Emerald Battle Frontier Team

[Drift King]

Greetings Serebii.net users!

I recently got all the silver medals in the Emerald Battle Frontier, so obviously the next step is to get the gold ones. Below is the team that I used to get every silver medal (except the Factory one, obviously).

Behold (they're all level 100):

Latios
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
Item: Leftovers
Moves:
Dragonbreath
Surf
Luster Purge
Thunderbolt

Blaziken
Ability: Blaze
Nature: Modest
Item: Scope Lens
Moves:
Slash
Thunderpunch
Sky Uppercut
Blaze Kick

Rhydon
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Lax
Item: Quick Claw
Moves:
Megahorn
Double-edge
Earthquake
Rock Blast

As you can probably guess, I don't really care much about natures; forget about EVs, IVs, etc. I'm more of a casual gamer, so I just catch the first Pokemon that I find if I don't have one already, and raise it to level 100. I'm pretty happy with the above team, but they haven't really been flawless. Any suggestions for improvements? I know I should probably have some defensive moves, but I'm more of an offensive player, and have been that way since I started playing Pokemon; I don't like playing defensively, as it's never worked too well for me in the past.

I basically want a team that will get me all the gold medals so I can finally say that I'm done with Emerald (or at least until I start trying to complete the Pokedex; ugh...). It's a fun game, but I've recently passed the 300-hour mark, and I want to move on to Diamond and Heart Gold. Suggestions and criticism (as long as it's not too harsh or hateful) are welcome.

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

You got lucky with Latios there, Modest is an amazing nature for it. I recommend replacing Dragonbreath with Dragon Claw and Luster Purge with Psychic, simply for the POWER. Offensive playing works well in the Frontier, not letting your foes set up, nothing wrong with it, some pokémon are simply built to be on the offensive. Latios is one of the best special sweepers in the game, and in my opinion the very best special sweeper allowed in the Frontier. Great speed, amazing Sp.Atk, a solid movepool, an EQ immunity, and no 4x weaknesses make it very very good. It is Uber tier for the competitive battling scene for a very good reason, such speed, such Sp.Atk, and such good coverage, it is very tough not to take huge damage from it.

The rest of your team is a bit worse. To get gold medals, you want top tier pokémon, the ones that really stand out for being good. Blaziken and Rhydon simply don't. Heracross, Salamence, and Metagross are better physical attackers.

Heracross
Ability: Guts
Adamant nature
-Megahorn
-Brick Break
-Rock Slide
-Swords Dance

Swords Dance Heracross is one of the hardest hitting physical attackers in the Frontier. No other top dog hard-hitter there gets Swords Dance. Metagross doesn't, Tyranitar doesn't, Salamence doesn't, Dragonite doesn't, but Heracross does. It gets plenty of neutral coverage and if Guts activates it starts hitting really hard.

Metagross @ Leftovers
Adamant nature
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Agility / Explosion / Shadow Ball

final move depends on the facility. Shadow Ball is better in the Palace, Arena, and Pyramid, Explosion or Agility is a matter of preference in the Dome, the Tower, and Agility is preferable in the Pike. Metagross stands out with a very high Atk stat that can be further boosted if Meteor Mash gets lucky, a decent speed (especially with Agility support), solid defence, only 1 special weakness, enough bulk to take Earthquakes, and Attract, Intimidate, and Toxic immunity. At +1 Attack and +2 Speed Metagross will be destroying pretty much everything.

Salamence @ Lum Berry
Adamant nature
-Dragon Dance
-Aerial Ace
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide

Salamence stands out with a good defensive typing. Resistances to bug, fire, water, grass, and immunity to ground and Intimidate to boot makes it scary. Add in very good speed, insane attack, and a boosting move that can boost both and Salamence turns into one of the most fearsome physical sweepers. After a single Dragon Dance it will be hitting crazy hard and outrunning everything, after two Dragon Dances almost everything gets OHKO'd. Even the most defensive pokémon go into the Yellow-Red zone after a single blow. The downside of Salamence is its 4x Ice weakness and its lack of a powerful physical STAB move.

If you ever want to try defensive playing, one of the best ones of the generation is the mighty Curselax, which is pretty much invincible if used right, as the AI never uses whirlwind or Roar. It is not immediately an offensive pokémon, and Snorlax is very very slow so it won't sweep, but it has an invincibility factor that lets it take hits, hit back and KO, take more hits, punch back, KO some more.

