R/S/E Emerald Battle Frontier Team

[Sandstone-Shadow]

So, maybe this isn't the right place to put this, since it's an ingame team and not really a competitive team, but there's other team rating threads here, so...! (But if there is a better place for this, mods, feel free to move it.)

Anyway, this is my Emerald Battle Frontier team. Any suggestions for it?

Seadra @ King's Rock
Poison Point / Bashful
~ Surf
~ Twister
~ Agility
~ Leer

Kadabra @ Leftovers
Inner Focus / Bold
~ Psychic
~ Future Sight
~ Role Play
~ Recover

Magcargo @ Focus Band
Flame Body / Docile
~ Flamethrower
~ Rock Slide
~ Amnesia
~ Smog

How much of a difference would it make to evolve Seadra and Kadabra? I don't really want to, but if it's going to improve the team a lot, then I'll reconsider. =)

Alrighty... I thought, since this question is about the same team, I would just bump this thread instead of making a new one. Here's my team again (or what it will be once I teach Kingdra's new moves):

Kingdra @ King's Rock / Leftovers
Swift Swim / Bashful
~ Surf
~ Rain Dance
~ Return
~ Ice Beam / Twister
Level: 50
HP: 161
Attack: 127
Defense: 122
Sp. Attack: 109
Sp. Defense: 109
Speed: 106

Alakazam @ Leftovers / King's Rock
Inner Focus / Bold
~ Psychic
~ Recover
~ Roleplay
~ Thunderpunch
Level: 49
HP: 135
Attack: 66
Defense: 78
Sp. Attack: 153
Sp. Defense: 100
Speed: 137

Magcargo @ Focus Band
Flame Body / Docile
~ Flamethrower
~ Rock Slide
~ Sleep Talk
~ Rest
Level: 50
HP: 138
Attack: 66
Defense: 137
Sp. Attack: 96
Sp. Defense: 97
Speed: 66

Now, I have a whole ton of money on Emerald, and I thought I would buy some items like Protein, Zinc, etc. to help my team's stats. However, I'm not really sure what I should concentrate on buying. Should I bother trying to improve my Pokémon's worst stats, like Magcargo's Sp. Defense, or should I concentrate on boosting the power of the ones that will be the most useful, like Alakazam's Sp. Attack?

 

[Felidire]

Lets have a look..

- - - - - HP - Atk - Def - S.Atk - S.Def - Speed
Seadra: 55 -- 65 -- 95 -- 95 ---- 45 ---- 85
Kingdra: 75 -- 95 -- 95 -- 95 ---- 95 ---- 85 (Almost Double: S.Def).
--
Kadabra: 40 - 35 -- 30 -- 120 --- 70 ---- 105
Alakazam: 55 -- 50 -- 45 -- 135 --- 85 --- 120 (Fuck nintendo are lazy, they just added 15 to everything!) ,xD

--

I'd personally say they're both worth worth evolving: Double S.Def is handy,
and alakazam is 18.36735% better in stats.
(Thought I was gonna say 15%, didn't ya?) ,xD



None of these pokemon have flash HP, if you evolved both of those pokemon, then two of your pokemon have a base HP of 55 and one has a base HP of 50.

I'd put Leftovers on Magcargo, and replace King's Rock with Shell Bell.
You could replace ~ Future Sight on Kadabra with Thunderpunch - from the move tutor.

You could also replace Amnesia/Smog on Magcargo, with Rest + Sleep talk(from move tutor).

Good luck~ ,xD

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Hmm, okay. I'll teach them those moves; I never really used Future Sight, Amnesia, and Smog anyway. xD Are both Rest and Sleep Talk from the move tutor?

I'll look into evolving them, too; those stats are definitely better. =D

I'm not sure about the Shell Bell, though; it's never really helped me that much, and I've always gotten better results from a Leftovers. Are there any other items that you'd recommend?

Edit: I remembered another reason why I haven't evolved Seadra; Seadra has Poison Point and Kingdra has Swift Swim. The former is much more useful to me than the latter, so I probably won't evolve Seadra.

 

[surskitty]

Do you encounter many contact moves? I'd think that the added resistances and stats would save your ass a lot more than 30% chance of poison when hit by a contact move.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Hrm, this is true. I need to find a Dragon Scale yet anyway, so I'll think about it until I find one.

