DPPt/HGSS Blaziken and Gardevoir. JTrainer's Team

[JTrainer]

I have had this team since the Hoenn region (except for Roserade). Please note that this is my dream team and as such I will not change the kind of pokemon that are on it (I'm serious about this, they are my favorites). However, I will take advice on moveset and item changes (I just test them out first, and if I like the results, I keep them). Here they are.


Blaziken (male) @ Salac Berry
ability: Blaze
nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 ATK / 6 SP.DEF / 252 SPEED
moves:
Blaze Kick
Endure
Reversal
Swords Dance

In the past, I had tried other Blaziken movesets, but so far this one works the best for me. He is able to OHKO any pokemon that either doesn't resist his moves or doesn't hold the accursed focus sash (which in my opinion should be limited to one pokemon per team).


Gardevoir (Female) @ Lum Berry
ability: Synchronize
nature: Timid
EVs: 200 SP.ATK / 56 DEF / 252 SPEED
moves:
Psychic
Calm Mind
Focus Blast
Thunderbolt

When I was playing Sapphire version a long time ago, the first pokemon I caught was a Ralts. As such, her fully evolved form, Gardevoir, remains on my team to this day. She is my favorite psychic type pokemon. She is basically a special sweeper. She also uses the Synchro/Lum Berry combo to cripple the opponent if they use a status move against her

Salamence (Male) @ Yache Berry
ability: Intimidate
nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 ATK / 6 SP.DEF / 252 SPEED
moves:
Outrage
Fire Blast
Earthquake
Dragon Dance

Originally, I was going to have Flygon on my team. But as I was raising a Salamence for my pokedex, when I saw him after Shelgon evolved, I had to have him for my team. He is my main physical sweeper. He utilizes the Dragon Dance/Outrage combo, with a Yache berry to protect against any Ice attacks that might ruin the setup, except for Ice Shard. He also has Earthquake and Fire Blast thrown in as well (I only chose it over flamethrower because his special attack is not very high).

Roserade (Female) @ Black Sludge
ability: Natural Cure
nature: Timid
EVs: 200 SP.ATK / 56 DEF / 252 SPEED
moves:
Energy Ball
Shadow Ball
Sludge Bomb
Sleep Powder

The grass type of my team. Her strategy is to first use sleep powder, and then either switch out, or pummel the opponent with one of her three special attacks.
I invested into her defense because I wanted her to survive some physical attacks, like earthquake.

Milotic (Female) @ Leftovers
ability: Marvel Scale
nature: Bold
EVs: 148 SP.ATK / 108 SP. DEF 0/ 252 SPEED
moves:
Ice Beam
Recover
Hypnosis
Hydro Pump

The wall of my team, though she's not a bad sweeper either. I originally went with a modest one that held a salac berry and knew mirror coat, but I find that this one works out better. The two reasons I prefer her to know Hydro Pump over surf is, One: Her special attack is a bit too low for surf to work effectively. Two: In double battles, surf hits your ally as well, and I don't want to take that chance. Still, her Hydro Pump hits a lot, despite only 80 accuracy.

Metagross @ Life Orb
ability: Clear Body
nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 ATK / 104 SP.DEF / 152 SPEED
moves:
Meteor Mash
Agility
Explosion
Earthquake

Back in Hoenn, I wasn't sure about the last pokemon for my team. Then as I was raising Metang, he evolved into Metagross, and when I saw him I knew I had to have him on my team. He is basically the agility Metagross build, hitting with life orb boosted Meteor Mashes and Earthquakes after using it. And as a last resort, a life orb boosted explosion, that can normally take out any pokemon without a focus sash.


Well, thats my team, and remember, I will not change the kind of pokemon on it (again, I am very serious about this). Other than that detail, please rate them.

 

[KoL]

Lucky for you, your team certainly doesn't need any changing whatsoever anyway - everything's pretty well balanced out.

- Blaziken's Reversal set, a standard in Gen III, isn't quite so potent in Gen IV since far more Pokemon wield first-strike priority attacks such as Ice Shard and Bullet Punch, which are the absolute bane of all Reversal users. Although Blaziken is still very viable with a Reversal set, it's best to excercise caution when attempting a Reversal sweep unless you want your sweep to be cut very abruptly short.

