============================== Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Version ============================== Strategies and Counter Strategies FAQ By Sui89 Version 2.0 Started on 8/5/07 Last modified on 7/10/08 The latest version can always be found at GameFAQs. ===================== I. Table of Contents ===================== I. Table of Contents II. Version Information III. Introduction A. Introduction B. Purpose Statement C. E-mail Policy IV. Frequently Asked Questions V. Before You Start Your Team A. Important Terms B. Strategy Explanations C. Natures D. EVs and IVs E. Clauses F. Official Rules and Classifications VI. Status Conditions and Move Specifics A. Primary Ailments B. Secondary Ailments C. Weather Conditions D. The Trapping Moves E. Spikes F. Hidden Power VII. Things to Keep in Mind... VIII. Team Building A. Deciding Your Strategy and Category B. Picking Your Team C. Assigning Your EVs and Natures D. Picking Your Abilities E. Picking Your Move Sets F. Picking Your Hold Items G. Breeding and EV Training H. Leveling and Finalizing IX. Suggestions for Specific Strategies A. Physical Sweeping B. Special Sweeping C. Physical Wall D. Special Wall E. Mixed Sweeping F. Mixed Wall G. Specialized Team H. Baton Passing I. Choice Teams J. Annoyer X. Counter Strategies A. Countering Physical Sweepers B. Countering Special Sweepers C. Countering Physical Walls D. Countering Special Walls E. Countering Mixed Sweepers F. Countering Mixed Walls G. Countering Specialized Teams H. Countering Baton Passers I. Countering Choice Teams J. Countering Annoyers XI. Specific Pokemon Counters (Updated!) A. Blissey B. Electivire C. Garchomp D. Groudon E. Gyarados F. Metagross G. Salamence H. Skarmory I. Tyranitar J. Umbreon K. Weavile XII. Building a Baton Pass Team (NEW!) A. Type Selection B. Pokemon Selection C. Move Selection D. Order Selection E. Final Touches XIII. Completed Examples of EV Spreads and Move Sets XIV. Additional Resources XV. Acknowledgments XVI. Contact Information XVII. Copyright ======================== II. Version Information ======================== Version 2.0 - Added a section especially for Baton Passing! Exciting. Hopefully people will find it informative, since the strategy is my personal favorite. Also, I've been told that I should add a section on weather teams. I might research this some and add something on this in future updates. Oh, also I took out some of the specific Pokemon counters I was never going to add. Version 1.76 - Been a while again. Sorry. I've got some more e-mail fixes I thought I should probably get in. Along with some potentially updated movesets for my examples and some typos. I've got a little time coming up, so maybe I'll have time to get in some new relevant content. Version 1.75 - Been a while since the last update. Unfortunately, this one is just minor. I got some suggestions via e-mail I thought were relevant, so I added them. Also removed the tier list I had since it was not only not official, but also outdated now. I've posted the link to Smogon's tier list now. Also added two secondary ailments and corrected something in the poison ailment section. In addition, I've changed some movesets I'm not happy with. If I didn't post anything different, I'm still thinking about them and will add my decisions to the next update. Added a couple questions to the FAQ too. Version 1.72 - Updated the list of specific strategies to be added. Updated information on Blissey's counter. Fixed an error involving Stealth Rock. Added some alternate strategies provided by Surging_Chaos via e-mail to me. Updated the FAQ section. Version 1.71 - Updated e-mail policy. Added more specific strategies. Added more stuff to EV training section. Version 1.7 - Added the "Trapping Moves" and "Spikes" sections. Reformatted to make status ailments a seperate section entirely and added move specifics to the category for additions planned on later updates. Added a couple of specific Pokemon counters. Version 1.61 - Fixed another few dumb errors. Added a couple paragraphs to the counter strategies section. Version 1.6 - Added quite a few status ailments to the list, along with a couple different additional ways to counter certain strategies. Fixed a ton of typos and little stupid mistakes. Also added a weather conditions and resource section. Version 1.5 - Added a counter strategy section and specific Pokemon counters section. Version 1.1 - Added the "Suggestions for Specific Strategies" section in order to try to accomodate people who wanted more to learn by than the specific example I showed in the team building section of this FAQ. Version 1.01 - Corrected some typos and errors in information certain people pointed out to me while I was having this proofed. Added several more "things to keep in mind" and subdivided things a little more. Version 1.0 - Finished all major sections of the FAQ. Currently proofing for typos, missing information, and just generally improving upon the whole thing before submitted for posting. Upon finishing, will be ready for submission. Version 0.X - Just starting this FAQ. Getting formating set up, as well as deciding on things to put in. Not yet ready for public viewing. ================== III. Introduction ================== A. Introduction ================ Hey all! If you're reading this, you're probably looking for information on team building in either Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl for the Nintendo DS. My name is David, but I'm known everywhere online as Sui, or some variation of that name. As far as guides go, I've written a couple before, although I mainly specialize in rating characters in certain RPGs, so this particular type of guide is fairly new to me. Hopefully I do a good enough job that you'll all want to come back here to get more helpful tips. ^_^ B. Purpose Statement ===================== The purpose of this guide is to provide suggestions for you to make a CREATIVE competitive battling team. Too many times people only copy movesets or use only the most powerful combinations of Pokemon or the like with their teams. I say no to that, and decide to use other Pokemon, maybe less used, with better strategy. This guide is here to provide you with suggestions for using the Pokemon that you LIKE in your competitive team, and not just the "most powerful" like everyone else. This guide will attempt to teach via example (which is the best way I could think of). If you're not getting the drift of what I'm saying, and would like some help with your struggles, please feel free to e-mail me about it (see below). In addition to simply making your team, the purpose of this FAQ is to provide many explanations of different strategies in order to properly USE your team, and to counter other teams you might be having trouble with. C. E-mail Policy ================= If you see anything wrong or missing in my guide, please feel free to e-mail about it. I also love to hear from people just about what they thought about my guide. So if you find something helpful, or feel that you could give me some constructive criticism, please e-mail me about it. So to sum it up: I WILL answer e-mails concerning: Questions that involve something not mentioned in the guide Something I missed in my guide Suggestions on how to make my guide better Arguments about opinions (as long as they're in an intelligent manner) Letting me know what you thought of my guide Other things you may just want to talk about (opinions, etc.) I WILL NOT answer e-mails concerning: Flaming of any sort Questions that have already been answered in the guide Anything that's stated in a disrespectful manor Anything else of the above sort Something that can EASILY be found on Serebii or another site if you put out the effort to do it And there you have it. That's what I will and will not answer. As a main rule, I'll usually answer anything that's stated politely, and will give a kind reply to e-mails as such. If not, you'll likely not receive a reply. Also, if you do send an e-mail to me, make the title something along the lines of "Pokemon FAQ" so I know which of my FAQs you're talking about and I don't ignore your message thinking it's spam. UPDATE TO POLICY Do NOT e-mail questions like "Where do you find <X> Pokemon?" Or "Is <X> move a TM?" Or pretty much ANY piece of technical information that you could really easily find on Serebii. It's annoying, and I'll be ignoring anyone who sends me these types of questions from now on. UPDATE FOR 1.75 TO POLICY If you do not tell me SPECIFICALLY what you have on your team at the VERY least, I probably will not even reply. So at the very least, I have to know what Pokemon you're thinking of. Do not just tell me types and jobs the types will do. This is not enough, it's not especially relevant, and I will no longer reply to e-mails if you only give me that much information. =============================== IV. Frequently Asked Questions =============================== Q: Where do I look to find a Pokemon's move pool? A: I use http://www.serebii.net. If you don't like it, google it. I'm sure you'll find something. Q. Where do I look to find a Pokemon's base stats and stat line? A: Serebii. Q. Where do I look to find a... A. Serebii. I've seriously never found any piece of technical information about this game that I couldn't find at that site. Check there first. Chances are they'll have what you're looking for. Q. What do you mean by "creative" team builder? A. By creative, I mean things that you typically wouldn't see being done. The purpose is to help you think about making your OWN teams and movesets, instead of using something you found online and just copying it. In addition, there are certain Pokemon that are used WAY WAY WAY too much in competitive settings that I just have issues with. Yeah, like Garchomp and Blissey for starters. Q. Why don't you like those Pokemon? I think they're TEHZOMG RAWK!!!111!!! A. I dislike how people don't have the mind to make an effective special wall that isn't Blissey, and I hate how overused things like that get and how boring it makes the battles. Being creative and just using what you like makes things tons more fun. And we all know that more fun = win. Q. In your FAQ, you said that <Pokemon> should use <strategy>. I think that he's better off doing <different strategy>. A. The strategy you're talking about may be equally effective as the one I mentioned using in here. I'd have to test it out. However, the teams that I make are designed to work TOGETHER, and thus, each and every move (most of the time) serves a purpose in being there. Q. Rate my team! A. No. I'll help you determine things, I won't rate it for you. Q. Make me a team! A. No. I'll help you determine things, I won't make anything for you. Q. Why is Wobbuffet considered an uber? Everyone else on that list is a legendary! A. One word. Encore. Its ability traps in the foe, and it uses encore. After that, you KNOW what they'll use next, and you can use Counter or Mirror Coat depending on what it is. The combination is simply too cheap for normal play. Q. Can I trade/battle with you? What's your friend code? A. My Wifi sucks, so sorry, but no. I've got about 30 Pokemon left to finish my Dex, and that's all I'll be using my Wifi for, since it's a pain to set up everytime. Q. What's your favorite Pokemon? A. Umbreon. Thanks for asking. ^_^ Q. Where do you get <X> Pokemon? A. Look it up on Serebii and DONT EMAIL ME ABOUT IT. If you're lazy enough to not look up such a simple piece of information, I don't see why I can't be lazy enough to not answer your question. Q. Can you make me a suggestion about who to use on my team? A. See "Make me a team!" Because ITS THE SAME QUESTION. Up until now, I've been pretty good about replying nicely to e-mails like this. But I'm no longer going to give people a reply if they send me stupid questoins like that. I'll only provide help if you give me an IDEA of who want to use, or if you're looking for a last slot type of thing, or something alone those lines. Q. I've got <certain types> of Pokemon that are sweepers/walls on my team! Can you give me suggestions on what else to put on? A. No. If you do not tell me SPECIFICALLY what you have on your team at the VERY least, I probably will not even reply. So at the very least, I have to know what Pokemon you're thinking of. Q. I loved your FAQ/saw something wrong/just wanted to comment! A. Great! E-mail me, and I'll be happy to talk to you about whatever you're sending me a message about. See my contact information for my address and be sure to follow my e-mail policy! Q. I sent you a correction/suggestion you said you'd add, but you didn't! A. If you sent me a correction or something in the seven or so months I did not update the FAQ, I'm sorry, but I've since forgotten what exactly you said. I know there were a couple things, but I don't have the time to search through my e-mail to find all of them right now. So feel free to send them again if you want, and I'll make sure I actually add them now since I'm feeling more up to updating this thing now than I have been. More frequently asked questions may be added at a further date if I receive a bunch of the same questions via e-mail. ============================== V. Before You Start Your Team ============================== A. Important Terms =================== In order to fully understand my guide, there are a couple of terms you'll need to know beforehand. These may include: EVs - Effort Values (explained later) IVs - Individual Values (explained later) Clauses - The "rules" for the battle, so to speak. They often place restrictions on movesets, hold items, or the like. Natures - Listed on the Pokemon's status page, these affect different stat gains and caps for the Pokemon, depending on the nature. Egg Moves - These are moves that the Pokemon can only acquire through breeding. These are never learned through level up, and cannot be learned via TMs. Sweeper - A Pokemon that is meant to deal out damage fast and hard. Wall - A Pokemon that's meant to be able to soak up damage for long periods of time in a battle. Lead - The Pokemon you first throw out in a battle. These are meant to take out the enemy's lead before you get KO'd yourself. Tier/Tier List - The list from Nintendo stating which Pokemon are in which "category" of competitive play. Diamond and Pearl do not yet have one of these. STAB - Stands for SAME TYPE ATTACK BONUS. It's when a Pokemon uses a move that is the same type as it. It receives a x1.5 power boost when it's used. HP - Stands for "Hit Points" or "Hidden Power" More terms may be added at a later date if deemed necessary. B. Strategy Explanations ========================= Before building your team, you'll need to have a basic understanding for what exactly you want your team to DO. Most teams are hybrids of what's below, so mix and match as you deem necessary. A "standard" team is usually consisting of two physical sweepers, two special sweepers, a physical wall, and a special wall. Physical Sweeping - A physical sweeper is a Pokemon that has good to excellent attack, meaning that it will deal more damage if the enemy has lower defense. Examples of physical sweepers include Electivire, Scizor, etc etc. Special Sweeping - A special sweeper is a Pokemon that has good to excellent special attack, meaning that it will deal more damage if the enemy has lower special defense. Examples of special sweepers include Porygon Z, Alakazam, etc etc. Physical Wall - A physical wall is a Pokemon that has good to excellent defense, meaning that it will soak up more damage if the enemy has lower attack. Physical walls include Steelix, Golem, Miltank, etc etc. Special Wall - A special wall is a Pokemon that has good to excellent special defense, meaning that it will soak up more damage if the enemy has lower special attack. Special walls include Blissey, Cresselia, etc etc. Mixed Sweeping - A mixed sweeper is a Pokemon that has good to excellent stats in both the attack and special attack areas, meaning that it can deal a good amount of damage no matter what type the attack may be, be it physical or special. An example of a mixed sweeper is Lucario. Mixed Wall - A mixed wall is a Pokemon that has good to excellent stats in both the defense and special defense areas, meaning that it can soak up damage, no matter what attack the opponent uses. There are very few of these. An example of a mixed wall is Umbreon. Specialized Team - A specialized team is a team that has a common theme to it, whether it be type, region, "cute", "cool", a certain move, a certain status condition it causes, etc etc. A simple example of a specialized team by the water type would be Starmie, Blastoise, Cloyster, Lanturn, Lapras, and Vaporeon. Baton Passing - Baton Passing is a very specific strategy that revolves around the move "Baton Pass". Only a very select number of Pokemon can learn the move, so using the strategy requires very careful planning. What Baton Pass does is it "passes" the current conditions of the battle on to your next Pokemon without resetting the conditions like normally would happen. A common reason for doing this is for using moves such as Iron Defense, Aqua Ring, or Swords Dance with one Pokemon, and then passing them on to your next Pokemon to sweep with especially good results due to boosted stats. Choice Team - There are certain items known as the "choice" items. These items make it so that you can use only one move (the first one you use) until you withdraw that Pokemon. However, they give you a x1.5 bonus on attack, speed, or special attack, depending on which of the items you're using. In certain situations, this can be a very effective strategy to use. Annoyer - In an Annoyer team, your main focus is using whatever status ailment/stat boosting move you need to tick off your foe. My personal annoyer strategy is the confusion strategy. But you could also do paralysis, attraction, and the like. More strategies may be added later upon consideration or popular request. C. Natures =========== The nature of your Pokemon affects, to a certain extent, what your Pokemon will be good at, and what it will lack in. Typically, you want physical sweepers to have an attack boosting natures and physical walls to have a defense boosting nature, and so on. There are exceptions, and only you can tell what is best to boost for your strategy. The following are all the natures in the game and what each boosts and declines. Hardy - Nothing raised or lowered. Lonely - Attack raised. Defense lowered. Brave - Attack raised. Speed lowered. Adamant - Attack raised. Special attack lowered. Naughty - Attack raised. Special defense lowered. Bold - Defense raised. Attack lowered. Docile - Nothing raised or lowered. Relaxed - Defense raised. Speed lowered. Impish - Defense raised. Special attack lowered. Lax - Defense raised. Special defense lowered. Timid - Speed raised. Attack lowered. Hasty - Speed raised. Defense lowered. Serious - Nothing raised or lowered. Jolly - Speed raised. Special attack lowered. Naive - Speed raised. Special defense lowered. Modest - Special attack raised. Attack lowered. Mild - Special attack raised. Defense lowered. Quiet - Special attack raised. Speed lowered. Bashful - Nothing raised or lowered. Rash - Special attack raised. Special defense lowered. Calm - Special defense raised. Attack lowered. Gentle - Special defense raised. Defense lowered Sassy - Special defense raised. Speed lowered. Careful - Special defense raised. Special attack lowered. Quirky - Nothing raised or lowered. HP is the one stat that you can neither raise nor lower via the Pokemon's nature no matter what, since no nature affecting this stat exists. Of note to natures and BREEDING is the fact that natures are passed on more assuredly through an Everstone. If you give a parent an Everstone, the child will have a 50% chance of inheriting the nature of that parent. Breeding for a specific nature is quite a bit more manageable thanks to this trick! Certain strategies usually carry certain natures for the Pokemon in them. They are as follows: Physical Sweeper: Adamant or Jolly Special Sweeper: Modest or Timid Physical Wall: Bold, Impish, or Relaxed Swecial Wall: Calm, Careful, or Sassy Mixed Wall: Bold, Impish, Relaxed, Calm, Careful, or Sassy Mixed Sweepers: Depends on the Pokemon and situation D. EVs and IVs =============== EVs, short for "effort values", and IVs, short for "individual values" greatly affect your Pokemon's final stats at level 100. I'll start with EVs. EVs are what make trainer Pokemon better than Pokemon in the wild. Each Pokemon you kill increases a Pokemon's EVs by a certain amount in a certain stat. When you get four EVs of one stat, that will equal one point of the actual stat when the Pokemon is at level 100. You can have a total of 510 EVs total, with the max in a specific stat being 255. 