Also, I was looking up the description for Sleep Talk; it randomly selects one of the other three moves to be used, right? Then there would be a 1/3 chance that it would choose Rest; what happens then? If Magcargo's taken damage since then, will that be restored because it's using Rest again?

 

[1. Luftballon]

'But it failed!'

 

[surskitty]

It only fails if you're at full health.

Rest'll work fine if you've been damaged.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Mmkay. Then I'll teach Magcargo Rest and Sleep Talk instead of Amnesia and Smog.

Though now I'm inclined to put Leftovers on Seadra, since he'll be the only one without some kind of recovering move. So now it's between Shell Bell and King's Rock for Kadabra, unless there's a better item.

 

[1. Luftballon]

It only fails if you're at full health.

Rest'll work fine if you've been damaged.

It fails when asleep. Just tested on Emerald.

Also, why Leer on Seadra?

 

[Felidire]

It fails when asleep. Just tested on Emerald.

Yeah it will fail when asleep, But it is a better alternative to just sleeping and doing nothing. If you've taken too much damage then you can just rest again; this keeps Magcargo in play for longer, so it's special ability has more chance of proccing on physical attacks - You won't need Seadra's poison point if you have a pokemon with this ability. ,x3


And no, I think rest is a TM, (not from the Move Tutor).

 

[Adriane]

RSE fixed Sleep Talk so that if you get Rest (from Sleep Talk) and are already asleep, Rest will fail (Essentially meaning you have a 1/3 chance of doing nothing with Sleep Talk). In GSC, you would regen to full HP and reset the rest timer, making it much formidable back then stall-wise. A lot of cases with sweeping Pokemon (in today's metagame, as well as ADV) throw in Sleep Talk to intercept an incoming Hypnosis/Spore and use Sleep Talk to pick an attack move (Rest is absent and is not a worry to the sweeper).

That said, evolve both Seadra and Kadabra. Keeping your Pokemon unevolved won't stop the game from evolving theirs. Ditch Agility for Rain Dance, and you've essentially got the same thing (doubled speed) additionally powering up your Surf/Hydro Pump. Twister is unfortunately a very weak dragon move and the best Kingdra gets in RSE is Dragonbreath (which must be bred onto it). Ice Beam would be a better option. Leer is pointless seeing as you have no physical moves to make use of it. Coverage-wise, seeing as any bulky water would wall you with just Surf/Ice Beam, you could throw in Return as Kingdra has good enough Attack to use it.

Kadabra, which you should definitely evolve, needs Fire Punch to prevent getting completely walled by the likes of steel-types. ThunderPunch helps against water/flying Pokemon, or Ice Punch vs. dragons/birds/ground-types. Recover is always usable, but not always reliable. Trick is a fun option, too. Calm Mind is useful for buffing your power and ability to take special hits.

Magcargo is a very difficult Pokemon to use, though at least you have Kingdra that practically absorbs water attacks. Yawn and Flamethrower are its biggest tools; Rock Slide is usable with Magcargo's rock-typing, but beware its very low attack stat.

 

[Evolutionary]

Edit: That was stupid of me...yeah give Kadabra Thunder Punch and Ice Punch. Fire Punch isn't really important.

 

[Felidire]

Edit: That was stupid of me...yeah give Kadabra Thunder Punch and Ice Punch. Fire Punch isn't really important.

Uh.. the guy before you kinda encouraged Fire Punch. ,,xD

I'd lean in favor of Thunderpunch though, because she has a fire pokemon, and no moves against waters.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Hmm... well, the benefits of Sleep Talk / Rest seem to outweigh the drawbacks, so I went ahead and taught Magcargo those moves. Magcargo's final moveset will be:

~ Flamethrower
~ Rock Slide
~ Sleep Talk
~ Rest

Even though it has weak attack, Rock Slide's proved to be far too useful for me to switch it. =3

Also, why Leer on Seadra?

Leer is pointless seeing as you have no physical moves to make use of it.

Wait, isn't Twister a physical move in RSE? *checks* Oh wow, it's not. xD; I will definitely replace Leer with Rain Dance then, especially since I never really used Leer anyway.

Then to replace Agility... either Ice Beam or Return. I'll probably go with Return just to mix things up a little bit; Seadra already has Surf, so it would be nice to have a strong physical attack, too.

