#//he already has a togekiss and roserade i think he likes pretty pokemon

[traveling-historian]

Ice type!

[legendsobsessions]

hi cynthia different person from the other anon here but i'd like to throw my hat into the ring with my team. i've been here before, i think.. but i'm a cringefail cultural anthro student who's a pretty decent trainer in my spare time! :)

so my team consists of a Golurk, a Porygon-Z, an Umbreon, an Oricorio usually in Baile Style but we switch it up now and again, a Falinks, and a Roserade, whom I usually lead with! If you want more details like movesets and stuff I'll be happy to provide :)

i really admire you as both an archaeologist and a trainer, so it's really cool to see you :))))

Oh, I remember you, hello again! (You actually sent this ask in first, so I'm getting around to it first, it's been a busy day but I love thinking about these things.)

Hmm, alright. Overall, that does seem fairly balanced, you don't have any typing overlaps—typically my advice is to either have no overlapping types or pick a type and run with it.

Unless you've seriously pissed me off—which is very difficult to do without being part of and/or leading a team causing problems for Sinnoh on purpose—I tend to start out with my Spiritomb.

Depends on the moveset, of course. Roserade can, for instance, learn Dazzling Gleam... though I'd personally opt for poisoning over outright trying to knock out a more defensive pokemon like Spiritomb myself... ultimately, that could go either way. No real advantages on either side, apart from the advantage of obscurity/people not being able to figure out what type Spiritomb is, and in the interest of fairness I'll assume you know.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that your Roserade was able to poison my Spiritomb—either via Poison Point or a move—but did go down shortly afterwards. Your best bet against Spiritomb would be either the Umbreon or the Porygon-Z... let's go with Umbreon, my girlfriend has an Umbreon, he's a cuddlebug and a pretty good battler.

Umbreon takes my Spiritomb down, at which point my own best option is either my Togekiss (preferable) or my own Roserade.

...Unfortunately for your Umbreon, that particular pokemon doesn't learn any moves for countering fairy-types or flying-types. Your best option there would probably be to stall as much as possible, and/or chip away at my Togekiss's defenses as much as possible.

Now, you've got a Togekiss to handle. Your Roserade honestly would have been an okay option here, if not an ideal one - it would be a matter of which pokemon was faster in knocking out the other, and Roserade tend not to be trained for their speed - but it's a moot point, your Roserade is already knocked out in this hypothetical scenario.

...You don't really have any ideal options here, but you have some worse options. Falinks is weak to both of Togekiss's types. Golurk is a ground-type going up against a flying-type, which can work out but tends not to in my experience. Porygon-Z, again, depends on the moveset, but you could get lucky with Conversion-2 (or you could already have an electric-type move in their moveset, the Porygon line learns quite a lot of electric moves for a non-electric pokemon) so that's a viable option.

I'd, personally, go with your Oricorio. Baile style is... fire-type, correct? Those are resistant to fairy-type moves, which would mean that both of the move types my Togekiss would do the most damage with would do less damage to that pokemon specifically.

(The... I can't remember what the electric-type Oricorio style is, that could also work, but then Togekiss would still be able to do quite a lot of damage with fairy-type moves alone. If you're going on the defensive, you don't want to do that by halves.)

Flying-type moves wouldn't do very much, but a fire-type Revelation Dance would. It would be close, but I think your Oricorio might just be able to come out on top.

...Granted, your Oricorio would also likely go down immediately against my Milotic. Here's where I really hope your Porygon-Z knows an electric-type move, but either way you might struggle. She's bulky. Very, very bulky, and unless you planned on that ahead of time with Conversion, you wouldn't be getting any sort of boost to that electric move's effectiveness, either.

Falinks would be a better option than Golurk, here, simply because of Golurk's weakness to water. If your Porygon did enough damage ahead of time, you likely could take my Milotic out quickly... at which point I would pull out my own Roserade.