255, however, is not divisible by four. Thus, most EV trained Pokemon have 252 EVs in two stats, and 6 in another. Two of the six points of the last stat will go unused no matter what, since six is also not divisible by four. 252 EVs in a stat means at level 100, your Pokemon will have 63 more points of a certain stat than if you had not EV trained it. You will accumulate EVs naturally throughout the game. However, these will be random, and it's highly recommended you do not use your in game team for your post-game uses because of this. Instead, EV train your Pokemon against certain things in the wild fresh after you've beaten the game. Good sources for EV training are: HP - Lake Verity - Bidoof (1 point), Valley Windworks - Shellos (1 point) and Bidoof (1 point) Attack - South of Solaceon Town - Bibarel (2 points); Right of Celestic Town - Machop (1 point), Machoke (2 points), Bibarel (2 points), Kricketune (2 points) Defense - Iron Island - Onix (1 point), Steelix (2 Points), Graveler(2 points) Special Attack - Old Chateau - Ghastly (1 point) - Haunter and Gengar (2 and 3 points respectively) will appear if you have a GBA Pokemon game inserted in your DS (room with picture with glowing eyes only). Special Defense - Route 223 (Surf) - Mantyke (1 point), Tentacruel (2 points) Speed - Lake Verity - Starly (1 point) Also of note is in Solaceon Town's Ruins. Unown give 1 point of attack and 1 point of special attack, which makes them good to train mixed sweepers against. In addition to defeating Pokemon in order to gain EVs, you can also use vitamins in order to raise your EVs. Vitamins can be used to gain 100 EVs in a stat, up to 51 vitamins (which will put you at the EV limit), at 10 EVs gained per vitamin taken. However, these 100 EVs must be the FIRST 100 EVs added. In other words, the game will let you give a Pokemon vitamins until a Pokemon has a TOTAL of 100 EVs in that stat. The vitamins that increase each EV are as follows: HP Up: Hit Points Protein: Attack Iron: Defense Calcium: Special Attack Zinc: Special Defense Carbos: Speed In addition to raising EVs, you can also REDUCE your EVs if you accidentally gave a Pokemon some EVs you didn't want them to have, or something like that. You do this via special berries (the one's that say "Raise happiness, but lower X base stat"). The first berry you give them will lower their EV total down to 100 (no matter where it was at before that), assuming it was above that total. Each additional one after that will reduce the EV by 10, until you don't have anything left to take off. The berries that reduce each stat are as follows: Hit Point EVs: Pomeg Berry Attack EVs: Kelpsy Berry Defense EVs: Qualot Berry Special Attack EVs: Hondew berry Special Defense EVs: Grepa berry Speed EVs: Tamato Berry IVs, unlike EVs, are predetermined from the time you hatch or catch a Pokemon. Like EVs, they add to stats at level 100. The number can be anything from 0 to 31, and that number is the raw number that is added on to the stat at level 100. To determine what your IVs are exactly, have someone do a Wifi battle with you, record their stats, and then shut the power off. Then use a site like Serebii (or Google "Pokemon IV calculator" if you need to) use an IV calculator to calculate what the IVs are. The reason for the level 100 battle is so that you get a more accurate reading. If you breed instead of catching, IVs are inherited from the parents. Although there isn't a way of determining which IV will be passed down from each parent. Generally, getting good IVs takes a lot of random luck, so getting good ones isn't something that I necessarily recommend doing unless you have a lot of time to kill. E. Clauses =========== Clauses are essentially the "rules" of a specific battle. If you know that you'll be facing people who will likely implement a certain clause for your battle, it's a good idea to make your team abide by certain clauses. Common clauses include the sleep clause, which limits the number of Pokemon on each side that can be asleep at a time to one (excludes sleep induced by Rest), evasion clause, which prohibits the use of moves like Double Team, and the like. I won't be providing a complete list of clauses, since that is far too many to provide, but just check with people you might battle with to see if they put any clauses in effect for their battles. F. Official Rules and Classifications ====================================== AKA the tier lists. At Nintendo events, Pokemon are divided up into different "tiers". What your team is made up of determines which events you can classify for, and tiers determine what your team splits into. The different tiers are the "Ubers", who are considered too good for any competitive play except against other ubers, the "Overused", who are considered the best of best when it comes to legal Pokemon to use, the "Borderline", who are just below the overused, the "moderately used", who are below borderline, the "Underused", who are below the moderately used, and the "Never used", who are below that. Generally, the higher up you are, the more powerful you are. However, do NOT get the idea that because you're against someone who has something lower on the list than you that you will win. Strategy is key to everything, and if you do not know how to USE the Pokemon on your team with proper strategy, it's completely possible for something like a moderately used or underused Pokemon to beat an uber. I've done it myself before. I've removed the tier list that was posted here before since it wasn't official and Smogon has since posted at the very least SOMETHING. Whether or not this is the final version of the list, I have no idea. But that will be the tier list I refer to as of now. You can find it at this site: http://www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/ ========================================= VI. Status Conditions and Move Specifics ========================================= A. Primary Ailments ==================== In the game of Pokemon, there are certain moves you can use in order to inflict certain status ailments on the opponent. However, these do more than simply cause damage, immobility, or the like. They also cut certain stats. So I'll take a moment to explain the ailments and what each one does. What I classify as a "primary" ailment are the status ailments that are actually LABELED in the status. There are five of them: burn, sleep, freeze, poison, and paralysis. Two primary ailments cannot exist at the same time, nor can they replace each other. In addition, the condition remains even if they are switched out of battle. This type of ailment is tied to the Pokemon that it was inflicted on and cannot be Baton Passed to another Pokemon. Burn - A burn is obviously caused by some type of fire move. Each turn, 1/8th of the Pokemon's HP is reduced from the Pokemon that's burned. In addition, the attack stat of the Pokemon burned is cut in half. You can cause a burn with certain fire type moves, however, Will-o-Wisp is the most reliable, since it's a move simply for that purpose, and not an attack with a small burn side chance. Paralysis - If you're paralyzed, you have a 25% chance of not being able to move. Paralysis is caused by certain electric moves, along with other moves such as Body Slam. In addition to sometimes not being able to move, the speed stat is cut in half. A common misconception of this ailment is that ground Pokemon cannot be paralyzed. This is untrue. While electric paralysis moves don't affect them (Thunder Wave, etc), Body Slam can still cause the ailment. Poison/Heavy Poison - Poison is obviously caused by poison type moves. When you're poisoned, a small amount of your HP is reduced every turn. However, if the poison is heavy (caused by moves such as Toxic), the damage will double every turn. It starts at 1/16th of your total, and then reduces it by 1/8th, then 1/4th, and so on. In addition to the damage, the defense stat is also reduced by half. It should be noted that poison and steel type Pokemon cannot have the poison ailment. In addition, if you withdraw a victim of heavy poison, they damage reduced will be reset to 1/16th upon throwing them back in the battle. Update for 1.75 - Someone pointed out quite a while ago in an e-mail that Steel and Poison types CAN be poisoned, but only by one move - Twineedle. This move is so not common that's it's just not even really an issue. Freeze - If you're frozen, you cannot move at all until you thaw out. Freeze is obviously caused by ice type moves. Unlike all of the other status ailments, freeze is the only one that cannot be caused with an almost certain chance of being affected. There is no move that specifically causes the ailment, and instead randomly happens with moves like Ice Beam (10% chance). It should be noted that if a fire move is used on a frozen Pokemon, they are instantly cured of the ailment. Sleep - If you're asleep, you cannot move at all until you wake up. The exception being if you know a move like Snore or Sleep Talk which enable you to move while you're asleep. Sleep is not connected to a certain type of move but instead is caused by a variety of moves such as Spore, Sleep Powder, and Hypnosis. Having the sleep ailment opens you up to the moves Dream Eater, Nightmare, and Darkrai's Bad Dreams ability. It should almost be noted that the sleep status is often limited in battles with the sleep clause, so planning a team solely devoted to it is often difficult to do legally. B. Secondary Ailments ====================== What I consider a "secondary" ailment is a status ailment that is NOT labeled in the status. And, unlike primary ailments, you can stack these with each other, along with ONE primary ailment and infect the foe with as many of these as you want at the same time. However, secondary ailments are cured the instant you withdraw the Pokemon infected from the battle. Unlike primary ailments, if you use Baton Pass, these conditions WILL be passed on to the Pokemon you Baton Pass to (with the exception of Attract). Confusion - If you're confused, you have a chance to attack yourself for minor damage instead of the opponent. Confusion is not a labeled status ailment, which means you can be confused at the same time you have another one of the status ailments. It is also caused by a variety of types of moves, such as Supersonic, Confuse Ray, and Swagger. The damage inflicted by confusion is determined by the attack/defense ratio, which means the higher your attack is in comparison to your defense, the higher the damage will be. Attraction - Attraction (or infatuation, as it's sometimes referred to), is only caused by the move "attract". In addition, it's caused by the "Cute Charm ability". If you're attracted, you'll fail to attack 50% of the time. It's similar to confusion in that sometimes you will get through and sometimes you won't, only attraction does not have damage if you fail to attack. This ailment is only caused if the other Pokemon is the opposite gender, with genderless Pokemon being immune to this status. Also, in addition to the status being cured if your Pokemon leaves the battle, it's also cured if the OPPONENT'S Pokemon leaves the battle. Curse - Curse is a condition that's caused only when a GHOST Pokemon uses the move Curse against you. It cuts its own HP by half of its total HP and places the ailment on you. If you have the status ailment, your HP will be reduced by 1/4 of your total HP for every turn that goes by. However, this doesn't mean you will necessarily die in four turns. If your HP doesn't divide by 4, the ailment may take five turns to take you down. Leech Seed - This ailment is only caused by the move "leech seed". If you're seeded, a small amount of HP will be drained from you to the foe every turn that you're still infected for. Grass Pokemon cannot be hit with this move. In addition, even if the Pokemon that used leech seed is switched out, the new Pokemon still receives HP back. This status can be removed using the move "rapid spin". Nightmare - The nightmare status is obviously caused by the move "Nightmare". However, this move can only be used on Pokemon that are asleep. Similar to the curse status, the nightmare status removes 1/4th of your total HP every turn, until the status is cured when the sleeper wakes up. Flinch - Flinching is a condition that causes a Pokemon to lose its turn. The status only lasts for one turn, and can only be used by a Pokemon that goes first in a battle. Certain items can be used in order to increase the chance of flinching. Taunt - Taunt is caused by the move "taunt" and lasts from two to four turns. The taunt status disables any move that doesn't cause damage, such as Confuse Ray, Baton Pass, etc. If taunt is used first in a battle, and the opponent has a non-damage move set, it will cause that move to fail. Encore - Encore is caused by the move "encore" and lasts from two to six turns. When inflicted with the status, you can only use the move you used last when you had the move used on you. Torment - Torment is caused by the move "torment" and lasts until you switch the infected Pokemon out. Torment disables the use of the same move twice in a row. If the tormented Pokemon only has one usable move, the Pokemon will alternate between that move and Struggle. Substitute - While not an "ailment", per se, it's still a different status than normal. In order to create a substitute, you use the move Substitute and forfeit 1/4th of your total HP. Once created, the substitute will protect the user from enemy attacks. While behind a substitute, you cannot be inflicted with status ailments from your enemy, and the move can indeed be Baton Passed to someone else. Embargo - Embargo is a move that disables the foe from using their held item. It's not usually that useful in most situations. It's more annoying and sometimes problematic than it is usually worth your time to put this on your team. Heal Block - Heal Block is a move that disables the opponent healing for five turns. This can be effective in combination with something like Mean Look against a wall. Walls like to use self-recovery moves, which offen negate burn and poison damage. This move helps counter that. C. Weather Conditions ====================== If a weather effect is caused by the moves Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Sandstorm, or Hail, the condition will last for five turns. If the user of the weather move is holding the correct corresponding rock (Damp Rock, Heat Rock, Smooth Rock, Icy Rock), the weather effect will last eight turns instead of five. Weather effects can be erased by replacing them with another weather condition. However, you cannot "renew" a current weather effect by using the move again before it expires. If the weather effect is caused by the abilities Drizzle, Drought, Sand Stream, or Snow Warning, the weather effect will NEVER expire until a new weather condition is put into play. Rain's effects: 1) Make's water moves 50% stronger. 2) Makes fire moves 50% weaker. 3) Cuts the power of Solarbeam in half. 4) Makes Synthesis/Moonlight/Morning Sun heal 1/4 of your HP instead of 1/2. 5) Increases Thunder's accurary to 100%. 6) Changes Weather Ball's power to 100 and type to water. 7) Activates the abilities Swift Swin, Rain Dish, Dry Skin, Hydration, and Forecast. Harsh sunlight's effects: 1) Makes fire moves 50% stronger. 2) Makes water moves 50% weaker. 3) Allows you to use Solarbeam without a charging turn. 4) Makes Synthesis/Moonlight/Morning Sun heal 2/3 of your HP instead of 1/2. 5) Reduces Thunder's accuracy to 50%. 6) Changes Weather Ball's power to 100 and type to fire. 7) Activates the abilities Chlorophyll, Dry Skin, Flower Gift, Solar Power, Leaf Guard, and Forecast. Sandstorm's effects: 1) Hurts all non-ground/rock/steel/Sand Veil Pokemon between turns. 2) Rock types get a 50% special defense boost. 3) Cuts the power of Solarbeam in half. 4) Makes Synthesis/Moonlight/Morning Sun heal 1/4 of your HP instead of 1/2. 5) Changes Weather Ball's power to 100 and type to rock. 6) Activates the Sand Veil and Forecast abilities. Hail's effects: 1) Hurts all non-Ice Pokemon between turns. 2) Increases Blizzard's accuracy to 100%. 3) Cuts the power of Solarbeam in half. 4) Makes Synthesis/Moonlight/Morning Sun heal 1/4 of your HP instead of 1/2. 5) Changes Weather Ball's power to 100 and type to Ice. 6) Activates the abilities Snow Cloak, Ice Body, and Forecast. D. The Trapping Moves ====================== There are certain moves which you can use in order to trap your opponent in the battle, preventing switching out so they could gain an advantage against you. Using these moves is oftentimes excellent strategy if you have a certain move, such as Destiny Bond, that you know they'd smart enough to switch out against otherwise. There are two "categories" of these moves, so to speak. The first is the moves that simply prevent switching, but don't do damage, and last as long as that Pokemon is in the battle. The second is the moves that DO do damage, but only last a certain number of turns. The moves that will last as long as the Pokemon that used them is in battle are: Block Mean Look Spider Web Thanks to Tombola Man for pointing out Spider Web to me, though Spider Web can only be learned by Spinarak and Ariados. The damage inflicting moves with limited turns are: Bind Clamp Fire Spin Whirlpool Wrap In addition to these, you can also SELF INDUCE yourself into not being able to switch out with these moves: Ingrain The Pokemon that can learn each of these moves are as follows: Block - Snorlax, Sudowoodo, Nosepass, Bastiodon, Bronzong, Bonsly, Tangrowth, Probopass, Geodude, Graveler, Golem, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Onix, Slowking, Steelix, Snorunt, Glalie, Froslass Mean Look - Zubat, Golbat, Ghastly, Haunter, Gengar, Jynx, Crobat, Umbreon, Murkrow, Misdreavous, Smoochum, Sableye, Duskull, Dusclops, Dusknoir, Grimer, Muk, Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir, Absol, Gallade Spider Web - Spinarak, Ariados Bind - Onix, Tangella, Pinsir, Steelix, Kecleon, Dusclops, Carnivine, Tangrowth, Dusknoir Clamp - Shelder, Clamperl Fire Spin - Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, Vulpix, Ponyta, Rapidash, Magmar, Flareon, Moltres, Magby, Entei, Torchic, Torkoal, Solrock, Chimchar, Monferno, Infernape, Magmortar, Heatran, Growlithe, Arcanine, Houndour, Houndoom Whirlpool - Shelder, Mudkip, Wailmer, Wailord, Clamperl, Huntail, Gorebyss, Piplup, Prinplup, Empoleon, Buizel, Floatzel, Finneon, Lumineon, Phione, Manaphy, Lapras, Chinchou, Lanturn, Marshtomp, Swampert, Barboach, Whiscash Ingrain - Tangela, Sunkern, Sunflora, Roselia, Cacnea, Cacturne, Lileep, Cradily, Carnivine, Snover, Abomasnow, Tangrowth, Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur, Oddish, Gloom, Vileploom, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebel, Exeggcute, Exeggutor, Chikorita, Bayleef, Meganium, Bellossom, Corsola In addition to MOVES having this effect, there are also certain Pokemon that have an ABILITY that has the same effect. These abilities are: Arena Trap Magnet Pull* Shadow Tag * Magnet Pull only traps Pokemon of the STEEL type. The Pokemon that have each of these abilities are: Arena Trap - Diglett, Dugtrio, Trapinch Magnet Pull - Magnemite, Magneton, Nosepass, Magnezone, Probopass Shadow Tag - Wobbuffet, Wynaut E. Spikes ========== The game also has certain moves that will damage the opponent upon switching their Pokemon out. I've named this the "Spikes" category, for lack of something better to call it. There are only three moves in this category, and they are: Spikes Toxic Spikes Stealth Rock Spikes and Toxic Spikes can both be "stacked," meaning you can use them up to three times for a better effect. Stealth Rock cannot be stacked, and has full effect after just one use. (Thanks to Tombola Man for this). Spikes deals damage the Pokemon switching in for the opponent unless that Pokemon is of the flying type or has the Levitate ability. Toxic Spikes poisons the Pokemon switching in unless the Pokemon is of the flying, poison, or steel types or has the Levitate ability. Stealth Rock has nothing that is immune to it. Each one of these moves will be super/not very effective if a Pokemon that switches in to them is resistant/weak to their types. Oftentimes the opponent is reluctant to switch after these moves are used on them, so these moves are often paired with moves like Roar and Whirlwind in order to force the switch. F. Hidden Power ================ Hidden Power (HP) is a special move that doesn't have a specific type or power connected to the move itself. Instead, it's power and type is dependent solely on the specific Pokemon you have. There isn't a way of knowing what your type or power is unless you either test it versus in game enemies to determine its type, or using an IV calculator to also determine your HP type. Often times, this move can be used to cover weaknesses that otherwise could not be covered. However, since getting the right type of this move is as random and time consuming as getting the good IVs you want, I won't be recommending the use of this move in actual movesets unless you have a lot of time to spare for getting it. =============================== VII. Things to Keep in Mind... =============================== Before I get started on the actual team building part, I figured I should give some general guidelines to consider while building, and some tips to help you along the way. 1) Use who you like. You have no idea how annoying it is to go somewhere and only see people using legendaries or a team of Garchomp, Metagross, Salamence, Blissey, Skarmory, etc etc. I like Froslass, so I'm using Froslass. Don't use someone just because they have good stats. Use who you like. It makes the experience more enjoyable. 2) Make sure your wanted moveset is possible before you finalize your selection. If your Pokemon is in the "ground" egg breeding group, then you can get any egg moves you want. However, for someone like Crobat, who is only in the "flying" egg group, and does not have a common crossover to the ground group (the only one being Farfetch'd), not all egg moves are possible at the same time. You can get them all one at a time, but it cannot learn more than one of them at a given time in a lot of situations. 