JackFrost2012 said:
Well, I wasn't so clear on the concept of a raising a "team" at first, so I was basically using Charmeleon 98% of the time. Which was working great until I reached the Water Gym, oops! So I spent a while raising my Pikachu and other guys, and am gonna try to be more Fair and Balanced once I get on.
Yeah, that's the trouble way to do it. Back when I played Pokemon Yellow, I relied on a three pokemon team to blow past the first four gyms, and then was basically in a huge bind and forced myself to raise a team. Strangely enough I was on the train one day and somebody came up to me to make some trades, I netted a Lv99 Mewtwo, and took down the Elite four while taking almost no damage, but that's getting off topic.
I think I'm gonna set my ~20 team to: Charmeleon, Pikachu, Gyrados, Oddish, Abra, and Chansey or maybe Mankey. Any big issues with that lineup? I'm just trying to play the game, not looking to clean people's clock at level 100 3 vs 3 matches.
Charmeleon ->Charizard (Fire/Flying)
The anchor of your team. Give him a strong fire move and then mix in flying (wing attack), ground (earthquake) or another unexpected type move. The learned moves are pretty useful so you won't need to use a lot of TMs unless you want to. Evolves naturally at Lv36 - might as well let it happen.
Pikachu ->Raichu (Electric)
I can't imagine getting through the game without Raichu, although if you get tired of the merchandising phenom, try Magnemite. Pikachu learns Thunderbolt at Lv26, so wait until then at least before you use a lightning stone to change him into Raichu. I usually evolve him at Lv26 since thunder can be learned as a TM.
Magikarp ->Gyrados (Water/Flying)
Strong initially but as mentioned, seriously hamstrung late. You will probably be able to survive well with Gyrados but I would personally recommend Staryu/Starmie instead (although that's a Leafgreen only choice). I'd keep Bite as psychic defense. As you've guessed, Magikarp is useless no matter what moves he has, so Gyrados ASAP is the best method.
Oddish -> Gloom ->Vileplume (Grass/Poison)
One of my favorites. Vileplume evolves from gloom with the use of the leaf stone. Default moveset sucks; I'd keep Sleep Powder, but then use TMs to get the good stuff. Sludge bomb is a must, Giga Drain and Solarbeam can also be useful. Vileplume is known for status attacks, so if you don't have Sludge bomb yet, Toxic is another interesting choice.
Abra -> Kadabra ->Alakazam (Psychic)
Kadabra is pretty strong, but in order to create Alakazam you have to trade him to somebody else (he evolves instantly upon the other person receiving Kadabra - at which point you can trade back if needed). There's no faster move acquisition so just evolve as soon as you can. You'll have a much easier time with Alakazam if you stick with the easy moveset of Calm Mind (TM04), Recover (Lv25), Psychic (Lv36), and another attack move. I recommend Shadow Ball as an anti-psychic attack, but there are other good moves to consider through TMs.
Chansey (Normal) or Primeape (Fighting)
Mankey->Primeape ain't shabby, but he's far outstripped by Machop->Machoke->Machamp, or your choice of Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan (you get to take in an event later). Fighting types definitely have advantages but get demolished by psychics. Personally, I would take Chansey (to the point of making it a main team member) but she's
really hard to catch. Chansey is one of the few pokemon to learn the powerful healing move Softboiled, and has a hella amount of HP. If you've been taking proper care of Chansey (keeping her in the party, keeping her levels good and not letting her faint/suffer under status too often), then there is a good chance that when you earn the nationaldex she will evolve into Blissey.
Keep in mind that although training six pokemon is a responsible thing to do, it's a lot easier to progress through the game if you train five seriously, and keep a sixth for learning HMs. A full six pokemon roster isn't crucial until the Elite 4, and by then you'll have all sorts of choices, and the EXP. SHARE item, which automatically gives the pokemon holding it half of EXP earned without being in battle.
There are definitely better choices out there, but I think paras is a good HM camel early on, and catching paras earns you a tinymushroom. Later on in the game (much later), you can talk to a guy who can teach your pokemon moves they forgot (essentially, any move they could have learned naturally), but you need 2 tiny mushrooms to do it. So while it's not a collection priority, the benefits are obvious.
As far as choosing moves, just try using TMs/HMs to check what they do. TMs aren't used up until you confirm what pokemon to use it on, so you can easily check out the accuracy, attack power, and move effects. This can be really helpful, because if you've been using Thundershock and have the TM for Thunderbolt, it becomes a slam dunk to look at it and realize that Thunderbolt does the exact same thing, but with higher power. A good balance is usually 2 attack moves, one defense move, and one status move, but you can mix it up pretty liberally and get away with it.