- 56 EVs in Defense on Gardevoir is a waste - it won't make a huge difference to the stat anyway, which means anything that packs decent physical power will murder you if it hits you with or without those EVs. If you still want some bulk to Gardevoir, put them in Sp.Defense instead, since they'll prove to be at least slightly more useful thanks to Calm Mind.

- Fire Blast is considered standard over Flamethrower for Salamence anyway, so no need to worry about that. Standard set really with Salamence, not much to say about it since it does the job very well and everyone knows it.

- Roserade, again, won't find much use out of those 56 EVs in Defense, especially since it can put potential threats to sleep anyway if it needs to, so put them into Sp.Attack instead. Also, Black Sludge is very spare on an all-offense set that lacks Substitute - Roserade would probably be better off with Metagross's Life Orb to boost its power even further.

- Speaking of Metagross, the main reason why he's better off without the Life Orb is because he's very tough defensively whereas Roserade isn't, and wounding his ability to take hits isn't really that helpful to him - Roserade on the other hand is a lot more fragile and can get away with Orb recoil. Liechi Berry or Muscle Band will be better off for the Agility Metagross set so he can live for longer.

- Milotic brings up the rear since I brought up Metagross first...but anyway, Hydro Pump is a decent option for Milotic since it can get away with the move missing thanks to its bulk, and it does have Ice Beam to provide more PP as well. Toxic is probably a better option over Hypnosis though due to Hypnosis's awful accuracy, Roserade already having access to a quick and accurate Sleep move, and Toxic's ability to choke anything that would try to stall you without Rest is always a great benefit to any team. Dragon Pulse over Ice Beam will also prevent enemy Water-types having their way with you - it's worth considering.

Overall, your team's very good - a bit of testing is probably the best thing for it so you can see what works well and what doesn't. The only real issue is in Blaziken and Metagross's cases, they're using older, Gen III movesets that may not work as effectively within the newer Gen IV environment due to the new tools opponents will have to utilize. As I said though, the best thing to do is test it in battle and see what works and what doesn't, since there's nothing glaringly wrong at all here.

 

[Fumanshu]

What I might add is, that you should rather be leading with roserade/gross/mence rather than with Blaziken, unless you give it some more heavy hitting moves.
With roserade you can always sleep powder slower leads or pummel faster leads, as most will Taunt you on your first turn anyway, and people wont expect roserade going for an attack move first round.

Agiliken might be an option you might consider too.

The team is good overall though, as KoL already said, if you do the predicting game right and adjust some stuff it should get you lotsa wins.

 

[KoL]

Fumanshu is correct. I'd lead with Roserade over anyone else - Sleeping a slow lead mid-setup can cripple an opponent's strategy instantly if you catch the right Pokemon bringing up the front.

 

[JTrainer]

Actually, I don't really lead with Blaziken, I just keep him in the top slot of my party cause he looks cool there. When I battle other players on the DS, I switch the position of my pokemon accordingly. I am just grateful that PBR (which is were I do most of my wifi battles) lets you choose the order in which you want to send out your pokemon.

I'll give Roserade with a Life Orb and Metagross with a Muscle Band a try. I'll also try Toxic on Milotic, but I really find hypnosis useful. She has really good luck with it and is usually able to put them to sleep right away (especially useful if they switch). But like I said, I'll give it try. Of course, I might not like the recoil caused by to Roserade by the Life Orb, so I might give her wise glasses instead.

I'll also reraise Gardevoir and Roserade with better special defense and see how it works out.


I'm back. I can't double post so I'm just editing this post. Anyway, the new EVs I invested in my Gardevoir and Roserade are working out nicely. And Metagross likes his new muscle band (you know what I mean), as he hits just as hard as my old life orbed one did.

Can anyone give me some good Blaziken and Metagross movesets that I could try out? I want to try and get ones that are good against opponents with 4th generation movesets. Although, as long as I predict right the Blaziken I have now is really good. He managed to beat a jolly Infernape, that held a focus sash!

I have to say, this site is a lot nicer to my team than some other sites are. Thanks.