3) Females pass on the species. Males pass on TMs and egg moves. To get egg moves, you're going to need a female of the species you want, with a male that knows the move you want it to know. Don't forget this. If you have both a male AND a female of the same species who BOTH know the same level up move, this move can also be passed on to the child if the two parents breed while both knowing this move. 4) When breeding for natures, it's helpful to use Dittos. Sure, catching Dittos of every nature can be a little time consuming, but depending on how many Pokemon you want, it may be worth the time. I have Dittos of every nature, and it took around 90 minutes to catch them all. Once you have the Ditto you want with the right nature, simply give it an Everstone when you go to breed and it will have a 50% chance of passing on the nature to the child. This negates the time it would have taken to get that nature randomly. 5) Consider the Pokemon you have access to. Granted, rarity should not be the highest on the list for consideration, but say you want something that's not easy to come by, and the gender you want is rare even within the species. If you're not willing to spend time on it, use something else. 6) Consider the rareness/availability of your moves/items. Certain moves will only be available via TM, and certain hold items take a long time to get in the battle tower. If you don't think you have access to them, or aren't willing to spend the time to get them, make sure you can trade for them via the GameFAQs trade boards before you set your heart on having that moveset. 7) Make sure the move set you choose is not self conflicting. What I mean by that is things like having both Toxic and Will-o-Wisp on the same Pokemon. You cannot cause two primary status ailments at the same time, so giving a Pokemon two primary status ailment causing moves is a waste of a slot. Another example is giving a Pokemon Will-o-Wisp and Confuse Ray. Burn cuts attack, which reduces the damage the confusion smack will do. Self-conflicting. Always make sure your team is free of this. 8) Double and triple check your team and strategy. After you form what you want, go back over it and make sure everything works well together and you didn't make any stupid mistakes. Ask a friend to review it for you. Ask someone on the GameFAQs forums. Just make sure you have it right before you go and put your plan into action. 9) Use STAB to your advantage. Your Pokemon has type(s). Use that x1.5 bonus you get from STAB to your advantage. There's no sense in letting a bonus like that go unused. 10) Try not to double up on types. If you have one fire Pokemon on your team already, then don't choose another Pokemon that has the fire typing. Using more types of Pokemon on your team helps ensure that you cover as many of your weak points as possible. In addition to not doubling up on the type of the POKEMON you use, you're going to want to make sure that each individual Pokemon you have does not have more than one of the same type of moves in most situations. This ensures that you aren't opening yourself up to any unnecessary weakness and gives you as many counters as possible to as many situations as you can. 11) If your Pokemon has more than one ability possible, make sure the one you breed has the one that's more beneficial to your strategy. Certain Pokemon have more than one ability possible in Diamond/Pearl. You can't have them both, so decide which one you want for maximum performance. 12) Just because I labeled a Pokemon as a "physical wall" or a "special sweeper" or the like, doesn't mean that that's the ONLY thing they can be. Certain Pokemon are good at many different things and can often serve many purposes. Only you know what you're going for in a particular strategy. Things can also be artificially made to be things they're not via stat boosting moves as well. Moves like Curse can make a typical special wall into both a physical sweeper and a physical wall. Just remember that what something is often depends entirely on what you want it to be. 13) There is no "ultimate moveset" for any one Pokemon ever. One moveset may work well for one strategy, while a totally different one could work better for a different strategy. If someone questions a certain move you have on your team, tell them the reason it's there as opposed to something else. If a moveset that might *technically* be superior is suggested, but you have very specific reasons for using the moves you're using instead, stick with whatever makes your strategy work better. 14) Make sure you know whether your Pokemon is good in the physical or special area, and that the moves you're using correspond to that. Weavile, for example has great attack, but poor special attack. So using an attack like Ice Beam, which is special based, on a Weavile doesn't make sense. Instead, aim for a move that utilizes your Pokemon's stregths. Ice Punch, still an ice move, is a physically based move, and thus makes much more sense for the situation. ==================== VIII. Team Building ==================== A. Deciding Your Strategy and Category ======================================= The first thing you should do before you do anything else in picking your team is decide what you want your team to do. Let's say you want to do a standard team. Then you should keep in mind you'll need two physical sweepers, two special sweepers, a physical wall, and a special wall when you're choosing who to use. But if you want to do a Baton Passing team, your choice selection process will be a lot different and more restrictive. So decide what you think you will be able to pull off successfully, and then choose your strategy accordingly. For the purposes of the FAQ, we'll be assuming I'm doing a standard strategy setup. Once you know what strategy you want to run, you should decide what category you want to battle in. Are you going to use a standard team of all overused? Do you want to use ubers? Or maybe you want a challenge and want to build a team of all underused Pokemon. Decide based on what you'll be using them for. In the example I'll use for this FAQ, we'll be assuming that I'm building a team that's all Borderline or under in classification. *Note* - I made this FAQ before the tier list was released. Since then, Yanmega, who was potentially BL at the time, has been moved to the overused tier. I'm not redoing the strategy for this. Just note that this team is no longer BL and under, and instead makes an exception for the OU Yanmega. ***************************************************************** * Strategy Selection: Standard team of four sweepers, two walls * * Category Selection: Borderline and below (one exception) * ***************************************************************** B. Picking Your Team ===================== This is the most fun part of the entire process. You get to choose which Pokemon you want to use on your team. Remembering what your strategy is and which category you chose, you can make your selection. I chose to go with Borderline and under, which means that everything in the ubers and overused categories are off limits. So now I'll just go through the list and pick out which Pokemon I like: Arcanine, Blaziken, Charizard, Crobat, Empoleon, Espeon, Feraligatr, Flygon, Gallade, Kabutops, Kingdra, Lapras, Leafeon, Magmortar, Miltank, Ninetales, Vaporeon, Absol, Blastoise, Cloyster, Gardevoir, Glaceon, Houndoom, Jynx, Lanturn, Luxray, Meganium, Rapidash, Slowking, Typhlosion, Walrein, Yanmega, Altaria, Ampharos, Dewgong, Electrode, Flareon, Froslass, Manectric, Raichu, Sandslash, Scyther, Chatot, Farfetch'd, Mightyena, Pachirisu, Parasect, Sudowoodo, Tropius As you can see, that's QUITE a bit to choose from. Maybe you like as many Pokemon as I do. Who knows? Let's assume you do. The next thing to do is to look at the Pokemon's stat lines and move pools (you can find both of these things using Serebii's wonderful Diamond/Pearl Pokedex, or another site, if you prefer). Upon further investigation, the following had statlines that were a bit too shaky/low/etc for my team: Tropius, Sudowoodo, Parasect, Pachirisu, Chatot And the following had move pools that were too restrictive/not good for my tastes: Mightyena, Farfetch'd, Flareon, Electrode, Dewgong, Ampharos, Altaria, Walrein, Typhlosion, Rapidash, Luxray, Glaceon, Kabutops, Empoleon Now that we've elimnated these due to stat/move pool problems, we can begin to get a sense of who we actually want to use. The following of the original list are left after the first two processes of elimination: Arcanine, Blaziken, Charizard, Crobat, Espeon, Feraligatr, Flygon, Gallade, Kingdra, Lapras, Leafeon, Magmortar, Miltank, Ninetales, Vaporeon, Absol, Blastoise, Cloyster, Gardevoir, Houndoom, Jynx, Lanturn, Luxray, Meganium, Slowking, Yanmega, Froslass, Manectric, Raichu, Sandslash, Scyther Still, that's quite a bit to choose from, so let's break it down a little bit more into our strategy sub-categories we're going for. Physical sweepers: Arcanine, Blaziken, Crobat, Feraligatr, Flygon, Gallade, Leafeon, Absol, Luxray, Sandslash, Scyther Special sweepers: Arcanine, Charizard, Espeon, Kingdra, Lapras, Magmortar, Ninetales, Blastoise, Gardevoir, Houndoom, Jynx, Meganium, Froslass, Manectric, Raichu, Yanmega Physical wall: Leafeon, Miltank, Cloyster, Sandslash Special wall: Kingdra, Lapras, Vaporeon, Lanturn, Slowking All right. That makes the selection a LITTLE bit easier. It's at this point that you just have to pick and choose. Keep in mind that you should not double up on typings within your team if it can be avoided. Out of all of the above, the following have been selected due to preference of a nice balance of decent stats and a good move pool, as well as my personal liking of them: Flygon, Yanmega, Froslass, Absol, Lanturn, Miltank Obviously there was a lot of time involved in checking the statlines and move pools for all of the above involved. But in the end, you have to balance who you like the best with their stat lines and move pools and come up with something. This was the result for me for this particular team. ********************************************************************** * Team Selection: Flygon, Yanmega, Froslass, Absol, Lanturn, Miltank * ********************************************************************** C. Assigning Your EVs and Natures ================================== Okay! Now you've got the Pokemon you want on your team decided. The hardest part of the decision making is over! The very next thing you have to do is decide what natures you should give each of them, along with the EVs to train each of them in in order to best bring out their qualities. In order to do this, you'll want to look at the stat lines for each of the Pokemon you picked. Generally, you want to give 252 EVs to their best two stats, and 6 EVs to HP. Physical sweepers generally like attack boosting natures, special sweepers like special attack boosting natures, and walls like their corresponding defense boosting nature. Sweepers are sometimes an exception if you want to boost their speed to ensure they move first. It's up to you to decide if they'll need the extra speed boost or not. As for what stat you want your nature to decrease, in all non-mixed sweeping Pokemon, you'll want that stat to be the type of attack that they don't use. So physical sweepers want their special attack lowered, and special sweepers want their physical attack lowered. This way, you lower a stat you aren't using anyway, and your Pokemon gets the corresponding maximum performance out of everything. In my case, this is what each of my Pokemon what assigned to have: *********************************************************** * Froslass: Timid nature. 252 EVs in speed/special attack * * Flygon: Naive nature. 252 EVs in speed/attack * * Miltank: Impish nature. 252 EVs in HP/defense * * Lanturn: Calm nature. 252 EVs in HP/special defense * * Yanmega: Modest nature. 252 EVs in special attack/speed * * Absol: Jolly nature. 252 EVs in attack/speed * *********************************************************** Update - I've switched Flygon's nature in this section since I changed his moveset to contain Fire Blast. Since lowering special attack would be detrimental in this case, I switched it to a nature that lowers one of the defenses instead. D. Picking Your Abilities ========================== Certain Pokemon have more than one ability possible, while others have only one possible. Before you start to breed, you want to decide which ones you want your Pokemon to have. These abilities should be the ones that benefit your team the most. In my case, Froslass and Flygon both only have one ability, so it's the one they have to have. All of the other four have two that I can choose from. Miltank has Scrappy (enables normal type moves to hit ghosts) or Thick Fat (50% less damage from ice and fire attacks). Lanturn has Volt Absorb (adds electric attacks to HP) or Illuminate (increase number of Pokemon that appear in the wild). Yanmega has Speed Boost (raises speed each turn) or Color Glasses (if an ineffective attack is used, it raises the power of that move). Absol has Pressure (doubles foes PP usage) and Super Luck (increases critical attack percentage). In some cases, you have to know what moveset and to an extent the hold item in order to decide which ability is better. If you run into something like that, remember you can always come back and alter your decision. Absol is one of those cases for me, which will be explained later. All of the others were either obvious that I should go with one, or either one would be fine (Miltank's case). That leaves me with: ************************ * Miltank: Scrappy * * Lanturn: Volt Absorb * * Yanmega: Speed Boost * * Absol: Super Luck * ************************ E. Picking Your Movesets ========================= This is a critical stage in the team building process. This is the time you decide the approach and style you're taking to your battle. Will you go on an all out offense? Will your moves be dedicated to stat boosting? Or perhaps you want to annoy your enemy to death? You can do multiple things with one Pokemon, but not really at the same time. This is mainly why there are several movesets that could work equally well for any Pokemon at any given time. So let's get get started on what we want to do. Froslass - Froslass is one of my special sweepers. Thus, I want to focus on attacks that are high in power and in accuracy and can take things out as fast as possible. Froslass is a dual ice/ghost type, which makes the moves Ice Beam and Shadow Ball highly good choices. Upon looking through the rest of the moves that Froslass can learn, certain others moves spike my interest, including Thunderbolt, Psychic, Attract, Confuse Ray, Spikes, Block, and Destiny Bond. Destiny Bond and Block in combination would be a guarantee KO for me, assuming I could get both of them in. Considering Froslass' rather poor defenses, I wasn't sure about this plan, so I put it on reserve. Thunderbolt however, could provide great other type coverage for my team, as well as being a good high power, high accuracy move. I'm also known for loving the confusion status ailment for Confuse Ray. So I decide to go with Confuse Ray and Thunderbolt as the last two moves over Block and Destiny Bond, though the latter would certainly be an acceptable moveset as well. Update for 1.76 - Upon further consideration, I've decided that Destiny Bond is a better choice for a last move than Confuse Ray. Despite Confuse Ray being a good staller sometimes, it relies on luck. Through my battles with Froslass, I've noted that it can take out most things it takes on in one hit if it has a super effective hit. Similarly, it usually also dies in one hit. However, due to Focus Sash, Froslass is always guaranteed two hits. So if you encounter something that you can't defeat in one hit, or you get walled or something, Destiny Bond is good. Froslass will go first against most of the things you'll be encountering, guaranteeing that the foe will die after they take out your last HP saved with the Focus Sash. Thus, Destiny Bond is an excellent choice here. ************************************************************** * Decision: Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Destiny Bond * ************************************************************** Flygon - Flygon is one of my physical sweepers. He's often overlooked by Garchomp, since he has the same typing of ground/dragon. I also note that this type combination has a x4 weakness to ice. So he has to have a counter to ice somewhere in his moveset. He conveniently can learn Stone Edge, a rock type move. There's also two STAB moves to consider. Earthquake is just a great move in general that works well in a ton of situations, so that seems like a good choice too. And his dragon type. The best physical dragon move he can learn is Dragon Claw, so that's the move to fit the bill there. One more moveslot open. There's the x4 ice weakness to consider again. What if Flygon is weak and needs to switch out to a better Pokemon for the situation? Well, U-Turn is like a switch out, but you get in a sneak attack before you return back to the ball. Great for someone fast like Flygon. Update for 1.75 - Upon further consideration, U-Turn is not the best choice for Flygon on this particular team. There isn't fire anywhere else on this team, which I've found hurts quite a bit against things like Metagross. So to adaquately provide a counter for this, Fire Blast is a decent choice. Even though this is a special move, and Flygon is a physical sweeper with no EVs devouted to special attack, Fire Blast has a high enough base power, and Flygon's special attack is already high enough that this should be a decent amount of power anyway. And the fire counter is more helpful than U-Turn proved to be. Thus, I'm changing my selection. ************************************************************* * Decision: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Dragon Claw, Fire Blast * ************************************************************* Miltank - Miltank is a physical wall. Thus, we're going to want some things on her to help her keep her alive. Everyone knows that Miltank is famous for her MooMoo Milk. And how convenient that she learns Milk Drink pretty early on in levels. 1/2 your HP being recovered a turn is a great way to stall things. Also of note on her move list is Heal Bell. And anyone that CAN learn that move SHOULD learn it. It heals all status ailments on the entire team. Quite handy in a tough situation. Now there is Miltank's statline to consider. Aside from defense, she also has fairly decent attack, so we're going to want some attacks that are physical based. STAB is an issue too. Body Slam is sitting right there. With an added chance of paralysis and decent PP usage, that was the STAB move to use. One more move slot open. There are tons of options for this one. There's Protect, should something so wrong and stalling for time be needed. Or Toxic, if I wanted to go with a slow death while I keep restoring my HP strategy. Or Attract. For the annoyer strategy to make attacking for the foe as hard as possible. Maybe Substitute. Hide behind it and recover the HP it drains away. Or how about Curse? Boost that defense and Body Slam up for a wall with great offense as well. Or Earthquake, the high power, decent PP general filler move. Really, any of those could be implemented with equal effectiveness. But in this case I'm going with Earthquake. Just because I like that better than the others. ********************************************************** * Decision: Milk Drink, Heal Bell, Body Slam, Earthquake * ********************************************************** Lanturn - Lanturn is unique in that it is the only Pokemon to have the water/electric typing. Having decent special attack, as well as being my special wall, Surf is an obvious offensive move. I also immediately eyed that it can learn Confuse Ray, so I slapped that right on there too. Then there was the electric STAB to consider. So, Thunderbolt. Again, we sit at the last slot with different options to consider. There's nothing particularly supporting the special defense so far, which should be considered. Aqua Ring is always a good choice, especially combined with Leftovers, in order to restore the little damage done to you. Then there's Toxic. Sit there and absorb the damage and watch the opponent slowly die. Or there's the Rest plus Chesto Berry option that's popular for walls. Restore damage, wake up. Nifty. And then there's Amnesia, which boosts special defense even more. In this case, I wasn't going to have another Toxic on the team, so I decided to go with Toxic in the end for a lack of the move anywhere else. Although the other two options are also feasible. Update for 1.75 - I'm currently at a hiatus with this moveset. I'm not really satisfied with this since Lanturn is slow and wally, and this moveset doesn't give him enough protection for my taste. But I haven't decided for sure on something better, so while I'm making that selection, I'll leave this as is and update later with an updated moveset. Update for 1.76 - Toxic is a bad choice. Upon further examination and consideration, I've determined that Thunder Wave is a better move to give Lanturn for this reason: Lanturn is slow. Thunder Wave will half speed. In addition, you get an extra chance for them not moving. Combined with Confuse Ray (Parafusion!), the opponent will have trouble getting a move in. Meanwhile, you're attacking with Thunderbolt and Surf, recovering with Leftovers, and using Confuse Ray again as necessary. This set gives Lanturn much more protection than Toxic and is a much safer and more satisfying decision. ********************************************************** * Decision: Surf, Thunderbolt, Confuse Ray, Thunder Wave * ********************************************************** Yanmega - Classic bug/flying typing here. Fast, and