Falinks learns a couple of bug moves, but First Impression can only be used... well, first! And assuming you've already either used it or not against my Milotic, your other option is Megahorn. Which, well... it's a powerful move, but it tends to miss more often than the science claims it should, let's put it that way. I prefer to avoid powerful-but-risky moves like that myself, these days.

My Roserade would, in all likelihood, take down your Falinks. Which leaves you with only your Golurk, and I with my Roserade and my Garchomp.

...At that point, I'm afraid, unless you and your Golurk were particularly lucky, you've already all but lost. I like sending out my Garchomp last (or close to last) for a reason, and that reason is twofold. One, to get any ice-types that people think they're being smart with out of the way early. Two, because she is very, very, very good at mopping up whatever my other pokemon have left for her.

Honestly, though, you do have a fairly well-balanced team. Also, I should clarify, this is entirely speaking in hypotheticals, one can never really predict the outcome of a battle before it begins.

You should come by the League sometime. It'll be fun. :)

(And to the other anon: I see your ask about the same thing, I'll answer it as soon as I can, I'm a little busy tonight unfortunately, this took me two days.)

[crystalelemental]

Alright, I have reached the League in Platinum.  We’re going in.  I’ll be doing one long post again, instead of the breakdown per character, to avoid cluttering Dashboards.  The team:

Eleanor the Dusknoir (Brave, lv 60).  Elemental Punches and Shadow Punch.  I had wanted Trick Room, but can’t find a justification to remove any of the coverage.

Cadence the Chimecho (Modest, lv 58).  Extrasensory, Shadow Ball, Charge Beam, Hidden Power.

Florence the Cherrim (Timid, lv 58).  Solarbeam, Hidden Power Fire, Leech Seed, Sunny Day.

Arianne the Floatzel (Rash, lv 58).  Surf, Waterfall, Ice Beam, Crunch.

Perrine the Gliscor (Careful, lv 57).  Earthquake, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Swords Dance.

Melanie the Skuntank (Naive, lv 56).  Night Slash, Poison Jab, Flamethrower, Strength.

As always, I don’t use items during the match, but will heal up between matches.  If a Pokemon faints, however, they’re out for good.

First up is Aaron, a guy who claims to be Bug, but whose main I am certain is Drapion.  I decided to lead with Perrine, since I’m not taking any chances early on, and Rock/Ground coverage should clear this entire team.  I was confidence the Yanmega lead was Speed Boost, unfortunately I had guessed Protect and tried to boost first, so it got two Air Slash on me.  Thankfully, one Swords Dance let Perrine absolutely demolish his team.  That said, I’m pleasantly surprised by his spread.  Scizor was terrifying, I wasn’t sure we could OHKO, and Heracross covers the Rock/Ground coverage that’s so good against the rest of his team.  Gliscor is just a surprisingly hard counter.  I also really enjoy Air Slash/Speed Boost Yanmega as a lead.  That’s pretty nasty.

Next up is Bertha.  I always kinda liked Bertha.  Anyway, this is Florence’s time to shine.  Gliscor was scary.  Fire Fang as I set sunlight, I am astonished we didn’t die.  Once sun was set, though, Solarbeam took it down.  And took down everything else.  I didn’t feel like messing with Hippowdon.  I could feel something was up, and we were too low on HP and Sandstorm was active.  I swapped over to Arianne.  Turns out, I was right to do so.  Stone Edge crit.  That would’ve killed Florence, but Arianne survived and got the KO with Surf.  So far so good.

Next up is Flint, who has always been my least favorite.  I think Diamond and Pearl made me mad at him.  Fire-type Elite Four, but only two Fire types out of the five.  Pathetic.  Anyway, Platinum has more options, so I confidently lead with Arianne.  We take out four of his Pokemon with Waterfall alone, but Flame Body procs with Magmortar, so it wasn’t a perfect run.  Still, I’m disappointed.  At least he has all Fire types, but come on.  It’s kinda like Volkner, just a stream of the same type, all easy to handle with a counter.

