Hey people, Here is my Normal gym team, pls rate it, criticize it, make suggestions (evs? items? other pokemon?) any help is welcome! really!! I have been battling online using this team, and I have been doing well, but I think I can improve it, with your help, so please rate and help. I have lots of trouble dealing with AEGISLASH and MEGA LUCARIO.. :(
Staraptor@choice scarf
Adamant Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 spd / 4 Hp
-Brave Bird
-Close Combat
-U-turn
-Return
My physical attacker and usual lead, unless my opponent has an Aegislash… Staraptor is an awesome lead, it can deal heavy damage with it’s STAB moves early on and the Choice scarf allows it to outspeed almost anything that isn’t scarfed, but it can also escape from most threats or from Pokemon who wall it with U-turn. Intimadate comes in really handy, as my main weakness are fighting physical moves. Reckless would have made Brave Bird staraptor a killing machine, but I prefer to play defensively,to be honest I’m terrified of my Fighting type weakness. I try to keep Staraptor alive until all the opposing fighting types are dead, I can OHKO most of them with Brave Bird. Staraptor also works great as a late-game sweeper, succesfully revenge-killing most weakened Pokemon with it’s awesome coverage, power and Speed. However it can’t touch aegislash, so that’s why…
Kangaskhan@kangaskhanite
Jolly Nature
Ability: Parental Bond
EVs: 252 atk / 252 Spd / 4 Hp
-Crunch
-Return
-Earthquake
-Power-up Punch
…that’s why I lead with mega kangaskhan, my other physical attacker, whenever I see my opponent has an aegislash, they ALWAYS lead with aegislash as it can kill ALL my Pokemon with a boosted sacred sword. After boosting my attack against any other Pokemon, I can OHKO aegislash with earthquake, but that rarely happens, as everyone seems to lead with the damned ghost sword as soon as they realise I’m a normal-only user. I preferred Crunch over Sucker punch, I never liked how sucker punch works, it requires really good predicting skills and I find Crunch a more reliable attack. Same goes for Fake Out, I need earthquake, the boosting power-up punch, a Strong STAB move and something realiable to kill ghosts which completely wall my other physical attacker.
Exploud@Assault vest
Modest Nature
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
-Boomburst
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-flamethrower
My Special attacker, Boomburst deals mounstrous damage to most things, scrappy allows me to kill ghosts with it as well. Surf and flamethrower are there to hurt rock/steel types who resist boomburst, Ice beam is there for coverage. I have considered Extrasensory, but STAB boomburst does more damage to fighting types than super effective
Extrasensory. Exploud has decent Hp and special defense, that’s why I gave it assault vest, hoping it can take some special hits before it gets killed, sadly it has terrible physical defense and it’s pretty slow.
Blissey@leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 4 Spd
-Softboiled
-Toxic
-Flamethrower
-Aromatherapy
My special wall, blissey is and will always be the BEST special wall in the entire game, she needed to be in my team. It used to have seismic toss, but I realised that at level 50, dealing Only 50 hp damage was mediocre compared to 100 hp damage in lv 100 battles. (I play wifi Only), I taught it flamethrower instead, just so I don’t get walled by ghosts and especially GENGAR. Every other special attacker gets toxified to death (though heatran may wall me to death) along with opposing walls/tanks. Aromatherapy supports the team, ESPECIALLY furfrou who can rest, then switch out, and have blissey wake it up, blissey can heal herself with natural cure as well. I also thought of using Chansey instead, as it is more bulky, but I didn’t like the fact that it had no passive leftovers recover and that it had way to defend herself with it’s terrible sp.Attack. At least blissey can 3HKO/2HKO ferrothorns lol
Furfrou@Leftovers
Impish Nature
Ability: Fur coat
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Hp / 4 Spd
-Toxic
-Cotton Guard
-Return
-Rest
My physical wall, once this thing sets up NOTHING (physically) can hurt it… it takes fighting STABed moves like a BOSS and it has decent special defense too. Usually there’s a lot of switching out/toxic-stalling in my battles, courtesy of blissey/furfrou. Whatever furfrou can’t wall, blissey will wall, and whatever blissey can’t, furfrou will. Rest is Furfrou’s only way of healing, and it needs it, more in this team than ever. While staraptor kills most fighting types, furfrou will wall them and poison them to death. Return is there as I don’t like being a helpless support Pokemon, furfrou can finish things off too, returning them to death!! Despite all this, I NEED to set up in the first turn, or fighting moves will still kill me.
Heliolisk@Life Orb
Timid Nature
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Hp
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Surf
-Grass Knot
My other Special attacker, it’s not like I had many options, clefable is a pure fairy type, and togekiss is not normal anymore, the porygon line is not available yet… and pyroar F****** SUCKS!!! WHY EVEN GIVE IT MOXIE?!?! WHY!?... oh well… lol
Helioslisk’s fast but frail, volt switch allows me to hit-and-run letting me switch into either my walls, or Staraptor (to take the possible earthquakes thrown at heliolisk), staraptor can also u-turn to heliolisk to escape from getting fried by electric attacks. Thunderbolt had to be there as it’s heliolisk’s best move, surf and grass knot to hurt everything that resists or is inmune to electric moves. I don’t think my team needs paralysis support from Glare as Helioslisk will probably get killed by whatever it glares and also because I will most likely try to poison everything with my walls, plus heliolisk’s role here is to deal as much special damage as possible.