getting faster with the Speed Boost ability he has. So I know he'll do better the longer he can stall for time. This eyes the Air Slash attack, which has a good chance of making the opponent flinch, while taking advantage of the flying STAB. Immobilizing the opponent is fun, so that's confirmed. Stalling for time...ah, yes. Yanma can learn Hypnosis. The classic Hypnosis plus Dream Eater move combo. Great for if Yanmega gets hit. Stalls for time and restores a little damage to boot. Now for the last move. Still haven't covered the bug STAB, and Yanmega IS a special sweeper. Meaning that Bug Buzz would be a good choice for the last slot. Update for 1.75 - I'm also somewhat less than satisfied with Dream Eater. Hypnosis has proven to be fairly useful, but Dream Eater doesn't usually get back enough HP for you to be worth using the turn on it. And more often than not, the extra flinching helps a ton, and this just goes unused. So right now I'm trying to come up with a better alternative to this and will update again with my decision. Edit for 1.76 - It took me a while, but I think I've figured this out. Part of the problem with Yanmega is that about half the time, you won't be going first, and you'll get hurt without the speed boost. So to remedy this, we're going to give it Protect. Protect gives you the guaranteed first Speed Boost, after which, you shouldn't have too much trouble going first. And then the rest of the strategy just works itself. **************************************************** * Decision: Air Slash, Bug Buzz, Hypnosis, Protect * **************************************************** Absol - Ah, finally. The last moveset to decide. Absol is a pure dark type, and has some massive attack. So we'll want to take advantage of this high attack on this physical sweeper. Upon looking at his moveset, it's noted that he can't actually learn a lot of high power moves. This is where his ability comes in though. Combined with Super Luck, he can learn three high-critical moves. Night Slash, Slash, and Psycho Cut. Each of these three is a different type, and Night Slash provides the STAB that Absol should have. Now we add in the item to finish the strategy. Razor Claw. This also boosts his critical, so combined with the two other boosts Absol gets, the critical hits will be flying. Absol is pretty fast too, but not fast enough to guarantee he'll stay alive for forever. And he's fairly fragile too. So we need a counter to this in case Absol is in trouble. Note that he can learn Sucker Punch with will go first, guaranteeing he gets another attack in. It doubles up on the dark typing, but...in this situation, it's the best choice anyway. Update for 1.75 - Recently, someone pointed out the alternative of Swords Dance via e-mail to me. And this is actually a combination I've tried out personally. It's important to note that if you use Swords Dance, you're only using it once since Absol is too fragile for more. And even then, what you're up against would have to try to be stalling for time so you don't get hit. So while this is an alternative, it's important to note that it's risky if you can't predict things well. Edit for 1.76 - Upon further consideration, I've decided to add Swords Dance in. Reason being: Slash doesn't have any type advantage. The other two critical moves can do as much damage as it and they have advantages. So getting rid of Slash isn't a problem. Thus, there's room for Swords Dance. But like I said, you have to carefully predict if you think you can get one in or not. ***************************************************************** * Decision: Night Slash, Psycho Cut, Sucker Punch, Swords Dance * ***************************************************************** F. Picking Your Hold Items =========================== Now you've FINALLY decided all of your movesets for your team. Don't worry, that's the longest process in the entire thing. Now comes a somewhat easier, yet still important part. Hold items. Hold items will aid your Pokemon in whatever way that they wouldn't receive otherwise. With hold items, it's best to assign them in a way that will help cover weaknesses, or boost your power over the top. You should evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each of your Pokemon when assigning these items. Froslass - Froslass is fast and powerful. However, if it manages to not defeat something in the first turn, it will be in trouble on the counter. If the attack is super effective, it likely won't survive. So how do you prevent premature death? More often than not, what can kill Froslass will be a definitely one hit KO. The Focus Sash can still leave you alive after this and give you a chance to finish the job you couldn't quite do on turn one. Thus, this item is an EXCELLENT choice for Froslass. ************************ * Decision: Focus Sash * ************************ Flygon - Flygon has a x4 weakness to ice. Anything with a x4 weakness to anything is probably going to die in one hit if it's hit by that type. And considering that Ice Beam is perhaps the most commonly used attack in the game, we need to prevent this as we did with Froslass dying. ************************ * Decision: Focus Sash * ************************ Miltank - As mentioned before, Miltank is a wall. Pretty much any wall does well receiving a little bit of its health back every turn to ensure maximum living and stalling time. Thus, Leftovers is a great choice for Miltank. *********************** * Decision: Leftovers * *********************** Lanturn - Lanturn is also a wall, so he benefits the same way Miltank does. *********************** * Decision: Leftovers * *********************** Yanmega - Remember how I mentioned that I gave Yanmega Air Slash to stall for time? Well, that attack only has a 30% chance of activation for the flinching. Not quite enough to effectively stall for time. However, that effect can be significantly boosted if we give him the King's Rock. With the extra flinch boost from the rock, Air Slash will now have an even better chance of making the opponent flinch. And the higher we can make that chance, the better. Update for 1.76 - Someone pointed out to me that apparently King's Rock is considered hax, so it's banned from official play. I'm not changing anything about the selection, since I don't especially care, I'm just pointing this out since it's worth a mention. ************************* * Decision: King's Rock * ************************* Absol - I've already pointed out how Absol's strategy is based around critical hits. This item should support that strategy. ************************ * Decision: Razor Claw * ************************ G. Breeding and EV Training ============================ Phew! Now the actual planning part is done, although you want to confirm that your strategy for your entire team will work and is effective before continuing on to this step. Ask for help with that as much as you can. Show a friend. Ask on this site. E-mail someone. Make sure it's good before wasting your time making a bum team. Once you're sure you're satisfied with all your hard planning, you can continue onto this step. The first thing you'll need to do is catch the base form of the Pokemon you want, should you not have it already. If you can't get it in your game, go on Wifi and see if anyone here at the GameFAQs trading boards has what you want. After you have it, what you need to do is breed for any egg moves you need, if any. If you have egg moves on your Pokemon, the Pokemon you have will need to be FEMALE. And then you'll need to find a Pokemon in the same egg group as it that learns the move you want and catch a MALE of that. When the male with the move you want and the female of your species breed together, the will create a Pokemon that's the species you want, and has the move you need too. However, you're not done breeding yet. It's helpful if that product you just got with the egg move is male, since then you can use Dittos in order to get the nature you want. Assuming it is male, give a Ditto with the nature you want an Everstone and breed it with the Pokemon you just got with your desired egg move. You now have a 50% chance of getting the nature you want! Much better than going randomly until you hit a small chance of hatching the nature you wanted. Also at this time, you should be noticing your abilities. If your Pokemon has BOTH the nature you wanted AND the ability you wanted (assuming it had more than one), then that's good. If not, keep breeding and hatching eggs until you get one that is exactly the way you want it. It could be perhaps time consuming, but not so much that it's unbearable. After you have the finished product with nature and egg moves, you can begin your EV training. Depending on what your Pokemon is, you will train in different places, which are listed for you earlier in this guide. If you're in doubt about which Pokemon give what EV and how many of them, simply look the information up on Serebii to find it. However, I don't recommend simply sitting down and EV training without any enhancement. There are certain things that boost the number of EVs you get. PokeRus doubles the EVs you gain. It can be acquired randomly through a small chance in a wild Pokemon encounter. More likely, you can trade for it on the trading boards on GameFAQs. There are also the "power" items, which you can get from the battle tower. They boost EVs of a CERTAIN TYPE, by 4. The Power Lens, for example, boosts special attack EVs by 4. There is a power item for every stat, so getting them all could take a long time. I recommend getting whichever ones you think you'll use the most and use the other item, the Macho Brace, for the rest of the training. You can get the Macho Brace by showing the Burmy fan in Pastoria City the three different types of Burmy. If you have BOTH the PokeRus AND the corresponding power item, a battle that normally gave you 1 EV of the stat will now give you a whopping TEN. EV training goes by much faster under these conditions. Also of note is the use of Exp Share. EVs are gained by gaining experience, so anyone who receives experience in the battle, even with Exp Share receives EVs from it. However, these EVs won't be boosted unless the Pokemon in question also has PokeRus, in which case they'll receive double of what the BASE EV was, and not the heavily boosted power item bonus was. Repeat the breeding and EV training process for your entire team until all of them are completed. H. Leveling and Finalizing =========================== The final stage of the team making process is FINALLY to level up your Pokemon and teach them whatever moves you assigned them to have. If you're extremely lucky, you may even not have to do this if your Pokemon was assigned all egg moves and TM/HM moves. Simply level them up with Exp Share and run through the Elite Four until they know everything necessary. And obtain the TM you seek by any means necessary. Teach them what they need to know and enjoy your newly completed team! Update for 1.76 - Apparently it is confusing what I mean here? I will clarify. Do NOT level or do anything until you're done EV training. Anything that gains experience in battle will gain EVs. So if you run through the Elite Four and you haven't EV trained yet, that Pokemon will have unwanted EVs on it. So EV train first, then level. ======================================== IX. Suggestions for Specific Strategies ======================================== So I've run you through one specific example of how to build a team. But what if you still aren't sure how to start for what you specifically are going for? Well, in this section, I'll try to give you some things to go on for each specific strategy that I've listed above. A. Physical Sweeping ===================== To be a physical sweeper, you need to have a good base for attack. Or, at the very least, attack should be one of the stats you're better in. Speed is also a pretty important stat for physical sweepers. The point of physical sweepers is to hit hard and fast against the opponent's defense. Thus, you're going to want something with fairly high attack power, and enough speed to go first at least in a good portion of situations. A good place to start for determining who you want to be a physical sweeper is Serebii's Pokedex, viewing highest to lowest in base attack, which you can view at the following address: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/attack.shtml It should be noted that your lead should definitely have a lot of speed, in addition to being fairly powerful. So to confirm that your lead will go first in a lot of situations, a good place to start to determine this is Serebii's Pokedex, viewing highest to lowest in base speed: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/speed.shtml It should be noted that your lead can be either a physical sweeper OR a special sweeper. Which one it is is entirely up to your personal preference. As far as strategy itself goes for physical sweeping, typically physical sweepers don't know a lot of supporting moves since their defenses tend to be not so great. So you'll probably want to stick to three physically based moves, along with something else that could possibly get you out of a sticky situation. You should always take advantage of STAB for the types of your Pokemon (both of them if necessary, although certain Pokemon don't know good moves for both of their types: IE Lucario and steel), and then things that cover your Pokemon's or TEAM's weaknesses the best. Let's take Flygon, for example. Flygon has a x4 weakness to ice. So a good choice for a move for Flygon is something that can cover an ice weakness. Ice is weak to fire, rock, and fighting moves. Since in this situation, Flygon is a physical sweeper, Stone Edge is a good choice, since it's a physical type move, and fits the description of covering the ice weakness. Always try to think of where you're weak and what you can do to cover up your weak points. B. Special Sweeping ==================== Special sweeping is exactly the same as physical sweeping, only with special attacks instead of physical attacks. The most powerful moves of the game are special based, and thus, more Pokemon tend to have these moves than their weaker physical counterparts. To be a special sweeper, your special attack should be fairly high. And as with physical sweeping, you're going to want something that can move quickly, as to ensure you get in your powerful attack before the foe takes you down. To get a start on what exactly you want to use for your special sweeper, Serebii's Pokedex listed highest to lowest in special attack is a great resource to use: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/sp-attack.shtml And again, if your lead is going to be a special sweeper, you're still going to want to place a higher priority on speed than you would normally, so compare using the speed listing. http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/speed.shtml Strategy for special sweepers is essentially the same as it is with physical sweepers, only things are special based instead of physical based. Generally you're going to want to have at least a couple of special attacks, with an added fourth attack for certain sticky situations, or maybe to stall for a bit more time. Again, you should take STAB into consideration when assigning your moves, and ensure that you cover your Pokemon's types with those moves. Try to cover as many weaknesses of your Pokemon and team with your moves again. A classic example of this is a fire Pokemon. What is fire weak to? Water, obviously. All fire Pokemon can learn the move "Sunny Day", which boosts fire moves and gets rid of the water weakness (essentially, since it dimishes the power of water moves). In addition, a lot of fire Pokemon can learn Solarbeam. Solarbeam is strong against water, thus covering the weakness, and also can be used without charge up thanks to Sunny Day. You should try to come up with things like this in order to cover and counter things your foe may throw at you. C. Physical Wall ================= A physical wall is a unit that specializes in defense. Physical wall's typically don't have very high speed, and as such, speed should be the last thing on your priority list when trying to pick out a physical wall. Defense is obviously the most important thing here, but HP is also important to an extent. Thus, EVs are typically given to defense and HP. To get an idea for where exactly you want to start for picking out a physical wall, take a look at Serebii's Pokedex listed by defense. http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/defense.shtml Walls are generally NOT thrown out first in a battle, and really don't need too many attacking moves period, unless you're running something with the Curse strategy. Walls are also excellent to switch to from a sweeper, if you suspect your foe of going to use a certain move. Let's say your foe has a Weavile out, while you have Staraptor. The obvious move from the foe would be to use Ice Punch on you. But if you thought about it, you would have predicted that and, assuming your physical wall isn't also weak to ice, you would switch out and absorb the attack. Switching out to walls is one of the main uses for them, but they can also stall for time. Stalling for time requires that you either know recovery moves, stat boosting moves, or both. Being a physical wall, obviously if you can boost your defense higher with still staying alive, you should. Thus, moves like Iron Defense are usually great choices for physical walls. You also should be able to soak up damage without a problem, but not die, even after many attacks. Thus, if you can recover your HP, you should. Rest plus a Chesto Berry is a great combination for this, and most every Pokemon in the game can use this. You fully recover your HP, and the berry wakes you up from the sleep status. Other good recovery moves include Milk Drink, Roost, and Recover. A third use for physical walls are status ailments. A typical setup is a wall knowing Toxic. Toxic will slowly drain the foe's HP and ensure a death in several turns. Meanwhile, you can sit there and soak up damage and watch them have their HP drained. They get weaker and weaker while you are still reasonably unaffected due to your ability to take tons of damage. The final use for a wall is a supporting role, and not one many can fulfill. A very select few Pokemon can learn moves like Heal Bell or Aromatherapy or even Healing Wish. These moves aren't for the Pokemon necessarily, but rather to benefit your entire team. You can heal status ailments from the whole team with Heal Bell and Aromatherapy, and Healing Wish allows you a full recovery of someone else on your team. If you're stalling for time and are about to die, this makes a good last move to give yourself another chance. D. Special Wall ================ Special walls serve essentially the same purpose as physical walls do, only you use them on Pokemon that use special attack instead of regular attack. Obviously they need to have a high special defense stat in order to be considered a special wall. A good place to start for choosing a special wall, if you have no idea, is Serebii's Pokedex by special defense: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/stat/sp-defense.shtml As with physical walls, speed is not an important stat for walls, and it's probably best if you disregard the stat entirely when making your decision. Special walls, as with physical walls, are also good for switching out when you suspect a move to be used. Let's say you have a Flygon/Garchomp out, while the foe has a Starmie. Starmie is definitely going to use Ice Beam and kill you. However, you're smarter than that, and switch to your special wall Vaporeon! Your Flygon/Garchomp is saved, and you neutralized the damage by using your special wall with a favorable typing. Using special walls like this can save you from a tricky spot in battle more than once if you're smart about your switches. Again, as with physical walls, special walls are also great stallers. Using a move like Amnesia, which boosts Special Defense, will lengthen your time on the field, and make your foe even more angry that they cannot hurt you. In addition, knowing recovery moves, as with physical walls, is also suggested. Again, Rest plus a Chesto Berry is a good combination, as are moves like Roost and Recovery. The longer you can recover your health and stay out on the field, the better. In combination with Leftovers, this kind of thing can keep you alive for quite a long time. Special walls can play the "wait it out" game just as well as physical walls can. A move like Toxic or Will-o-Wisp will slowly drain your foe's health while you sit there and watch them die, meanwhile taking little damage and recovering your own HP. Use of these moves can be a great strategy to get rid of something pesky you couldn't otherwise touch. And again, as with physical walls, the supporting role can also be played with special walls with moves like Heal Bell and Aromatherapy. E. Mixed Sweeping ================== Mixed sweeping is a strategy that is difficult to pull off. The Pokemon you use to be a mixed sweeper has to be good in both of the attack areas. As you've probably guessed, not a lot of Pokemon are equally proficient in both of these areas, so finding a mixed sweeper, should you want one, can often times be difficult. Basically, a mixed sweeper combines physical and special sweepers into one Pokemon, and can be used in both situations. Typically, you'll want to have two physically based moves and two specially based moves on a mixed sweeper, in order to achieve balance between the physical and special attacks you'll be