HG/SS LUXCARIO NEEDS HELP WITH HIS TEAM

So my plans were for a HG/SS team, but I don't know as much about combos and whatever as you guys. I need to know the pre-Gen V moves that are useful, and what moves they go with.

Competitive battling is more about switching and support, not simple move combos. You need at least the framework of a team before we can actually say anything about it.

And prediction. Prediction is key.

I've lost countless won battles back in my GSC days because of wrong prediction. Now, just because it's called "prediction", don't mistake it for "randomness" or even "luck". You can become good at predicting, but it'll only happen if you acquire enough knowledge about the metagame, and even then, someone might surprise you with a non-standard moveset on an obscure Pokémon and you might lose because of that.

Okay, thanks Cerberus. I've heard Sunny Day/Hail is good for competitive battling.
I have plans for a Sunny Day Ninetales.

... could we see them?

It would be enormously helpful if you gave us your plans for at least one of the pokemon you plan on using. Generally this includes, species, nature, moveset, ability, and ev spread. If you're not sure what an ev spread is, I'm certain someone around here (myself included) would be happy to oblige.

I'm sorry if this sounds a little sarcastic; I'm not too incredibly good at asking for things in a non sarcastic manner.

Meh.
So, I have the types I will use, and I'll try putting the Pokemon up there too. The actual Pokemon will go up over time.

FIRE: Ninetales
Sunny Day, Flamethrower, SolarBeam, ---
GRASS: Breloom
Mach Punch, (can it learn Leaf Blade?), ---, ---
WATER: ---
ELECTRIC: ---
ROCK: ---
FLYING: Dragonite
Flamethrower, ---, ---, ---

No Flying?
I'd suggest Fearow.

woah, woah, woah.

You're trying to run Sunny Day strategy, right? at what point does a water pokemon come in.

Or wait, are you just building a team for the sake of building a team?

And as far as flying types go: I would suggest running a dragon flying over a normal flying, and as much as I love Fearow, Dodrio, Staraptor, and Swellow just kind of out class it, mostly in speed and attack. Dodrio can do the exact same thing as Fearow, iirc, and its 110 base attack is in fact nothing to laugh at. Drill Peck, Quick Attack, Endeavor and U-turn are really your only options with Dodrio, though. Staraptor fairs slightly better because it gets Brave Bird and Close Combat as well as Quick Attack and U-turn making it pretty reliable with its matching speed stat and higher attack stat than Dodrio.

Swellow makes a fairly interesting option as well, because you can facade sweep pretty effectively if you give it the toxic orb.

As I have shown multiple times.

Fearow sucks in 4th gen unfortunately, it's the worst of the normal/flying birds by far, since it doesn't get Brave Bird. Yes, Brave Bird makes a HELL of a difference. Try using Honchkrow/Skarmory with Drill Peck, then with Brave Bird, and you'll see.

In 5th gen however, it gets a nifty move called Drill Run which is Ground-type, physical, 80 BP and has a high crit ratio, so it can at least do something against Magneton and Rock/Steel types.

The problem with those birds is that Staraptor is way better than the others. Swellow can be very damaging, but dies to anything. Dodrio can't get past Rock/Steel types. Pidgeot's damage output and speed are lackluster for a sweeper. Staraptor has an awesome ability (Intimidate), great moves, very high attack and just enough speed. Gamefreak should do something to beef up the others instead of giving them useless moves like Hurricane to Pidgeot (yeah I know it fits in with Pidgeot being able to lift huge gusts of wind according to his Pokédex entry, but it's still useless on a Pokémon with max 239 Sp.Atk.).

For a Flying type,get either a Salemence or a Dragonite.
Salemence for offense or Dragonite for bulk and support.
If you want a Normal/Flying, GET A STARAPTOR like the others suggested.
Try Jumpluff for a generaly annoying lead or support. For your Grass slot.
um that's all for now

Reckless Staraptor is even better. Spam Double-Edge and Brave Bird, and watch everything crumble before your eyes. Including Staraptor, what with the massive recoil, but hey, it's worth it! You can even try SubRoost Staraptor, so it can heal itself, and I've heard it works well.

I wouldn't run Jumpluff if i'm running a dragon/flying, just saying. Two or more pokemon with the same 4x weakness is bad for you unless you're running a four drag two mag team, and those are hard.

Grass I would suggest Sub-punch Breloom.

This is a breloom that knows substitute, Focus Punch, Seed Bomb and Spore. Spore to put things to sleep for easy KO's with either Seed Bomb or Focus Punch, Substitute for continual Focus Punching. This coupled with Breloom's ability Poison heal and the toxic orb, and you've got a pokemon that can continually set up substitutes to ensure a hit with the massive 150 power Focus Punch. This coupled with STAB and Breloom's base attack of 130, and you've got quite the threat.

Water you can run a multitude of things. Recently on Shoddy, I've been pwned by multiple Azumarils. I'm not too familiar with them, so I can't offer too much help there. Another popular choice is Sawmpert, run with Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Waterfall, and Ice Punch as a lead.

The only really useful electric-typed pokemon that I've ever encounted are Jolteon, due to its unmatched speed fourth gen, and Magnezone, due to his ability, which allows for easy eradication of Scizors, who are rampant in fourth gen meta, given hidden power fire. Ampharos makes a wonderful alternative if you're willing to work with slower pokemon.

Again, Rock types are generally too slow to be incredibly useful, so I'm not too familiar with them. Sorry, no help there. Tyranitar is popular, though i'm not exactly a fan myself.

these are just quick thoughts i had.

In my opinion, Ampharos was the best Electric-type (Besides Luxray) before Eelektross came along.

Ampharos and Luxray are both pretty bad, especially in 4th gen.

The only non-legendary electric types you'd ever want to use is probably Jolteon, and even those are hard to use because the die really fast.

But still. You said you want a Sunny Day team, so what's the plan? Teams require a certain synchronization to work, and I'm not sure how having a water type and a flying type is going to do anything in the sun. Sporepunching brelooms also don't need the sun; they'd probably be better off without it, actually, since then fire attacks won't be super strong. I'd suggest a Venusaur, since they're absolutely evil when there's sun up (they're worth crap when there's no sun though).

D:
DO NOT USE FEAROW
USE DRAGONITE OR SALEMENCE (Flamethrower)
What are you trying to do with your team? Defensive?Offensive? Stall? Mix?
because then we can *coughtrytohelpyoucough*.

Attack.

Luxcario said:

A mix of Attack and Defense.

Click to expand...

...Sunny Day teams are usually all-out offence. /:

Well, the only time I've ever used Dragonite was for Choice-Outrage. OHKO's most things that aren't Steel type. :P
(Or that have Multiscale, Focus Sash, Etc. But we all knew that.)