Staraptor@choice scarf
Adamant Nature
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 spd / 4 Hp
-Brave Bird
-Close Combat
-U-turn
-Return
My physical attacker and usual lead, unless my opponent has an Aegislash… Staraptor is an awesome lead, it can deal heavy damage with it’s STAB moves early on and the Choice scarf allows it to outspeed almost anything that isn’t scarfed, but it can also escape from most threats or from Pokemon who wall it with U-turn. Intimadate comes in really handy, as my main weakness are fighting physical moves. Reckless would have made Brave Bird staraptor a killing machine, but I prefer to play defensively,to be honest I’m terrified of my Fighting type weakness. I try to keep Staraptor alive until all the opposing fighting types are dead, I can OHKO most of them with Brave Bird. Staraptor also works great as a late-game sweeper, succesfully revenge-killing most weakened Pokemon with it’s awesome coverage, power and Speed. However it can’t touch aegislash, so that’s why…
Kangaskhan@kangaskhanite
Jolly Nature
Ability: Parental Bond
EVs: 252 atk / 252 Spd / 4 Hp
-Crunch
-Return
-Earthquake
-Power-up Punch
…that’s why I lead with mega kangaskhan, my other physical attacker, whenever I see my opponent has an aegislash, they ALWAYS lead with aegislash as it can kill ALL my Pokemon with a boosted sacred sword. After boosting my attack against any other Pokemon, I can OHKO aegislash with earthquake, but that rarely happens, as everyone seems to lead with the damned ghost sword as soon as they realise I’m a normal-only user. I preferred Crunch over Sucker punch, I never liked how sucker punch works, it requires really good predicting skills and I find Crunch a more reliable attack. Same goes for Fake Out, I need earthquake, the boosting power-up punch, a Strong STAB move and something realiable to kill ghosts which completely wall my other physical attacker.
Exploud@Assault vest
Modest Nature
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
-Boomburst
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-flamethrower
My Special attacker, Boomburst deals mounstrous damage to most things, scrappy allows me to kill ghosts with it as well. Surf and flamethrower are there to hurt rock/steel types who resist boomburst, Ice beam is there for coverage. I have considered Extrasensory, but STAB boomburst does more damage to fighting types than super effective
Extrasensory. Exploud has decent Hp and special defense, that’s why I gave it assault vest, hoping it can take some special hits before it gets killed, sadly it has terrible physical defense and it’s pretty slow.
Blissey@leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 4 Spd
-Softboiled
-Toxic
-Flamethrower
-Aromatherapy
My special wall, blissey is and will always be the BEST special wall in the entire game, she needed to be in my team. It used to have seismic toss, but I realised that at level 50, dealing Only 50 hp damage was mediocre compared to 100 hp damage in lv 100 battles. (I play wifi Only), I taught it flamethrower instead, just so I don’t get walled by ghosts and especially GENGAR. Every other special attacker gets toxified to death (though heatran may wall me to death) along with opposing walls/tanks. Aromatherapy supports the team, ESPECIALLY furfrou who can rest, then switch out, and have blissey wake it up, blissey can heal herself with natural cure as well. I also thought of using Chansey instead, as it is more bulky, but I didn’t like the fact that it had no passive leftovers recover and that it had way to defend herself with it’s terrible sp.Attack. At least blissey can 3HKO/2HKO ferrothorns lol
Furfrou@Leftovers
Impish Nature
Ability: Fur coat
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Hp / 4 Spd
-Toxic
-Cotton Guard
-Return
-Rest
My physical wall, once this thing sets up NOTHING (physically) can hurt it… it takes fighting STABed moves like a BOSS and it has decent special defense too. Usually there’s a lot of switching out/toxic-stalling in my battles, courtesy of blissey/furfrou. Whatever furfrou can’t wall, blissey will wall, and whatever blissey can’t, furfrou will. Rest is Furfrou’s only way of healing, and it needs it, more in this team than ever. While staraptor kills most fighting types, furfrou will wall them and poison them to death. Return is there as I don’t like being a helpless support Pokemon, furfrou can finish things off too, returning them to death!! Despite all this, I NEED to set up in the first turn, or fighting moves will still kill me.
Heliolisk@Life Orb
Timid Nature
Ability: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Hp
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Surf
-Grass Knot
My other Special attacker, it’s not like I had many options, clefable is a pure fairy type, and togekiss is not normal anymore, the porygon line is not available yet… and pyroar F****** SUCKS!!! WHY EVEN GIVE IT MOXIE?!?! WHY!?... oh well… lol
Helioslisk’s fast but frail, volt switch allows me to hit-and-run letting me switch into either my walls, or Staraptor (to take the possible earthquakes thrown at heliolisk), staraptor can also u-turn to heliolisk to escape from getting fried by electric attacks. Thunderbolt had to be there as it’s heliolisk’s best move, surf and grass knot to hurt everything that resists or is inmune to electric moves. I don’t think my team needs paralysis support from Glare as Helioslisk will probably get killed by whatever it glares and also because I will most likely try to poison everything with my walls, plus heliolisk’s role here is to deal as much special damage as possible.