using. Apply the same tactics you would use for both physical and special sweepers and use them for your mixed sweeper, and you should be fine. As far as having a place to start for choosing a mixed sweeper, there's no easy way to tell aside from just looking at base stats and comparing if attack and special attack are similar. You'll have to just check that on your own to find out if the Pokemon you want is proficient in both of the attack areas. In an e-mail recently, someone pointed out something that I hadn't even thought of before for mixed sweeping. That being if a Pokemon has high stats in both attack and special attack, they, and they alone, can get some benefit out of moves that severely lower special attack. The other three moves would be physical, and most (if not all) EVs would be devouted to attack. And then the move (such as Overheat, Draco Meteor, Leaf Storm) would be used as a finisher. Since both attack stats are high, this move is still fairly effective, but since the other moves are devouted to the other attack stat, their stat isn't hurting when they try to attack again. It's quite feasible. F. Mixed Wall ============== Mixed walls are perhaps the most useful of all the types of Pokemon. The reason being that they can be out in pretty much any condition and still stay alive for quite a long period of time. However, because this is true, mixed walls are even more difficult to find than mixed sweepers. The best example of a mixed wall I can think of is Umbreon, who has excellent defense and special defense, and can soak up the damage like there's no tomorrow. As far as using a mixed wall goes, use the same strategy you would as if you were using a physical or special wall. The purpose of a mixed wall is exactly the same. G. Specialized Teams ===================== Specialized teams are something that not a lot of people do. Mainly because of the fact that using them competitively against other teams is simply not practical. However, I find that making specialized teams is quite a bit of fun, so I like to use them whenever I can. Typically on a specialized team, you're going to be focusing on a particular type of Pokemon. To get a start for who you want to use on whatever type team you're planning on using, use Serebii's Pokedex and browse by type. http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/ Simply scroll down a little bit and click on the type you want to view, and you'll see all of the Pokemon listed from that type. First and formost, on a specialized team, you want to get rid of as many common weaknesses as possible. With certain types, such as electric, this is just simply not possible, due to lack of mixed types. But for certain types, such as the water type, this is possible. A water/grass type gets rid of the electric weakness, for example. You'll want to find as many different mixed typings like that as possible as to cover the common weakness that making a specialized team brings. On that same note, covering weaknesses in moves is also key to success with these types of teams. For example, electric Pokemon are weak to the ground type. Obviously someone with Earthquake is just going to destroy you if you don't do something about that. Thus, you look for options. Conveniently, there's a move called "Magnet Rise" that gives you the Levitate ability. Ground moves can no longer hit you, and you've eliminated the weakness. On a similar note, on a fire team, water is going to be a huge problem. Thus, you'll want to have someone with Sunny Day in order to get rid of that weakness, as well as boosting your own fire attacks in the process. Using a specialized team, you should also follow the typical "four sweepers, two walls" formula for a team. This is most easily done with the water type, since walls are rarer than sweepers, and the water type holds a lot of the walls the game has. Using this formula can still perhaps save you in a couple of situations if you find yourself up against a move/Pokemon that you cannot overcome in other ways. The final thing to keep in mind when making a specialized team is to always know what your weaknesses are. For example, on a fire team, your weaknesses are water, rock, and ground type moves. Thus, in your movesets, you're going to want as many things strong against these types as possible. Water is countered by Solarbeam and Sunny Day, which you should likely have. Rock is countered by ground type moves. Someone in the type is bound to be able to learn Earthquake. Ground is covered by Solarbeam again. In giving your Pokemon these types of moves, you effectively can counter things that you're weak against. H. Baton Passing ================= Baton Passing is a very specific strategy that requires at least a couple members of your team to have the move "Baton Pass". This strategy is a personal favorite of mine, mainly due to the number of possibilities of things you can do with this strategy. First and formost, if you want to Baton Pass, you HAVE to use the following Pokemon: Mr. Mime, Eevee, Jolteon, Flareon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Glaceon, Leafeon, Mew, Sentret, Furret, Ledyba, Ledian, Togepi, Togetic, Togekiss, Aipom, Girafarig, Celebi, Surskit, Masquerain, Ninjask, Mawile, Plusle, Minun, Huntail, Gorebyss, Ambipom, Drifloon, Drifblim, Buneary, Lopunny, Mime Jr., Venonat, Venomoth, Scyther, Spinarak, Ariados, Gligar, Scizor, Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Skitty, Delcatty, Meditite, Medicham, Volbeat, Illumise, Spinda, Absol, Buizel, Floatzel, Gliscor It should be noted that certain Pokemon (mainly Eevee coming to mind here) can learn the move while their evolution cannot. Certain Pokemon can also only learn the move via breeding. So you'll need to check on the specifics of how each Pokemon learns the move if you want to use them. The basis of Baton Passing is to have the Baton Passer, whoever it may be, know a couple of stat boosting moves, or at least moves that benefit you in some way that don't do damage. These moves might include things like Swords Dance, Iron Defense, Rock Polish, Agility, Aqua Ring, Mean Look, Wish, etc etc. After these moves are used in the quantity you want, you then use the move "Baton Pass" in order to "pass" the effects on to one of the other Pokemon on your team. Normally, if you withdrew the Pokemon who used the stat boosters, the conditions would be gone when they were withdrawn. But under the conditions of Baton Pass, those effects are still in play for the next Pokemon you use. This is especially useful for getting stat boosts in certain stats to Pokemon that couldn't obtain them normally. Or to give a certain boost to a Pokemon that can't learn that move. Or to heal a Pokemon that can't learn a recovery move by passing on a Wish. The possibilities are almost endless with what you can do with this. As far as the Pokemon themselves go, I personally consider all of the Eevee evolutions to be the best possibilities for Baton Passing. They can learn a variety of beneficial moves in combinations that tend to be especially useful, while no one else in the game can learn these specific set of moves at the same time. Examples of things they can do are Vaporeon and Aqua Ring passing. Umbreon and Mean Look passing. Jolteon and Agility passing. Leafeon passing on Swords Dance. And all of them can learn the move "Wish", which means if you use Eevees to Baton Pass, you provide a way to heal any member of your team of any damage they may have received. This is the main reason why I consider these Pokemon the best. Other excellent choices for Baton Passing are Gliscor, Scizor, Togekiss, Drifblim, Blaziken, Girafarig, etc etc. As long as the Pokemon can learn at least one move to pass on that will benefit your team, it's a decent choice. As far as strategy goes for Baton Passing, it depends on how involved in your strategy it is. If you've only got one passer, then the things you can do are limited. An example of things you can do with only one passer are to have Gliscor out as a wall, while having him use Swords Dance, and then passing that on to your physical sweeper. Limited, yes, but still effective. If you have more than one passer on your team, you can do quite a bit more. Your first passer in the chain could be Gliscor with the Swords Dancing. Upon which he could pass out to Scizor, who would use a series of Iron Defenses. Scizor could then pass to Jolteon, who used a bunch of Agilities, and then pass to Vaporeon, who would use Aqua Ring and pass to Umbreon. Umbreon could lock in with Mean Look and then pass to your physical sweeper, who would have an immensely boosted status and would be essentially guaranteed the KO. As you can see, the idea is just to use the beneficial moves, and pass them, and then sweep. The more you have to pass, the better, but it's up to you to decide how many passers you want to use. I. Choice Teams ================ I'll start off by saying that I am not an expert on choice teams, and do not personally prefer using this strategy. What a choice team is, or just a choice user let's say, is a team that using one of the choice items to boost their status. These items are the Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, and Choice Band. These items boost the speed, attack, or special attack (depending on which one you are holding) of one attack you use by x1.5. However, the catch is that you can ONLY use that move until you withdraw the Pokemon. In other words, it's like a self-induced Encore status until you withdraw the Pokemon. This obviously has its pros and cons to it. Obviously the huge pro is that you have a significantly boosted status right off the bat in battle. The con is that if you come out against something you have a move to counter, but you can't use that move, you have to go out of your way to withdraw and resend in order to counter it. When used properly, the choice items can give you a nice edge in battle. However, I personally feel that the cons of them outway the pros, and thus don't personally use them. If you feel you can pull of a strategy where using these items comes to a great benefit for you, by all means use it. Update to 1.76 - If anyone wants to send me a better explanation as to how to effectively use Choice items, that'd be great. Because I'm never going to learn more about the strategy since I don't like it. But for the sake of completion, it should be here so people can learn how to use it if they want to. J. Annoyer =========== To use an annoyer team, you have one purpose and one purpose only: to annoy. If you still want to win, that is another issue entirely, but your main purpose for this is to annoy your foe totally and completely. You'll obviously be doing this with a variety of different status ailments. I personally LOVE the annoyer strategy, and find it to be quite effective in tons of situations. To start off, you're going to want to get someone who has a status ailment you can most benefit from, and makes sense for the type of Pokemon you have, and in certain cases, their gender. The point is to inflict them with as many status ailments as you can in order to hinder their moving, followed by which you either wait it out until they die from poison/burn damage, or you start attacking them, with the security of knowing they probably won't be able to hit you back. Classic annoyer moves include things like Confuse Ray, Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, Thunder Wave, Attract, etc etc. Personally, I find that starting out with something like Spore or Hypnosis to put them asleep works the best, followed by a Confuse Ray to make sure they'll have trouble attacking you even when they wake up. Other options for things you can do would be to start out with something that causes either sleep or paralysis, and then do a follow up with secondary status ailments and then stack them. An example would be Spore -> Leech Seed -> Confuse Ray -> Attract. As you can see, not only do you benefit from the ailment by receiving HP back yourself, but you also essentially remove their ability to attack at all. Quite useful in tons of situations. One drawback of this strategy is that secondary ailments are all cured by withdrawl from battle. If you want maximum performance out of the strategy, it's a good idea to combine it with someone who knows a move like Mean Look, Fire Spin, Whirlpool, Block, etc in order to LOCK them in the battle and ensure they don't escape and get cured. ====================== X. Counter Strategies ====================== Just like most everything has its strengths, everything also has its weaknesses. Should you be having trouble getting rid of something specific in a battle, here is the section to come to in order to find how you can overcome that tough opponent. A. Countering Physical Sweepers ================================ One of the key things you have to remembering when countering a certain strategy or a certain opponent is that taking away their source of use is one of the best ways to overcome them. In countering the physical sweepers, we have to ask ourselves this very question. What's their best asset? Of course, it's their high physical attack. Cutting the attack power of the user will help ensure survival. So what exactly can we use to destroy attack power? If you remember, earlier in this FAQ, I took the time to point out added bonuses of certain status ailments. I wasn't just blowing smoke with that. It has particular use in this section. Burns cut physical attack by half. Inflict a physical sweeper with a burn, and they'll have trouble doing as much damage to you as they normally would. Of course, you can try to get lucky with something like Flamethrower or Fire Blast to try to inflict the burn, but I don't recommend that. If you're going for a certain status ailment, rather than relying on luck, you should always take the safer route. In this case, Will-o-Wisp. The move will inflict a burn with a good chance of infliction (assuming that the target isn't immune to the burn ailment). Of course, there are certain things that can't be burned, and certain teams that won't have Will-o-Wisp on them in order to specifically counter this, so we have to come up with alternative options. One of the most obvious is to plan moves onto your team that take adtantage of some of the weaknesses of common physical sweepers. For example, Garchomp is an immensely common choice for a physical sweeper, so you should plan a move to counter him, should the need arise. His typing is dragon/ground, which has a x4 weakness to ice. Ice Beam is obviously the optimal choice for this, and many things in the game can learn the move, so at least one Pokemon on your team should know it. Another common sweeper is Tyranitar. Again, a x4 weakness. This time to fighting moves. Optimally, you should have a fighting type Pokemon that can take advantage of STAB, but if you find yourself in a position that you cannot use a fighting move, Earthquake is an almost-as-good alternative to a fighting move. Earthquake is also a great counter and a way to get rid of anything weak to earth really, or just anything with low defense, so you should plan that move on any team anyway. The last main threat for a physical sweeper is Metagross, a psychic/steel typing. In this case, it's better to take advantage of the steel typing with a nice fire attack. In most cases, Flamethrower does fine. Thus, in planning these certain moves onto your team, you provide ways you can defeat common sweepers in the game. But what if there's a less common sweeper you haven't planned the given move to counter for? Obviously, there are ways to handle this too. A great way to handle an unexpected sweeper is simply disabling their ability to move. This works equally well with common physical sweepers as well, however, it's better to just take them out quickly if possible. In order to disable their ability to move, you're obviously going to need some sort of move that can prevent movement. Namely status ailment causing moves. The only for *sure* ailment that will prevent movement is sleep. However, certain sleep causing moves are less accurate than other alternatives. Other options are confusion, preferably caused by Confuse Ray, attraction, obviously caused by attract, or paralysis, caused by Thunder Wave. Paralysis has an added bonus of cutting the speed of the enemy by half, so in addition of perhaps not being able to move, you'll likely gain the advantage of going first, if you didn't already have it. Any one of these ailments is good at stopping sweepers from doing their job. On that note, you can kill the physical sweeper with other, non-immobilizing status ailments like burns and poison. In order to use these things effectively, you should use a physical wall. Using a physical wall not only limits the damage you take from their attacks, but in combination with the poison or burn, it enables you to come out of top of an otherwise difficult situation. Another status changer is of decent mention, this time beneficial to yourself. Using the move "Reflect" will cut the damage done by all physical attacks to your team. So even if you're in a double battle or if you switch out, it will be in effect until the wall fades. Cutting the damage they can do to you this way is often quite effective. The final way to counter a physical sweeper is to simply kill it before it can kill you. In order to do this, however, you need to be able to outspeed it and go first, preferably with a super effective attack. If you can go first in the battle, you have an edge in taking out the opponent. B. Countering Special Sweepers =============================== Countering a special sweeper is somewhat more problematic than countering a physical sweeper, simply for the reason that you cannot use burns in order to cut their attack. However, everything else you did to counter a physical sweeper, you can also do to counter a special sweeper. So let's start with countering the commons. In planning your movesets, it's always a good idea to plan against commonly used things, just in case. If you're going up against ubers, this is especially useful, since all of the highest special attack bases are held by ubers. Conveniently, a lot of these same things are weak to ice again, so packing in an Ice Beaming is always a good idea. Aside from them, commonly used special sweepers include Porygon Z, Alakazam, Togekiss, Jolteon, and so on. Togekiss is already covered under Ice Beam. Jolteon can easily be covered by an Earthquake. Porygon Z and Alakazam, both tied for the highest special attack bases in the game for non-ubers have less common weaknesses however. Porygon Z luckily has somewhat shabby defenses, so blowing through him with a couple of powerful physical attacks might even do the trick, even if they aren't fighting type moves. As for Alakazam, Shadow Ball is probably the most common move you have to finish him, although better choices for the job are things like Crunch, X-Scissor, and Shadow Claw, if you have them. Another counter to special sweepers, as with physical sweepers, is just disabling what they can do. What you do is exactly the same as what you would do to a special sweeper, so I won't run through the whole thing again. Another counter is obviously a special wall. Special walls are surprizingly effective against stopping special sweepers in their tracks. Throw in the added effect of burn or poison, and that tough foe can be easily defeated. The most commonly used special wall is Blissey, due to her defense special defense and simply massive HP total. However, to be original, I prefer to use other things. Tons of water type Pokemon serve as excellent special walls and can learn moves like Aqua Ring to stay alive longer to boot. So simply walling a special sweeper with a special wall is surprizingly effective if you can't beat the sweeper outright. Similar to physical attacks, special attacks also have a move that cuts the damage done by them. It's called Light Screen. Using Light Screen will cut the damage your entire team receives from special attacks, meaning that even if you're in a double battle your partner will get the effect too. And this effect lasts until the wall fades, even if you switch out. And again, the final way to counter a special sweeper is to beat it before they beat you. Whether you do this via special or physical attacks doesn't make a lot of difference a lot of the time. Just try to use type advantage to the best favor you can give yourself, along with as much speed as you've got on your team. C. Countering Physical Walls ============================= Physical walls are oftentimes pretty tricky to get rid of. If for nothing else, for the fact that it's intensely hard to damage them. However, given proper planning, taking them down can be made a whole lot easier. An obvious first mention is to just plan for encountering common physical walls. The most common physical wall ever is Skarmory (in combination with the special wall of Blissey). Skarmory is steel/flying and also has pretty bad special defense, so anything special based and fire/electric is going to do pretty well against Skarmory. Type advantage even physical based still do the job pretty well though. Other common walls include a ton of rock types since their type obviously is resistent to a lot of attacks, in addition to having the high defense. These things are obviously begging for an Earthquake so plan that move on your team as well. Another way to beat a physical wall is to counter with another wall of some sort, and poison or burn them until they die. Damage on the both of you will be severely reduced, since you're both walls, but this will ensure that they do die eventually. Poison is especially