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Thick Fat
Careful nature
120 HP, 252 Sp.Def, 136 Atk
-Curse
-Rest
-Return
-Earthquake / Shadow Ball

Wtih a HP stat of over 500 and a Sp.Def stat well over 300 and Thick Fat Snorlax will be facing any special attacker with comfort. Curse is what makes Snorlax so good, it increases Atk and physical Def, so also hard hitting physical attackers won't get past you after a curse or 2-3. If your HP gets low, use Rest, survive two turns of sleep, and continue. Return is STAB and hits very hard after a couple of curses, and the final move is additional coverage. Earthquake hits Metagross, Tyranitar, Rhydon, and Steelix. while Shadow Ball hits Gengar.

[Drift King]

Now THIS is the kind of reply I was looking for! Thanks a lot!

Can you get Dragon Claw anywhere other than TM02 in Meteor Falls? Because otherwise I can't get it. I thought about keeping Psychic, but I really like that 70% chance of reducing Sp. Defense that Luster Purge offers. I might switch back to Psychic for the gold medals though.

I kind of figured out that Blaziken and Rhydon were the weak points of my team. If I put them in the lead position, they often get knocked out, but when Latios is the lead-off (and it usually is), it pretty much never dies, haha. I think Rhydon is excellent for taking out enemies, but it's just so darn SLOW (and the Quick Claw barely ever works), and of course one Surf or Leaf Blade will put it out of the running.

How would you recommend using Swords Dance with Heracross? Should it be used once, or twice? As for Metagross, I actually have one that's level 100, but it's in my Ruby cartridge, and I have no way of transferring it over to Emerald, where I still haven't trained that level 5 Beldum. I believe I have a level 100 Salamence somewhere too; can't remember if it's in Ruby or Emerald. I don't really want to use a Salamence though, as it would mean getting rid of Latios, which has served me very well so far.

I can't get a Snorlax either. While I do know people with GBAs, and I have a Fire Red game, the wireless adapters we used when we were kids have long since bit the dust. I probably should have mentioned this before, but trading is out of the question.

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I'm pretty sure you can only get a single Dragon Claw TM without cloning or trading. How often to use Swords Dance depends. In general 1 Swords Dance should be enough to kill most of the opponents, 2 swords dances will bring even very defensive foes like Regirock and Steelix into a lot of trouble. Set up more dances if your foe lets you do so. It takes a bit of experience to recognise that, but when you are up against something that poses very little to no direct threat, like Wobbuffet, Shuckle, or Blissey without Fire Blast, set up 3 dances and KO everything.

I'm not sure why you'd get rid of Latios when you use Salamence. I've used them together and, while you have a double Ice beam weakness, they serve very different roles and their individual quality more than makes up for having a double Ice Beam weakness. You can just catch Bagon in Emerald as well. You can breed Aerial Ace and Dragon Dance to Salamence through Swellow and Altaria.

In general Psychic simply is better than Luster Purge. I've tried Luster Purge but the Sp.Def drop isn't really that useful. Latios 2KO's most foes, and lowering their Sp.Def when they go into yellow after a single blow won't make any difference. The foes that do need more hits are generally bulky waters like Suicune that you hit with Thunderbolt. Psychic has more PP and brings some threats into OHKO range, most notably Heracross. I think Heracross survives Luster Purge, staying in the red zone, but it is always killed in one hit by Psychic. You don't want to take a swarm boosted Megahorn when you are Latios.

[Drift King]

Oh, well. I guess I can't get Dragon Claw then. I'm working on training a Heracross now (it's around level 55), but I'm not sure what to use for the third slot. I wouldn't have used Salamence because I already have a Dragon type, but I guess you're right; they only have two weeknesses in common, and they can be taught completely different moves. I found out that the level 100 Salamence is in my Ruby though. So I have a level 100 Metagross and Salamence, but they're in the wrong game, and there's no way to trade them. Dang it!

I will probably get Psychic from the move tutor, but Luster Purge actually has worked out for me pretty well. I've used it to weaken tough opponents.

Oh by the way, what item would you recommend giving to Heracross?