Now for the asshole.  Lucian is a pain in my ass every time.  Anyway, I decide to go Eleanor.  Maybe it’s a mistake, but I feel like she can take him.  Unfortunately, my decision to not play Trick Room comes to bite me instantly, as Mr. Mime uses Reflect.  Uphill battle from turn one.  Thankfully Shadow Punch still OHKO’d.  Espeon has Shadow Ball, and got the lucky Sp. Def. drop.  So that’s bad.  Eleanor is basically dead on her feet when it arrives.  That fucking Bronzong.  I switched to Florence.  He got a crit with Gyro Ball, and evaded my Leech Seed the first time, necessitating a second.  So that’s great, two Calm Minds for his special defense.  If this could be going any worse...  I swap to Skuntank.  Thankfully, I got it right, Psychic.  I opt for Night Slash.  While not as strong, it seems the safest option.  It knows Earthquake.  Of course.  God dammit, Lucian.  Only half damage, and a bit of Leech Seed healing keeps us alive, but wow, we have three injured Pokemon and he’s only half done.  Alakazam’s next, and I briefly entertain the idea of switching before realizing that would be a disaster and stay put.  Focus Blast hits, and Skuntank lives with 17 HP.  That...was scary.  But now it’s worse, because we’re staring down Gallade.  In the possibly worst call, I switch to Perrine.  He hits with Stone Edge, because misses don’t happen for him.  Thankfully, I have a Flying move with Aerial Ace.  Unfortunately, it survives.  But a second one finishes it.  Four severely injured Pokemon, but no deaths.  What a painful fight.

But not nearly as bad as the ultimate being.  God, Cynthia is such a badass, I love her.  I decide to lead Florence.  I know, I know, risky business with the Milotic, but I really don’t have a good lead against Spiritomb, so I have to trust in this game plan.  I go for Leech Seed to get some passive damage and healing, and plan to switch to Skuntank next tu-oh god she knows Silver Wind.  OH GOD SHE GOT THE BOOST.  FUCK, IT’S TURN ONE AND WE’RE ALREADY ON RED ALERT.  Okay, switch to Skuntank and another Silver Wi-IT GOT IT AGAIN, FUCK ME.  I try twice to poison with Poison Jab.  No dice.  I try to finish it before Full Restore can be used with Night Slash.  It survives.  Skuntank goes down.  DOING GREAT, GUYS.

At this point, it’s full-on red alert, I go straight to Perrine and start the Swords Dance boost as she Full Restores.  I get to the second, and find out Shadow Ball absolutely trucks through Perrine’s weaker special defense.  That Careful nature isn’t saving you for shit, girl.  I take the shot with Earthquake.  And it hangs on by a thread, and gets a KO with Psychic.  We are so, so fucked.

I bring in Florence, and to my surprise, she doesn’t heal again.  Spiritomb gets a shot off as I set up Sunny Day, but we’re not dead.  A small victory, but I count it.  Togekiss comes in.  I can’t beat that.  I try to Leech Seed.  It evaded the attack.  Why?

I bring in Cadence, realizing that we really cannot bring in the other two right now, and...oof.  Togekiss outspeeds.  And knows Air Slash. She gets a flinch on the second hit, and now Cadence is down.  If this could get any worse, it’d be a miracle.  But Arianne can...oh my god id only dealt like half damage with Ice BEam, and she nearly killed me in one shot with Shock Wave.  Good god, why is this happening?  Roserade’s in, Ice BEam does shit-all, and Arianne is down.  Only Eleanor remains.  She wins, but not before taking some damage.

Lucario hits Stone Edge, because I haven’t suffered enoguh.  Fire Punch doesn’t even one-shot.  Another full restore as I punch again, and no luck.  Also it knows Shadow Ball.  And got the special defense drop.  And to end the match, Milotic got a crit on Ice Beam.

I have never experienced such intense bad luck in a match before.  Christ.