effective in this strategy since poison also halves defense, so using it to cut the defense of the enemy is especially effective in a lot of situations. The downside to this is that a lot of walls also carry these types of moves, so the same strategy may be used on you as well, which would destroy you both in the end. To counter this downside, it's always a good idea to give your wall a move like Refresh, Heal Bell, or Aromatherapy to heal ailments, should the opponent do this to you as well. Or just give your wall a Lum Berry to cure any ailment one time. Alternatively, if you don't want to beat the wall right now for one reason or another, you can simply Roar them out of the match and force the opponent to use something else. This can be helpful in times you want to ensure you can beat everything else before draining your resources trying to take out something not so easily defeated. Stat boosting can also do wonders on physical walls. Swords Dance or Nasty Plot, depending on which Pokemon you're using, will put your attack power over the top enough to do a decent amount of damage on most walls. On the complete other end of the board, there's destroying status effects. Walls love to boost their stats so you can do as little damage to them as possible. You can fix this of course, with one simple move: Haze. Haze a wall, and all the effects they've accumulated go down the drain. Similarly, walls also use moves that place a status effect on you. A way to counter this is to simply make it impossible. Safeguard will protect you from any ailments they try to place on you. Another surprisingly good way to stop a wall is by another move: Taunt. Taunting when your opponent has a wall out will ensure that the wall cannot use those nasty healing or status effect moves that they always carry, which forces the opponent to either do poor damage on you, or to switch out to get something better. Stopping them from healing with this is especially important, since if you have a Taunter, you can often go first against a wall (since they're usually slow), preventing them from doing much of any good to you. Lastly, most physical walls have poor special defense to compensate their excellent defense. Type advantage and a powerful special attack can easily take care of a lot of physical walls. Be aware though, as trainers usually know the weakness of what they're using and perhaps will switch out when you try to take care of them this way. The trick to this is, you have to predict switches, and when certain things will be coming in and out, in order to hit at the right time in certain situations. Another alternative to this is simply to lock them into the battle with a move like Block or Mean Look and simply force them to face their weakness. D. Countering Special Walls ============================ Countering special walls is very similar to countering physical walls. Only you're dealing with special instead of physical defense. In order to counter special walls, you need to find a way around their especially high special defense. The most common special wall is Blissey, and for good reason. Blissey has the highest HP in the game by a LOT, so much so that her HP can sometimes be raised into the 700s. In addition her special defense is also quite high. But this comes with a price. This is her one and only job. She can't really attack very well, and her defense is simply horrible. The low defense is what you need to take advantage of. A good fighting attack with some decent power behind it is often enough to take down Blissey in a shot or two. However, combined with Skarmory, not a lot of players will let this happen. The best way to combat this is to simply fool the opponent into throwing Blissey in against someone they would never expect to have this type of move. Or the aforementioned locking her in battle. Other common special walls are Dusknoir, Cresselia, and Milotic. Always exploit weaknesses. Ghost type moves such as Shadow Ball (or Shadow CLAW, if you have someone with it) work well for the first two, and electric moves work well for Milotic. Always remember that you can take them down via status ailment should everything else fail. Those not on Blissey, for the fact that all Blisseys know either Refresh or Heal Bell. Generally, countering a special wall can be as easy as just using another special wall and waiting it out until they die via poison or burn. Unlike with physical walls though, neither poison nor burn cut special defense, so using one over the other isn't going to lower anything beneficial to the situation, unless the special wall also has decent defense, in which case poison is more beneficial. In any case, always be prepared for the same tactic from the enemy with a status healing move or a Lum Berry. As with physical walls, you can always push off dealing with the Pokemon until later, if you so desire. Roaring out of the battle can oftentimes save your team some strength in order to take down the rest of the team before having to deal with the special wall. If nothing is working at the moment, putting it off until later with Roar isn't a bad idea. And again, status boosting does wonders. These are special walls we're dealing with here, so they'll have lower defense than special defense. So the most beneficial stat boosting move to use would be Swords Dance, to exploit the lower of the defense stats. Swords Dance a time or two, and then see how much damage you're doing now. On the complete other end of the board, there's destroying status effects. Walls love to boost their stats so you can do as little damage to them as possible. You can fix this of course, with one simple move: Haze. Haze a wall, and all the effects they've accumulated go down the drain. Similarly, walls also use moves that place a status effect on you. A way to counter this is to simply make it impossible. Safeguard will protect you from any ailments they try to place on you. Another surprisingly good way to stop a wall is by another move: Taunt. Taunting when your opponent has a wall out will ensure that the wall cannot use those nasty healing or status effect moves that they always carry, which forces the opponent to either do poor damage on you, or to switch out to get something better. Stopping them from healing with this is especially important, since if you have a Taunter, you can often go first against a wall (since they're usually slow), preventing them from doing much of any good to you. E. Countering Mixed Sweepers ============================= Mixed sweepers are simply a combination of sweepers already mentioned, so I won't detail too much more about countering them. I will point out a few more things though. Being mixed sweepers, they have to take advantage of both high attack and special attack. Oftentimes this means sacrificing EVs in other areas, such as speed. In any case, if the trainer wanted to fully take advantage of both of the attack areas, EVs weren't placed in another category that might have otherwise been used. It's a good idea to find exactly what area is lacking and to exploit the lack of points. Another good option for countering Pokemon that know both the types of attacks is just to block them with a mixed wall. They can't do much damage no matter which attack they use, so effectively, they'll have to withdraw and switch to another tactic if they want to get passed you. F. Countering Mixed Walls ========================== Mixed walls are pretty tricky to get passed in any respect. You can't really do much damage to them no matter what attack you may try, so you have to go about getting rid of them with other methods. Again, a lot of the same ideas that applied to physical and special walls still apply here, so I won't repeat the same things again. The most common mixed wall, and the only mixed wall I can think of being used on a large scale at the moment, is Umbreon. A lot of times, Umbreon doesn't know even one attack and will just sit there healing itself with Wish or Moonlight while you're locked in with Mean Look and being poisoned to death. Obviously, if you get locked into the battle, you can't do much else to counter besides what you already have out, so make sure you don't screw yourself too badly with the one chance you may have to switch when Umbreon is initially sent out. Umbreon is a pure dark type, so it's a good idea to exploit the weaknesses, those mainly being fighting moves. Brick Break is typically a good option for this, since a lot of things can learn that particular move. Other options to getting out of a Mean Look are Roar, since it forces Umbreon out of the battle, who is needed for the Mean Look to stay in effect, or Baton Pass, should you have that on your team. Alternatively, you can simply poison or burn Umbreon back with a lot of effect. On the complete other end of the board, there's destroying status effects. Walls love to boost their stats so you can do as little damage to them as possible. You can fix this of course, with one simple move: Haze. Haze a wall, and all the effects they've accumulated go down the drain. Similarly, walls also use moves that place a status effect on you. A way to counter this is to simply make it impossible. Safeguard will protect you from any ailments they try to place on you. Another surprisingly good way to stop a wall is by another move: Taunt. Taunting when your opponent has a wall out will ensure that the wall cannot use those nasty healing or status effect moves that they always carry, which forces the opponent to either do poor damage on you, or to switch out to get something better. Stopping them from healing with this is especially important, since if you have a Taunter, you can often go first against a wall (since they're usually slow), preventing them from doing much of any good to you. G. Countering Specialized Teams ================================ Obviously this is going to be the easiest thing to counter out of everything, since a lot of things are going to have a common weakness. Once you know what type of team you're dealing with, you just have to use the corresponding move that is effective against it. However, if you were smart when building the team, you would have provided counters against what was super effective. So in order to counter this good planning, we have to think a step ahead. A lot of Pokemon can learn moves that aren't their type. So the counter provided by the specialized team won't necessarily cover your actual type, if you're simply using the type move that's effective against them. In effect, you can still decimate the team, while keeping alive yourself for getting around the counter strategy. H. Countering Baton Passers ============================ Baton Passing teams have TONS of strengths, considering how many things they can pass on to one another via the move Baton Pass. However, this strategy has one major flaw that lets a single move undo it most of the time. Of course, the move I'm talking about is Roar. Roar forces the Pokemon back in their ball without the opportunity to pass the moves onto another Pokemon on the team. In effect, the chain for passing has to start all over again, and you've cost your opponent a lot of time and effort in the process. Along those same lines, you could simply just destroy all of the status boosters they've used with the move Haze. Haze will erase all of them and make it as though nothing happened at all. Of course, using this move requires that the opponent LET you use this move. Often times, this will prove to be difficult, provided what the foe is already doing to ensure maximum stat gains for their team. Perhaps they put you to sleep first. Or maybe confusion, or attract. In any case, it's unlikely they simply left you to attack them while they tried to boost their stats. Sadly, there's not a lot you can do about this and just have to try to get the move out there through whatever you're being hindered by. There's always Lum Berries to solve the problem once, but otherwise, you'll have to rely simply on luck to get through whatever is hindering your progress. Other counters to Baton Passers involve stopping the chain of passes as well. If you can disable whoever the chain is currently on, you give yourself some time to KO whoever has the boosted stats, thus ending the chain. An excellent example of this would be to put them asleep. Putting a Pokemon asleep that has a lot of stats on it will either stall for time to kill them on your part, or will force the opponent into withdrawing the Pokemon completely, thus ending the chain of boosted stats, which was your ultimate goal anyway. Immobilization stops what they do and, in effect, what they pass on. If they can't pass things on, the entire structure of what their team is based on, and allows you to effectively destroy them. Another option doesn't exactly involve STOPPING them, per se, but it's quite effective, nonetheless. This option is using the move "Psych Up". It allows you to copy all of their stat boosts in a single turn. And considering that Baton Passers usually have quite a few of them accumulated at some point, copying all that work and getting it on yourself with only one move is quite decent, if I say so myself. Or of course, you could simply Taunt them and let that work well for you. It'll disable whatever boosting moves they want to use, ensuring that they can't boost anymore, and in addition, can't even pass them onto someone else. Although you should be warned that if you Taunt, you should do it BEFORE they use a couple of Swords Dances so that you don't get repeatedly hit by the high attack effects of that. I. Countering Choice Teams =========================== Probably not coming soon, realistically, but if anyone sends anything in for this section, I'd probably post it here for lack of something else! Update for 1.76 - I've got a little bit of advice for countering this. And this trick can work both in disabling choice teams and putting choice items where people don't want them. Switcheroo switches the item you hold with your opponents. So if they've got a choice item you don't like, you can switch it. Similarly, most people don't want choice items on their Pokemon since it heavily handicaps them if they weren't made to battle like that, so giving them a choice item with Switcheroo is equally as effective. J. Countering Annoyers ======================= Two words: Lum Berry. Lum Berries absolutely decimate annoyer teams. The more of them you have, the more successful you will be. Annoyer teams are based around a variety of status ailments. If you hold an item that cures any ailment you may be inflicted with, you effectively waste one of their turns every time you throw out a new Pokemon. In addition, you make several of the opponent's moves useless, since you automatically neutralize the effects of them. This limits their move pool, and gives them fewer things to use against you. Other obvious things to use are status healing moves. Refresh is good. Heal Bell and Aromatherapy are MUCH better, since they heal the ailments of the entire team. combined with Lum Berries, if you have one Pokemon with Heal Bell or Aromatherapy, there should be no reason you can't win against an annoyer team. You've already got a free shot with the berries, and when you become infected with even a couple of Pokemon, Heal Bell resets everything and you're back to normal. ============================== XI. Specific Pokemon Counters ============================== We all know there's those pesky Pokemon that are used so frequently that we all have trouble getting rid of. Should the general strategy counters section not be enough, I decided to list a couple of commonly used Pokemon with specific strategies on how to defeat each of them. If you have a specific strategy that you feel would be effective in taking down some of the more commonly used Pokemon in the game, feel free to e-mail me the strategy, and if I think it's good, and that you explained it well, I'd be happy to add it to this section! A. Blissey =========== Blissey is a tricky Pokemon in that it has quite the HP to take care of (the highest in the whole game), pretty good special defense, and a pretty decent moveset to boot. Blissey's main downfall is that everything else about it is horrible. Most noticably, its defense. However, a lot of people try to counter this by pairing Blissey with Skarmory, who has excellent defense, and switch between the two depending on what you put out. While this is a good counter to the two Pokemon's downfalls, it has one major flaw to it. If for some reason they can't switch, the strategy is destroyed, and you're free to do with them as you please. Which brings me to the first way you can counter a Blissey. Mean Look. Block. Fire Spin. Any of those will work. Pretty much anything that you can trap them in with can take care of a Blissey. After she's trapped in, hit her with some physical moves, preferably fighting, which get type advantage, but if you don't have fighting moves, you can KO a Blissey in a couple hits with just a plain physical move. However, this is sometimes problematic, since a Pokemon that knows trapping moves is oftentimes not so good in the attack area. If you encounter this problem, there's a couple ways to go around it. My personal favorite involves Mean Looking and then Baton Passing it to a good attacker. Umbreon is the only Pokemon that can do this, but it's quite effective, since you get the switch block, and the great attack of whatever your best physical sweeper is. The second way is to simply plan a clever moveset for one of your Pokemon. Let's say you have a good special sweeper. Magmortar, for example. Magmortar doesn't usually know physical attacks since its special attack is better. Thus, the opponent won't be expecting a physical fighting move from it when they switch out to block with Blissey. They think they have the edge, and then you surprise them with a physical fighting move, which in this case is Brick Break. Planning unexpected moves in like that can give you the edge you need to defeat a hard wall like Blissey. A common way to get rid of any wall period is to drain their health by burn or poison. You might think the same would apply for Blissey. However, I do NOT recommend doing this for this particular wall. The reason being that almost every Blissey knows Refresh/Heal Bell, which cures them of the ailment. And then they Leftovers the HP back on that turn, and you've just wasted a turn. Or even if they DONT heal the ailment, they'll be using the time to slowly kill you, while using Softboiled to recover the damage periodically. Either way you look at it, status ailments are NOT going to take down a Blissey, so there's little point in wasting your time trying. Other common moves for Blissey include Thunder Wave, Seismic Toss, and Ice Beam. Ice Beam is usually included so that Blissey isn't a sitting duck against ghost Pokemon. Thunder Wave seems to be especially problematic when dealing with Blissey, so giving your Pokemon some kind of berry that cures paralysis would probably help. B. Electivire ============== Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: Electivire will come in whenever it thinks you're going to use an electric attack so it can activate Motor Drive and give it a free speed boost. This is really key, because Electivire depends a lot on the speed boost it gets from Motor Drive. Beating Electivire takes a lot of prediction. If you have an electric type out and they have a water or flying type out, they'll probably switch to something that resists electric attacks, which Electivire can do. Also remember that it CAN NOT be paralyzed with Thunder Wave and it will instead set off Motor Drive. The best way to beat Electivire is to use Dugtrio to trap Electivire and Earthquake it to death. It will probably switch out if it suspects an Earthquake, so trapping it via Dugtrio and Earthquaking it is the way to go. If you don't have Dugtrio, any pokemon with Earthquake with good speed (because Electivire will have Ice Punch) can scare him off. C. Garchomp ============ Garchomp is a pretty disgustingly common sweeper this generation. And I find this pretty astounding, considering it has a pretty bad typing and is one of the easiest things to get rid of period. It's a dragon/ground typing. What's that scream? Yeah, Ice Beam. Or pretty much any ice move period actually. It takes x4 damage from ice attacks, and if you've got a decent attack/special attack base to go off of to start with, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to OHKO it. Considering its typing, you'd think that all Garchomps would be carrying a Focus Sash to protect their life. If I used a Garchomp (which...I wouldn't. I'm just saying theoretically), it would DEFINITELY have a Focus Sash to prevent the inevitable death by Ice Beam. However, with many of the Garchomps I've seen used, this just isn't the case, and they continue to die in one hit. However, Garchomp is pretty fast, and in the occassion that you find you can't outspeed it (which isn't too much of an issue for most leads), you can still have a chance to OHKO it. It's pretty likely that if you don't go first, it's going to kill you. So protect what you have and surprise them with a Focus Sash. If it takes him more than one hit to kill you otherwise, you're still fine. But in the more likely event that it will kill you in a single attack, Focus Sash prevents you from dying, and you kill it with an Ice Beam on the counter. Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: Garchomp is considerably easier to counter than Salamence. He'll be a physical sweeper 9 times out of 10, and you can guarantee Earthquake and Dragon Claw/Outrage being two of its moves. Aim for the Ice weakness using what I said about Salamence, but Ice Punch and Ice Shard will work better due to the absence of Intimidate. D. Groudon =========== Groudon is an uber that I've seen a lot of in terms of people using ubers, so I thought it would be good to put in here. Groudon is unique in that it is red, and causes immediate Sunny Day effect, but is a pure ground type. And not a fire type. That element of things is essentially important in countering it. Since Groudon's stats are so high, you're not going to want to waste a lot of time getting rid of it, or if you do, you better be able to ensure its death and survive with a wall. So there's basically two ways you can go about defeating it. The first is defeating it before it has a chance to do too much damage to you, and the second is walling it and draining its health with poison or burn. The first way is the trickier of the two since most Pokemon capable of this have worse special defense than walls would and sometimes have trouble surviving Groudon's attacks. In addition, one of Groudon's weaknesses is covered with his immediate Sunny Day effect. That weakness being water. Not only does Sunny Day already get rid of that weakness, but it also allows him to use Solarbeam without a charge up turn. For this reason, I highly suggest AGAINST using a water Pokemon to defeat him unless you KNOW you can go first and get in a Rain Dance before he has a chance to Solarbeam. Groudons also typically know Fire Blast, which covers both the ice and grass weaknesses. So using things of those types isn't exactly a good idea either. So a solution to this problem is to either use those type moves on someone who isn't of that type themselves. Or the second way to get around it is to use that kind of Pokemon ANYWAY, and just use a Focus Sash to ensure getting in two rounds on Groudon. The second way is a lot easier than the first, since you can last longer against Groudon, and it doesn't involve using types that Groudon will definitely have a counter to. The second way to counter a Groudon is to wall it. Groudon will probably be a special sweeper, so get a special or mixed wall and make sure they have either Will-o-Wisp or Toxic. Then use the move on them and sit there using your recovering HP move while they sit there and attack you while you soak up damage. Or, assuming the person who's using Groudon actually knows what they're doing, they might pull it out when you try this, in which case it might be a good idea to use a Mean Look or something like that to lock them into the battle first. An alternative to either of these two methods is to throw out someone who won't neccessarily be used to defeat Groudon, but is just temporarily out there to use a weather move. The weather move will REPLACE Sunny Day, and take away the instant Solarbeams and boosted Fire Blasts, after which you can proceed with taking him out with the appropriate typings. E. Gyarados ============ Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: Gyarados is an absolute pain in the butt to kill. It knows the stupidly cheap Taunt/Dragon Dance combo, which really limits what can kill it. After a Dragon Dance or two, this guy is almost impossible to stop unless you have a good wall to slow it down and cripple it. Go for the 4x electric weakness obviously; a STABed Thunderbolt (prefered over Thunder Fang due to Intimidate) will wipe it out as long as you have decent special attack. An electric type like Jolteon or Magnezone will almost always force a switch into something that resists electric. This is something you ALWAYS have to keep in mind. Somebody using Gyarados will also run a guy like Electivire or Jolteon that benefits from being hit by electric attacks. So don't blindly throw a Thunderbolt/Thunder right into Gyarados since your opponent will obviously switch out. Also, Gyara will only have two attacking moves because it will almost always have Taunt and Dragon Dance on it. It will usually have Waterfall/Aqua Tail on it (because it's its most powerful STAB attack), and maybe something like Stone Edge/Earthquake/Aerial Ace. If it doesn't have Aerial Ace, a grass type with good defenses can wall it and fight back with something like Grass Knot since Gyrados is really heavy. Overall, you just need some kind of an answer to Gyarados or you can be swept completely by this guy. F. Metagross ============= Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: This guy is so hard to take down due to his typing. The best way to beat Metagross is by indirect means. Thunder Wave will take care of any versions running Agility, and Metagross NEVER wants to get burned, so Will-o-Wisp is also very good. If you can also use Trick or Switcheroo to give a crippling item like Flame Orb or Choice Specs, that works really well too. The best counter for Metagross is Bronzong. Bronzong with defense EVs can wall him since he resists Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt and is immune to Earthquake (assuming he has Levitate). If you don't use Bronzong, just aim for its Fire and Ground weaknesses, preferrably on the special side since Metagross's defense is huge. Alternate strategy provided by Scion: Just watch out for Magnet Rise which takes away the ground weakness (assuming he has levitate). G. Salamence ============= Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: First, you need to figure what type of Salamence it is. It could be a SpecsMence, Choicemence, Dragon Dance 'Mence, or a variation on it. I'd first use something like Protect or Substitute to scout out its first move so you can counter accordingly. Obviously, go for the 4x Ice weakness as that will usually result in the OHKO. Personally, I like using Weavile since he outruns Salamence and will wipe it out with Ice Punch. Ice Beam is probably better though, since it's not affected by Intimidate. Don't forget about Ice Shard too; that is very effective even if you have a guy like Abomasnow or Mamoswine. H. Skarmory ============ Update for 1.76 - Just a little bit to add for Skarmory here. Generally speaking, Skarmories like to Spike. So roaring is a good option here. I. Tyranitar ============= Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: Try to change the weather if at all possible; an active Sandstorm means T-Tar has tougher Sp. Def and your pokemon will wear down from the constant damage as well. Go for the 4x Fighting weakness at all costs; T-Tar can take many hits from stuff it's weak to, but not fighting. I like Staraptor a lot here, because it can Intimidate T-Tar and kill it with Close Combat. J. Umbreon =========== Update for 1.76 - Apparently Umbreon was moved down to BL for some reason? This is completely illogical to me since no one does a better job special walling than Umbreon does. I've got issues, Smogon. K. Weavile =========== Coming soon! Alternate strategy provided by Surging_Chaos: It's got great attack and excellent speed. But it has the 4x fighting weakness is the Achilles' heel and the below average defense don't do it any favors. A great way to catch it off guard is to use Vacuum Wave or Mach Punch (fighting-type quick attacks) and quickly take it out. You don't have to aim for the fighting weakness though. It has weaknesses to fire, rock, bug, and steel. With the below average defenses, Weavile usually can't take a supereffective hit. It will have Focus Sash a lot of the time to make it survive a hit, so stuff like Fake Out, Sandstorm, and any forms of Quick Attack are good at nullifing it and reducing its effectiveness. More specific strategies for countering Pokemon will be added upon popular request. ================================ XII. Building a Baton Pass Team ================================ Since Baton Passing is my personal favorite strategy for the Pokemon meta- game, I've decided to devout an entire section to building a Baton Pass team. So just what is Baton Passing anyway? Baton Passing involves the move "Baton Pass," which essentially replaces one Pokemon with another on the field, without changing any of the field circumstances. Meaning that any stat boosts, secondary status effects, and so on that your previous Pokemon had will still be there affecting the new Pokemon after Baton Pass is used. It is as if you never switched at all. The catch to this is that if, for any reason, you're forced to withdraw your Pokemon from the field normally, the Baton Pass chain will end, and the boosts and status effects will be cancelled. This includes things like fainting, switching, being roared or whirlwinded, and so on. Basically, if you switch Pokemon without using Baton Pass, the chain ends. So how to you use this strategy, and why is it advantageous? Well, essentially, you're not simply limited to one Pokemon's moveset this way. You can take advantage of many stat boosting moves even if that Pokemon itself can't actually learn them. Using the strategy involves packing as few or as many stat boosting moves (and others too, like Mean Look) onto your team as you need/want for your strategy, and then giving that Pokemon the move Baton Pass to pass them on to someone else, who will do the work of attacking for you. A good example is starting out with a couple of Iron Defenses to boost defense, then passing onto someone else, who will use a couple Sword Dances, then passing onto your sweeper. The extra defense ensures that you won't die, and the attack boost tries to ensure that you can OHKO them. Obviously things are a little more complicated than this, but that's the main gist of things. Of course, not everyone can learn Baton Pass, so to use it, you'll need to have one or more of the Pokemon that know it on your team. Here's a list of the Pokemon that can learn Baton Pass: Mr. Mime, Eevee, Jolteon, Flareon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Glaceon, Leafeon, Mew, Sentret, Furret, Ledyba, Ledian, Togepi, Togetic, Togekiss, Aipom, Girafarig, Celebi, Surskit, Masquerain, Ninjask, Mawile, Plusle, Minun, Huntail, Gorebyss, Ambipom, Drifloon, Drifblim, Buneary, Lopunny, Mime Jr., Venonat, Venomoth, Scyther, Spinarak, Ariados, Gligar, Scizor, Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken, Skitty, Delcatty, Meditite, Medicham, Volbeat, Illumise, Spinda, Absol, Buizel, Floatzel, Gliscor It should be noted that not all of these Pokemon LEARN Baton Pass on their own, and instead have to learn it in a previous evolution (all of the Eeveelutions, for example need to learn it as an Eevee), and others require that you breed it onto them since it's only an egg move, and they never learn it naturally. So you'll need to check the specifics on this for how they learn the move. And without further adieu, I'll start on the specific examples on how to build a team like this. A. Type Selection ================== First of all, you're obviously going to want to decide just how in depth you want to go with this strategy. In most cases, people only apply the strategy to a part of their team, with only maybe two of their Pokemon knowing boosting moves and Baton Pass. But obviously, you can take it farther than this and use Baton Pass on every member of your team. If you're using the other part of this FAQ, you'll be using my advice and using Pokemon you like, so you'll probably just want to use a couple of Baton Passers on your team. In this case, just apply what I say in this section to those Pokemon who use the move and keep in mind what I say in the rest of it. But for the sake of purity I'm going to say I'm going to go all out on the Baton Passing with this team. ******************************** * Selection: Six Baton Passers * * Tier: Any * ******************************** B. Pokemon Selection ===================== All right. The amount of variety we've got in making a Baton Passing team is much less than it is if we're just making a normal team (and even less than that if you're restricting yourself to certain tiers). So we've got to make really good use of the choices we've got here. Again, I'm not going to use anyone that I don't like. Luckily, a lot of my favorites fall into this group of Pokemon that can learn Baton Pass. They are: Mr. Mime, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Glaceon, Leafeon, Togekiss, Girafarig, Ninjask, Huntail, Gorebyss, Ambipom, Drifblim, Lopunny, Venomoth, Scizor, Blaziken, Medicham, Absol, Floatzel, Gliscor Once your narrow down your favorites, you obviously want to take into account what type of moves your team is passing. In my case, I'm going to want a little bit of everything, but if you're not using all six members as passers, you might not need to boost all of your stats. If you know which sweeper you want to pass to, you might not necessarily need Nasty Plot if they're a physical sweeper, for example. But in my case, I want everything, so I need things that can learn a lot of the moves. Stat lines don't matter, to a point, so long as your lead can take a hit or two. We'll get to that later though. For simplicity's sake, I'll assume you can look up who can learn what move and just list off which ones of these I know can learn moves I'll be wanting. Mr. Mime, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Togekiss, Girafarig, Ninjask, Gorebyss, Ambipom, Drifblim, Lopunny, Scizor, Medicham, Absol, Gliscor The moves I was looking for when making that selection were: Calm Mind, Amnesia, Nasty Plot, Swords Dance, Iron Defense, Acid Armor, Agility, Rock Polish, Dragon Dance, Mean Look, Aqua Ring, Substitute, etc Now from here I need to consider typings (to an extent) and who I can use to both begin and end the chain in order to get a good balance for the team. Obviously there are a bunch of options for this here, but I'll just select a few who I know will do a good job for the team: ********************************************************************* * Selection: Vaporeon, Umbreon, Gliscor, Scizor, Gorebyss, Togekiss * ********************************************************************* *Note* - My typings in water and flying overlap (Vaporeon/Gorebyss and Gliscor/Togekiss respectively). You should note that in a Baton Pass setting it's not nearly as important to not double up on types because of all of the stat boosts you'll have. Thus, this is perfectly acceptable. C. Move Selection ================== Now I've got my selection. And unlike normally where you want to do your best to give each Pokemon a moveset to both prevent it from being walled and to cover its weaknesses as well as you can, in building a Baton Pass team, you want to make sure all of your passable moves are covered as well as you can. So to start the selection off, I'll just list off the passable moves for each of them. It's good to do this since if, when you list them off you see that something you wanted isn't covered, you can go through and select again. Vaporeon: Aqua Ring, Acid Armor, Double Team, Substitute, Curse Umbreon: Mean Look, Double Team, Substitute, Curse Gliscor: Harden, Swords Dance, Double Team, Rock Polish, Substitute, Agility Scizor: Agility, Iron Defense, Swords Dance, Double Team, Substitute Gorebyss: Agility, Amnesia, Aqua Ring, Double Team, Substitute, Iron Defense Togekiss: Double Team, Substitute, Nasty Plot, Encore I'm going to assume Evasion Clause is in effect, so I won't be using any Double Teams. Now we've got to choose who will get what moves, and who will sacrifice some spots in order to be an attacker. Umbreon doesn't have the base stats or movepool to do attack, and Gorebyss has too many things it should be passing to attack, so these two will be supporters. Vaporeon is the only Pokemon capable of using Surf now that we've decided Gorebyss should support, and since this team will be theoretically not be needing to recover a lot of damage, Vaporeon shouldn't need to learn Aqua Ring either (if this proves to be incorrect, I will reconsider this, however). Thus, Vaporeon should have another attacking slot open for Ice Beam, which will make it half supporting and half attacking. Gliscor will need to have Earthquake, at the very least, since he's the only one capable. Scizor could either have no attacks, or could have some. In this case, I think it's safe to give him at least one, since there aren't many others who will be doing it. This leaves Togekiss, who is mainly just to Nasty Plot. Togekiss' other two slots will then be for attacking. Now that I've decided roughly who will be doing what, I'll get into specifics on the moves. For simplicity's sake, I'll start out with Umbreon, since the whole idea for the team stems off Umbreon's success as the lead (which will be explained in the Order Selection section). Umbreon -------- Umbreon is the only Pokemon in the entire game who has the ability to use both Mean Look and Baton Pass. This team abuses this fact beyond what is really necessary to achieve success. As for the other two slots, we have a couple of options to consider. Firstly, Umbreon can learn Wish. Wish passing can heal any member of your team half their health. And since none of them know recovery moves of their own, this could be important to have just in case things don't go as planned. As for the last slot, most people choose Toxic to have Umbreon stall as a wall. However, there's a far less popular option of giving Umbreon Yawn. Yawn will make the opponent fall asleep on the NEXT turn. There's several reasons this is advantageous to you. Firstly, since you Mean Looked beforehand, this means they WILL fall asleep and cannot switch to escape it. More importantly, the delay in the sleep means that you don't waste a turn when the stat boosts start. You Baton Pass out with Umbreon once your setup is done, and start boosting. The opponent will be asleep and you'll have time to do as you please. Knowing this, the rest of the team will be much easier to decide now. *********************************************** * Decision: Baton Pass, Mean Look, Wish, Yawn * *********************************************** Vaporeon --------- As I stated before, this team is theoretically not going to take enough damage to warrant having Aqua Ring. And now you know why with the time you will have to boost because of Yawn. Vaporeon only has one boost we need to worry about since we're not using Aqua Ring in this setup: Acid Armor, which is for defense. The other two moves are for Surf and Ice Beam. After your initial setup, if you get walled against a dragon or something, pass back to Vaporeon to take care of them. The Ice Beam is essentially, and I don't think there's room to put it anywhere else. Thus, Vaporeon's only pass help here will be Acid Armor. **************************************************** * Decision: Baton Pass, Acid Armor, Surf, Ice Beam * **************************************************** Gliscor -------- Okay. Gliscor has some options. We know for sure we want at least Earthquake in his moveset since this move is quite helpful, and there is nowhere else to put it in the team. However, Gliscor also has Agility, Iron Defense, and Swords Dance at his disposal. So we need to decide if we're going to give him two of those or only one of those and another attacking move. So we need to consider where we can fit in the other boosters if we want to give him another attacking move. Iron Defense and Acid Armor are the same thing, so the defense is covered on Vaporeon already. Swords Dance could come on Scizor. Agility could come on either Scizor or Gorebyss. So it looks like we can afford to do another attack here if we need to. Let's take a look at what he can learn other than Earthquake. He's got Ice/Thunder/Fire Fang, which are eh on power, and those typings would be better elsewhere on the team (like Togekiss). Poison Jab would be okay, but Poison isn't a top priority type on moves you have to have. Night Slash would be decent. X-Scissor would also be decent if Scizor couldn't make better use of that move. Brick Break is also fine. Gliscor would get STAB from Aerial Ace, making it a worthy note as well. And then there's also Stone Edge. Rock is an important counter to Ice, which is Gliscor's main weakness. All things considered, I think Stone Edge is our best bet here. So that leaves us with the boosting move to decide. Agility can be covered in two other places, so its more important that we take care of either attack or defense, since those are only in one other place right now. In this case, I'm going to go with Swords Dance so that I can immediately take advantage of attacking with Gliscor, but if you think you need more defense, Iron Defense would also be a fine decision. ************************************************************** * Decision: Baton Pass, Swords Dance, Earthquake, Stone Edge * ************************************************************** Scizor ------- Scizor is another great Baton Passer since it can learn three important moves: Swords Dance, Rock Polish or Agility, and Iron Defense. Since it's so good at passing, most people just suspect that if a Scizor is thrown out and starts using boosting moves, it will have all three. This is where we're going to take advantage of this. We'll give it two of the three boosters and then one attacking move in order to get in a surprise attack (when they see the boosting, they might react by starting to boost themselves, for example, and then you pull a surprise attack, and their boosting goes to waste since you had this up your sleeve). So first let's consider what attack to give it. Realistically, there are only two options for this: X-Scissor and Iron Head. They both have the same power, accuracy, and PP. Iron Head just has an added chance to flinch. It's really your call on which one you want to give him. In this case, I am going with X-Scissor since I think I get better coverage of my weaknesses this way. Now we have