does everyone think of Zoroark? I personally like him as a cheap trick against an opponent if they have an aversion to a certain Pokemon within my party that they may have withdrawn from previously.He also has some pretty good Special Offensive capabilities. I was thinking of using him but I'm not all-too-fond of dark types in most cases, but I was wondering what everyone else thought?

 

It's cool on paper, but in practice it just doesn't do well. Hazards mean that he's easy to detect. You'd need to feign it as a Psychic type to lure in foolish ghosts and Darks it can hurt. Poor guy just doesn't have the defenses. He does net an awesome surprise kill every now and then though.

As a side note, what does everyone think of Zoroark? I personally like him as a cheap trick against an opponent if they have an aversion to a certain Pokemon within my party that they may have withdrawn from previously.He also has some pretty good Special Offensive capabilities. I was thinking of using him but I'm not all-too-fond of dark types in most cases, but I was wondering what everyone else thought?

 

It's cool on paper, but in practice it just doesn't do well. Hazards mean that he's easy to detect. You'd need to feign it as a Psychic type to lure in foolish ghosts and Darks it can hurt. Poor guy just doesn't have the defenses. He does net an awesome surprise kill every now and then though.

To truely screw over an opponent, have him pretend to be Shedinja.

Zorua on the otherhand is possibly the 3rd deadliest threat to enter lc (behind ferroseed and solosis). As long as you have him copying a pkmn who can use 2 of his moves, then he is virtually impossible to detect, which often results in the opponent being swept. Kinda ironic that he can only breed with lucario though, seeing as they both suffer from the same generic problems.

To truely screw over an opponent, have him pretend to be Shedinja.

Oh god that would be hilarious.

As a side note, what does everyone think of Zoroark? I personally like him as a cheap trick against an opponent if they have an aversion to a certain Pokemon within my party that they may have withdrawn from previously.He also has some pretty good Special Offensive capabilities. I was thinking of using him but I'm not all-too-fond of dark types in most cases, but I was wondering what everyone else thought?

 

It's cool on paper, but in practice it just doesn't do well. Hazards mean that he's easy to detect. You'd need to feign it as a Psychic type to lure in foolish ghosts and Darks it can hurt. Poor guy just doesn't have the defenses. He does net an awesome surprise kill every now and then though.

To truely screw over an opponent, have him pretend to be Shedinja.

 

I actually did this today with my Zoroark. It worked very well.

 

I often use Zoroark as a lead and disguise as a Togekiss to get up nasty plot or two.

Lol, as an even funnier idea: get him to be either a magikarp or caterpie. Sure, opponents'll eventually catch on, but just imagine the look on their faces when they see a lv5 magikarp killing their lead.

Lol, as an even funnier idea: get him to be either a magikarp or caterpie. Sure, opponents'll eventually catch on, but just imagine the look on their faces when they see a lv5 magikarp killing their lead.

That kills your team. Have him pretend to be a FEAR Rattata instead.

 

 

...Actually, that would give him a free set-up move (amybe even two). Meaning a possible sweep, or baton pass.

The thing with Zoroark is that it would be hilariously awesome if it didn't show you and your opponent's teams beforehand.

That's what makes him useless...again. Another thing that makes him useless: his dark typing shares the fighting weakness with rock/ice/steel types, common types found on most teams.

I was using it on whatever Pokemon Online server didn't show the teams very early on, and the best success I had was disguising him as Roobushin/hurrConkledurr. Could probably take advantage of his psychic immunity to switch in as a fighting type on Reuniculus or something.

 

That and I'm not sure if passive damage breaks the illusion. I used Zorua for a bit in the game's story, and I don't think the illusion broke when it got hit with sandstorm damage.

I was using it on whatever Pokemon Online server didn't show the teams very early on, and the best success I had was disguising him as Roobushin/hurrConkledurr. Could probably take advantage of his psychic immunity to switch in as a fighting type on Reuniculus or something.

 

That and I'm not sure if passive damage breaks the illusion. I used Zorua for a bit in the game's story, and I don't think the illusion broke when it got hit with sandstorm damage.

 

No it doesn't. Only attacks break the illusion.

Glad I remembered correctly then :lol:

It is a problem if the 'heatran' you sent out takes damage from a sandstorm though.

Fml I had to face a Shedninja-disguised Zoroark a few times on PO.

 

Not too big of a threat, actually. Zoroark isn't THAT good.

Mmhmm...I think they'd figure you out pretty easily, should the shedinja not die from entry hazards/weather.

I found a wild Ferroseed with 31 IVs in Defence and an Impish nature today. I immediately bred it with my 0 Speed IV Ditto to make the ultimate Gyro Balling Ferrothorn.

Well, after playing/beating both games, it seems that white is undisputably better. With white forest giving access to porygon, happiny, trapinch, and bagon, and with black/white essentially sharing tyrannitar/ferro, black seems mediocre when you factor in the fact that most ou competitive teams can essentially be made purely by breeding/trading amongst 2 white games. Makes me wonder though what they plan on doing next. I mean, if this is just the start of 5th gen, imagine what's in store when they release the hybrid (pkmn grey), or the rerelease versions of ruby/sapphire.

Well, after playing/beating both games, it seems that white is undisputably better. With white forest giving access to porygon, happiny, trapinch, and bagon, and with black/white essentially sharing tyrannitar/ferro, black seems mediocre when you factor in the fact that most ou competitive teams can essentially be made purely by breeding/trading amongst 2 white games. Makes me wonder though what they plan on doing next. I mean, if this is just the start of 5th gen, imagine what's in store when they release the hybrid (pkmn grey), or the rerelease versions of ruby/sapphire.

jw guys, but how much did Black/White cost?