Twister will be a little stronger when Seadra's a Kingdra, plus I like the added possibility of causing the opponent to flinch, so I think I'm going to leave it for now. Once Seadra's evolved I'll go through a couple of trial battles to see how useful it really is, and it probably won't be, so I'll most likely end up replacing it with Ice Beam.

Kadabra, which you should definitely evolve, needs Fire Punch to prevent getting completely walled by the likes of steel-types. ThunderPunch helps against water/flying Pokemon, or Ice Punch vs. dragons/birds/ground-types. Recover is always usable, but not always reliable. Trick is a fun option, too. Calm Mind is useful for buffing your power and ability to take special hits.

I'd lean in favor of Thunderpunch though, because she has a fire pokemon, and no moves against waters.

Hmm... I do already have a Fire Pokémon, so I'm leaning more towards Thunderpunch. Kingdra will probably end up having Ice Beam as well, but even if he doesn't, I have other moves to take care of dragons/birds/ground types. So I'll probably use Thunderpunch. =3 I'll keep Calm Mind and Trick in mind too, but I don't really want to replace Recover...

So, I think it's looking like this so far:

Kingdra:
~ Surf
~ Rain Dance
~ Return
~ Ice Beam / Twister

Alakazam:
~ Psychic
~ Recover
~ Roleplay
~ Thunderpunch

Thanks for all of the advice, guys; I wasn't expecting to get this much feedback. =3

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Alrighty... I thought, since this question is about the same team, I would just bump this thread instead of making a new one. Here's my team again (or what it will be once I teach Kingdra's new moves):

Kingdra @ King's Rock / Leftovers
Swift Swim / Bashful
~ Surf
~ Rain Dance
~ Return
~ Ice Beam / Twister
Level: 50
HP: 161
Attack: 127
Defense: 122
Sp. Attack: 109
Sp. Defense: 109
Speed: 106

Alakazam @ Leftovers / King's Rock
Inner Focus / Bold
~ Psychic
~ Recover
~ Roleplay
~ Thunderpunch
Level: 49
HP: 135
Attack: 66
Defense: 78
Sp. Attack: 153
Sp. Defense: 100
Speed: 137

Magcargo @ Focus Band
Flame Body / Docile
~ Flamethrower
~ Rock Slide
~ Sleep Talk
~ Rest
Level: 50
HP: 138
Attack: 66
Defense: 137
Sp. Attack: 96
Sp. Defense: 97
Speed: 66

Now, I have a whole ton of money on Emerald, and I thought I would buy some items like Protein, Zinc, etc. to help my team's stats. However, I'm not really sure what I should concentrate on buying. Should I bother trying to improve my Pokémon's worst stats, like Magcargo's Sp. Defense, or should I concentrate on boosting the power of the ones that will be the most useful, like Alakazam's Sp. Attack?

 

[surskitty]

Boost whatever stats'll be most useful, but it doesn't really matter as they all probably already have 510 EVs and you have terrible natures anyway. :/

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Mmkay. I think, then, that I'll try and improve my strengths rather than attempt to cover weaknesses. Perhaps HP and Sp. Attack for Kingdra, Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense for Alakazam, and... oh, actually, Magcargo still can gain a few EVs. The woman in Slateport City didn't give him an Effort Ribbon; the Effort Ribbon means that their EVs are full, correct?

Edit: Oh, I see... having the full amount of EVs means that the Protein, etc. won't work... grr. Oh well, then; I can still give Magcargo something, and now I know for next time. xD;

 

[surskitty]

The vitamins raise EVs for their stats by 10, yes. There's normally a 255 max per stat but vitamins cannot bring you above 100.


You might want to try giving your Alakazam and Kingdra a few of whatever berry lowers Attack until it doesn't change it: that'll fix your EVs by a little, if not much, and you can then raise Special Attack and Speed for both.

Alakazam is unlikely to survive any hits; I'd recommend against raising SpDef for it ever.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Okay. Is Return affected by the Attack stat along with the happiness factor, or is it only the happiness factor? If Attack still does affect it, then I'm a little wary of lowering Kingdra's Attack, but if it doesn't, then I'll go for it. =D

 

[surskitty]

It's still Physical. I'd go for nixing Return in favour of having both Ice Beam and Twister and going with Leftovers there, since King's Rock only works if there's no added effect. It's not going to help with Twister and it's not going to help with Ice Beam, so I wouldn't bother.