to consider which two of the three stat boosters we're giving him. Again, we'll consider where things could possibly be put. For defense, Vaporeon already has Acid Armor, and Gorebyss can learn Iron Defense (and will, since it is solely devouted to boosting). Agility is only covered elsewhere by Gorebyss. Swords Dance seems beneficial since he could use the attack right away. Thus, in this case, Iron Defense seems like the best option to leave out. ********************************************************** * Decision: Baton Pass, Agility, Swords Dance, X-Scissor * ********************************************************** Gorebyss --------- Earlier, we decided that Gorebyss was going to be solely devouted to boosting, since it could do so much. Amnesia is a must, since no one else on the team can learn it, and we need a way to boost special defense. We already decided that Aqua Ring wasn't going to be very beneficial for this team, and Substitute is also not necessary for the same reasons as Aqua Ring. The only other things left on the list are Agility and Iron Defense now. These two are good to have since earlier we determined that we could afford to put on attacking moves since these would be covered here. So this is a good choice. ******************************************************** * Decision: Baton Pass, Amnesia, Agility, Iron Defense * ******************************************************** Togekiss --------- As I previously mentioned, Togekiss is the only Pokemon on the team that can learn Nasty Plot, so it needs to do this to boost Special Attack. This is good anyway, since it'll be an attacker, and it uses special attack (the other one on the team that does is Vaporeon), so it can use the boost right away. Thus, the last two slots go to attacks. And we'll need to decide which ones will give us the best coverage. The attacking moves we have on the team so far are Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Stone Edge, and X-Scissor. That's not a lot of attacks, so we need to make these last two slots count. Of note is that we don't have any electric, fire, ghost, or psychic attacks. So regardless of the fact that we won't be getting STAB from attacks, I think it's important to cover our bases on the first two: electric and fire. Ideally, we'll only be attacking after a Nasty Plot or two or three, so the non-STAB shouldn't matter, and the coverage is better. Thus, our choices are Thunderbolt and Fire Blast (or Flamethrower, if you prefer), since those are the best in each category. Other attacks that would have covered other types would have been Air Slash, Aura Sphere, Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Grass Knot. If I find that one of these moves better covers this team, I'll update with a change. ************************************************************* * Decision: Baton Pass, Nasty Plot, Fire Blast, Thunderbolt * ************************************************************* After You've Picked Your Moves ------------------------------- I won't explain this in detail again, since it's the same as normal. But after you pick out your moves, you're obviously going to breed for natures and EV train your Pokemon, and then level for moves and such. The process is the same as before, so look above in the FAQ on how exactly to go about doing this. I'll simply list these for this team, since there's no need to explain the decisions for this. ***************************************************************************** * Umbreon: Impish nature, 252 EVs in defense/special defense, 6 in HP * * Vaporeon: Calm nature, 252 EVs in special defense/special attack, 6 in HP * * Gliscor: Jolly nature, 168 EVs in speed/attack/defense, 6 in HP * * Scizor: Adamant nature, 168 EVs in speed/attack/defense, 6 in HP * * Gorebyss: Calm nature, 252 EVs in defense/special defense, 6 in HP * * Togekiss: Modest nature, 252 EVs in special attack/speed, 6 in HP * ***************************************************************************** And then the other thing we need to consider is abilities, if they can learn more than one. Umbreon and Vaporeon both only have one. Gliscor's both don't really do him any good for this team, so it doesn't matter really. Scizor's Technician doesn't do him any good here, so Swarm for him. Gorebyss only has one. Togekiss' Hustle is completely bad for this, so Serene Grace is the choice there. Wasn't too difficult this time. ************************** * Gliscor: Sand Veil * * Scizor: Swarm * * Togekiss: Serene Grace * ************************** D. Order Selection =================== Obviously with Baton Passing, the order you choose to put your Pokemon in is even more important than usual. More specifically, your lead is important and the end of your chain is important. Generally speaking, in Baton Passing you need to either be able to inflict an ailment that will stall for time to boost or be able to boost once or twice because of an ability to survive that long on your own. Either way, the key is that your lead either has to have good defense to boost or needs to inflict an ailment to stall so you can boost. In this case, Umbreon does both. I gave Umbreon Yawn, which is the setup for the team, meaning that it must go first in this particular setup. However, in a setup without Yawn, Scizor would be a good candidate to go first because of its good defense and ability to survive. And really the only poor choice for a lead here is Gorebyss. Gorebyss needs protection to get the boosts in, so obviously it can't lead. Survival is the key. Under no circumstances do you want to chance your chain ending. The other thing to consider is who will end the chain. Ideally, Togekiss, Vaporeon, or Gliscor end the chain, since they each have two attacking moves. But you could also end with Scizor since he has one. You never want it to end with the other two since they can't do anything about it. Only switch back to them if you need more boosts or healing. ************************************ * Decision: * * Lead: Umbreon * * End: Togekiss, Vaporeon, Gliscor * ************************************ E. Final Touches ================= The last thing we need to do before we're ready to battle (other than confirming our strategy) is to decide items. This isn't really too difficult though. There are two things we want to keep in mind: Umbreon will be getting beat up since it's the lead and will be out before the sleeping begins, so it will need healing, and secondary ailments also get passed with the chain. All things considered, Umbreon should be getting Leftovers to help it survive. Someone else should get a Lum Berry to prevent the ailments. The only other important things to consider are lower accuracy moves. Stone Edge and Fire Blast are to consider here. Wide Lenses help fix these. Other than this, you might want to cover up some weaknesses with a Focus Sash or a special berry (the weakness reducing ones, you know). A last option is a Life Orb for one of the attackers to increase your damage. I don't think this is entirely necessary though, considering we'll have a boost already. In this case, these are the items I'll be using: ************************ * Umbreon: Leftovers * * Vaporeon: Leftovers * * Gliscor: Yache Berry * * Scizor: Occa Berry * * Gorebyss: Lum Berry * * Togekiss: Lum Berry * ************************ And that's it! The team is built and you can start using it against other people. But you have to know how to do it first. I kind of explained as I was building, but I'll take a little bit to go through the whole strategy now. Baton Passing Strategy ----------------------- All right. So Umbreon is an important lead here. The idea is to first lock in the other Pokemon with Mean Look. This way, you know what you're up against and have proper time to boost with this in mind. After you lock, you promptly use Yawn, and then get out of there with Baton Pass. If it looks like Umbreon won't be able to survive three hits, you'll have to Baton Pass early so your Mean Look is in tact (three since Umbreon will probably move second). Who you switch to after this will depend on what the Pokemon is. Consider typing and then Baton Pass to whoever will boost the type of attack you need. For example, if it's a Charizard, you could either use Stone Edge or Surf to take it down, but assume you want to use Stone Edge since that's a double weakness for Charizard. Stone Edge uses attack, so you want to focus on Swords Dance for attack, but before you focus on attack, you want to ensure you can go first. Thus, you'll Pass to Scizor since he knows both Swords Dance and Agility. Use Agility once or twice, then use Swords Dance, then Pass to Gliscor for Stone Edge (if you want, or you can try for some other stat boosts first). When you're ready with your boosts, use the attack to finish it off. Your boosts should be sufficient to OHKO it and ideally most things after it. If you need to pass for a more effective hit (if you're going to get a not very effective hit or something), do so. You shouldn't really have problems OHKOing anything. And if you used enough defense boosting moves, you won't be able to get hurt much either. And remember that if you get Yawn in at the beginning, you get at least a couple turns of boosting for free since they're asleep. That's essentially it. If you get the Yawn and Mean Look in at the beginning, the combination is essentially unstoppable since they can't do anything to stop you. They're asleep and locked into the battle. Meaning even if they have a taunter/roarer/etc, they won't be able to switch to them to break your chain. And by the time they get out in the battle, you'll have enough Agilities in to go before them and OHKO them. It's a very effective and powerful strategy. You don't necessarily have to use the Pokemon I used in this example for it either. The only essential component for it is Umbreon with Mean Look, Yawn, and Baton Pass. Then you can mix and match as you want. And that's all on Baton Passing. I hope you learned a little something on how powerful it can be. Thanks for reading this new section! ==================================================== XIII. Completed Examples of EV Spreads and Movesets ==================================================== In this section of the FAQ, I'll provide examples of teams that either I have made, or one of my extremely well informed companions have made, and provide the strategy that goes with each team. If you'd like me to add a team that you've made to this section feel free to e-mail me your team in the format I use here, and provide an explanation of the strategy you use with it. If it's at least somewhat decent, I'll post it here, and everyone can know what great talent you have at making awesome teams too. Sui's FAQ Example Team ----------------------- Froslass (female) @ Focus Fash EVs in speed and special attack / Timid nature Ice Beam (TM) Shadow Ball (TM) Thunderbolt (TM) Destiny Bond (level 59) Flygon (female) EVs in attack and speed / Naive nature Dragon Claw (level 45) Earthquake (TM) Stone Edge (TM) Fire Blast (TM) Miltank (female) @ Leftovers Scrappy EVs in HP and defense/ Impish nature Milk Drink (level 11) Heal Bell (level 48) Body Slam (level 24) Earthquake (TM) Lanturn (female) @ Leftovers Volt Absorb EVs in HP and SD / Calm nature Confuse Ray (level 17) Surf (HM) Thunderbolt (TM) Thunder Wave (level 6 Chinchou) Yanmega (male) @ King's Rock Speed Boost EVs in special attack and speed / Modest nature Bug Buzz (level 54) Hypnosis (level 38 Yanma) Protect (TM) Air Slash (level 49) Absol (female) @ Razor Claw Super Luck EVs in attack and speed / Jolly nature Night Slash (level 52) Swords Dance (level 25) Psycho Cut (level 60) Sucker Punch (level 44) Strategy: The key to this team is knowing who has advantages in what area and when you need to switch and when you need to stay. Froslass is the lead. Tons of things are weak to ice, and it's fast enough to go first in most situations. In a case where you won't be able to OHKO, you have a couple of options. You can either switch to something else to preserve Froslass for later, you can try to take it out in a couple shots with Froslass, or you can wait until you're SURE Froslass will die in the next turn, then use Destiny Bond to make them die too (assuming they're slower than you, that is). Aside from Froslass, you need to learn to switch well. If you suspect an Earthquake, you need to switch to Yanmega or Flygon, depending on the situation. Earthquakes like to kill Lanturn, so that's usually the switch you'll be making that one on. If you suspect a Thunderbolt or something, Lanturn absorbs those. Just learn the switches. Aside from that, Flygon's strategy is fairly obvious. He can OHKO a lot of things. And he's got a surprise Fire Blast in there, which is a move not many people will expect him to have. So that's a great think to have going for you. Yanmega's strategy is to Protect first turn, then Hypnosis, then sweep with the other two moves. Miltank can stay alive for stupid amounts of time. So Milk Drink her to death. Also switch to her for Heal Bell if you need a status problem gone. Lanturn switches in on a Thunderbolt, then uses Thunder Wave to half speed. Then Confuse Ray for increased chances of them not being able to do anything. Absol Sword Dances ONLY if you think you can get one in or expect a non-attacking move or something like that. This team actually works really well together and can take out teams that are far above it in tier if you know what you're doing. Sui's Baton Passing Sleep Team -------------------------------- Vaporeon (male) @ Leftovers EVs in HP and special defense / Calm nature Wish (egg move) Baton Pass (level 36 Eevee) Aqua Ring (level 43) Ice Beam (TM) Ninetales (female) @ Wide Lens EVs in speed and special attack / Timid nature Energy ball (egg move) Nasty Plot (move tutor) Flamethrower (level 24 Vulpix) Hypnosis (egg move) Gliscor (female) @ Shell Bell Hyper Cutter EVs in defense and speed / Jolly nature Earthquake (TM) Rock Polish (TM) Swords Dance (level 34) Baton Pass (egg move) Crobat (female) @ Black Sludge EVs in speed and attack / Jolly nature Confuse Ray (level 21) Return (TM) Hypnosis (egg move) U-Turn (TM) Umbreon (male) @ Lum Berry EVs in defense and special defense / Impish nature Wish (egg move) Yawn (egg move) Baton Pass (level 36 Eevee) Mean Look (level 57) Lucario (male) @ Muscle Band Inner Focus EVs in attack and special attack / Lonely nature Aura Sphere (level 37) Extremespeed (level 51) Shadow Claw (TM) Dragon Pulse (level 47) *Note* - this is not the Baton Passing Team I've got listed for example for the Baton Passing part of this FAQ. Strategy: Contrary to the order I have them in there, Crobat is the lead here. He has one of the highest base speeds in the game, and with that Jolly nature and EVs in speed, there's almost nothing that can normally outspeed him (unless something like a Choice Scarf is used). This is needed. He's sent out and uses Hypnosis. While the opponent sleeps, Confuse Ray, in order to stall for time when he wakes up. Then switch out to Gliscor. Gliscor then proceeds to use a variety of Rock Polish and Swords Dance, which he will then Baton Pass on to Vaporeon once the foe wakes up or Gliscor is in trouble. Vaporeon will use Aqua Ring, and then Baton Pass to Umbreon. Umbreon will use Mean Look to lock in the foe, and will then Baton Pass to Lucario, who will then sweep the board with his incredibly boosted status. Should something go wrong, Umbreon and Vaporeon are there to wall, and both have Wish, which they can Baton Pass to heal any member of the team with. Ninetales is there for the sleep theme, and can also be passed some Rock Polishes, should the situation call for it. The Wide Lens she has boosts Hypnosis' accuracy, further ensuring the sleep status on the foe. While they're sleeping (after an option Mean Look Pass from Umbreon to make sure they don't switch out from it), Nasty Plot raises Ninetales' special attack. Once you've used it once or twice, or if they wake up, sweep away. Energy Ball obviously covers Ninetales' water weakness. And Vaporeon has Ice Beam instead of Surf to cover the fact that many more things are weak to ice, and I didn't have an ice move to cover it. More teams coming soon! ========================== XIV. Additional Resources ========================== In addition to this FAQ, obviously you might want some other information that will come in useful to making your team. This section is dedicated to providing you with some useful locations for various things that help you do that. Specific listed movesets for certain strategies on Sinnoh Pokemon can be found in Parrot_Lover's Competitive Battling guide here at GameFAQs. I've read this guide personally and found it to be excellent. For extra EV training spots other than the one's I listed in this guide, use Alexcalibur's EV Training Hotspot guide here at GameFAQs. For information on movesets, base stats, and anything else to do with a specific Pokemon, check out Serebii's D/P PokeDex, found here: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/ To browse by egg groups to check on how to breed certain moves onto a Pokemon, check Serebii's dex by egg ground, which can be done by selecting a group from the scroll down menu on the page from the link above. For information on specific attacks, who can learn a specific move, and anything else that's attack related, use Serebii's attack dex. http://www.serebii.net/attackdex-dp/ To check on hold items for your Pokemon, check out Serebii's D/P item list and BerryDex. http://www.serebii.net/diamondpearl/items.shtml http://www.serebii.net/berrydex-dp/ And, of course, Smogon has a tier list and other sections you should check out! http://www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/ Also, if you need help on coming up with movesets and don't want to e-mail me (I'll help you. You just need an idea of what you want first), you can use Smogon. They've got specific sets listed and everything. If you have an excellent Pokemon resource that you feel would be a good addition to this list, please e-mail me and let me know about it so that I can add it and let everyone use the awesome resource you found! ==================== XV. Acknowledgments ==================== I'd like to thank GameFAQs for hosting this guide, along with Nintendo and GameFreak for making the wonderful series we all know as Pokemon. Also thanks to my good friends at Saint Elimine's Sanctuary for participating in daily talks about this type of thing that help us all keep at the top of our game with this stuff. Thanks especially to Anon and Heintz for editing and critiquing many of my things via PMs there! Thanks to the people who helped me proof this guide for errors and gave me suggestions on making it better (all from Saint Elimine's): Anon RBW berserk_banana Plague Abyssion Heintz A special thanks to Heintz for providing me with very detailed descriptions about what exactly was wrong and needed fixing with this FAQ. Many sections and pieces of information could not have been added without your help. A special thanks to Anon for learning so many things about battling and Pokemon in general over the last couple months. Despite your wtf moments, I think you actually know what you're talking about finally. >.> A special thanks to Michelle. Just because. Thanks to the following people for providing me with corrections/tips/other helpful things via e-mail: Surging_Chaos - Specific counter tips Force of Light - Stealth Rock correction Timic83 - for pointing out that Steel and Poison types can be poisoned by Twineedle. Chumblespuzz - for pointing out that Embargo and Heal Block are other secondary ailments that I missed. Scion - Various suggestions/other things that were quite insightful and such. Tombola Man - For help on the Lanturn moveset suggestion, along with Spider Web and the Stealth Rock correction. If you sent me a correction or something in the seven or so months I did not update the FAQ, I'm sorry, but I've since forgotten what exactly you said. I know there were a couple things, but I don't have the time to search through my e-mail to find all of them right now. So feel free to send them again if you want, and I'll make sure I actually add them now since I'm feeling more up to updating this thing now than I have been. In addition, thanks to the following sites for all of their excellent information on this game: Serebii Smogon Psypokes More thanks coming on future updates! ========================= XVI. Contact Information ========================= Got a question about something you saw in this FAQ? Maybe you want me to give you a little personal help with building your team? See some missing info in the guide? Or wrong maybe? Maybe you just want to tell me how you thought my guide was? Whatever the case, if you want to contact me, e-mail me! Just make sure to follow my e-mail policy, covered earlier in this document, when sending your e-mail. You can contact me at: [email protected] Remember to title your e-mail as something like "Your Pokemon FAQ" to ensure you receive a reply! ================ XVII. Copyright ================ This FAQ is for personal use only. If you want to use my guide at another website, or for something other than for personal use, you must contact me for my permission first. More than likely, if you contact me first, I'll let you use it. I don't have a problem with it or anything. Currently, the sites with permission to use this are: www.gamefaqs.com www.supercheats.com Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl Versions are both Copyrights (C) 2006 of Nintendo and GameFreak. Copyright (C) 2007 - 2008 Sui89
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