Pokemon Heartgold Team wi-fi battle team, PLEASE HELP ADVISE!!!

[THEIRONDONUT]

hello everyone. whilst i am new to this forum site, i am a pokemon veteran and have used seribbi.net a long time. despite me having played pokemon for ages and having a variety of the games, i only just became aware of the classifications of pokemon yesterday *n00b mistake lol* such as sweeper, tanks, walls, clerics/healers, spikers, hazers/pseudo-hazers, baton passers etc. Now, i am thinking of going into wi-fi battles, but since i have only played pokemon with myself, my brothers and my cousins, i have trained my pokemon with POWER POWER POWER, meaning i have no strategic teams. quick update: as EvilTyranitar pointed out, i have not listed if i am EV training. i am, so please also give me your views on which EVs i should train for which pokemon.

here is the team i am hoping to eventually have:

Metagross lvl 100 @ Quick Claw: (physical sweeper)
Meteor Mash
Agility
Earthquake
Thunderpunch/Zenn Headbutt/Bullet Punch

Blastoise lvl 100 @ Shell Bell: (tank/wall)
Surf
Toxic
Rest
Counter

Blissey lvl 100 @ Leftovers: (wall)
Aromatherapy
Softboiled
Toxic
Flamethrower

Forretress lvl 100 @ Shed Shell: (wall/spiker/spinner)
Spikes
Rapid Spin
Explosion/toxic spikes
Earthquake/Gyro Ball/Payback

Skarmory lvl 100 @ Shed Shell: (sweeper/spiker) ? (should I keep?)
Roost
Spikes
Brave Bird
Steel Wing

Alakazam lvl 100 @ Choice Specs: (sweeper) ? (should I keep?)
Psybeam
Physic
Drain Punch
Energy Ball



my current team is all either low level, pre-evolved or without the correct movesets. i do have a stronger team but it would not give me an advantage since they are all sweepers.

My three questions are:

Should I keep Skarmory or replace him with a different Pokemon?
What should I swap Alakazam for? (I have an espeon, but i was thinking either

Infernape, Dragonite (with both Draco Meteor and Outrage) or other

Would anyone be willing to trade me a Salamance for my second team, as i cant be bothered to wait 110 days on HG and i dont want to wait forever to find a bagon in Diamond.

And lastly, would anyone give me advice on my movesets, items etc?



My Reserve/ second team is: typhlosion, lvl 70 sweeper, Moltres, lvl 50 sweeper, Arceus, lvl 100 tank, Lugia lvl 76 sweeper, and charizard lvl 36 (shiny) sweeper (i love fire types, but i also have sceptile, blastoise and feraligatr)



may thanks, THEIRONDONUT

[EvilTyranitar]

Hey! You gave me some good advice on my team, so I thought I would return the favor. You have a pretty solid and balanced team. There are just a couple things I would fix.
First, don't put x defense on blissey, it's not going to do anything. Give it a leftovers if you can. It will help make it a pain to take down. I think most people would agree with me on that.
I don't know if you're EV training or not. Since you don't have it listed, I'm going to assume you're not. I would highly recommend it. It's kind of a pain to learn, but it helps out A LOT, especially if you're going to do wifi battling.
One thing I noticed about your team is that, other than alakazam, you don't have a lot of speed. It's not a huge deal, but personally, I think having some speed helps a lot, especially to lead off a battle. I don't know if you saw my crobat lead on my thread, but it's a really fast lead that has been incredibly effective for me. I would consider having something like that.
Alakazam is a great special sweeper and specs are a good item for it. I would tweak its moveset though. Absolutely get rid of drain punch. It's a physical attack, and having a special sweeper alakazam use it is less effective than a splash from a magikarp. It's smart to have a fighting attack on it to deal with dark types, but I would use a special attack like focus blast. Also, you don't need 2 psychic attacks. I would replace psybeam with shadow ball, so it can take down ghosts.
On blissey, I would go with seismic toss or psychic over flamethrower, but that's just my opinion.
Finally, if you're going to keep skarmory, I would use it as a spiker, not a sweeper. Get rid of steel wing and teach it whirlwind so it can force switches.
I hope this advice was helpful. You have an awesome team, and I wish you the best of luck with it!

[THEIRONDONUT]

thank you very much, that was really kind of you to post back. yes, i am EV training, and i do know what it is. also, do you think i should swap alakazam/skarmory with infernape/lucario/dragonite? they're all pretty fast and have good attacks. also Dragonite would be a good flying contender instead of skarmory, and i could put him on my reserver list/ secondary team. i wish you the best of luck in your endeavours. how far are you in the game?

[THEIRONDONUT]

also as a quick update, i am hoping to EV train metagross in either Sp.atk and speed, or attack and speed. im hoping to Ev train Blastoise in HP and Defense. Blissey in HP and Defense. Forretress in Speed and Attack/Sp.Atk. Alakazam (or other pokemon i choose for special sweeper) in Sp.atk and Speed. and Skarmory (or another Spiker type pokemon) in Speed and HP. thanks alot again, and please reply ASAP

[EvilTyranitar]

Happy to give you some feedback.
I just wanted to make sure you were EV training. You didn't say anything about it, so I didn't know, but I'm glad you are.
I would keep alakazam as a special sweeper, he's one of the best there is. But I would say take out skarmory (since you already have a spiker) and replace it with dragonite. A physical dragonite with dragon dance will plow through teams. Maybe something like this?

Dragonite @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: Attack and Speed
Nature: Jolly or Adamant
-Dragon Dance
-EQ
-Dragon Claw/Outrage
-Fire Punch

And I've been done with the storyline of the game for a long time. I bought it the day it came out, and within a week I had beaten Red. But I had never made a team with the specific roles or EV training or any of that, so I wanted to give it a go

[EvilTyranitar]

EV train metagross in attack and speed because it's a physical sweeper. Special attack would be pointless.
I think it might be more beneficial to EV train Forretress in some combination of HP, defense, and special defense. Because it's naturally so slow, EV training speed won't make that much of a difference, so I think bulking it up would be a better way to go.
And if you decide take my moveset advice for skarmory to be a spiker and then force switches, don't EV train speed. Whirlwind is a very low priority move and will go second most of the time anyway. It's better to maximize it HP and Defense. If you're not using whirlwind, and just want to get spikes off quickly and then attack, speed might be ok.

[Aura Sensai]

Alakazam wants Life Orb > Choice Specs since you can get walled if you're locked into one move. Run Psychic / Focus Miss / Shadow Ball / Thunderbolt.

If you have access to it , get Seismic Toss > Flamethrower on Blissey.

[THEIRONDONUT]

thanks very much tyranitar and sensai, here is my current team that i'm training:

Dratini lv.15:
ExtremeSpeed
Whirlpool
Twister
Dragon Rage

Espeon lv.18 (my Alakazam is in storage since i will EV train him after the team has reached the required level, so he doesn't level up as he's already 61 and a little late for intensive EV training)
Tackle
Tail Whip
Helping Hand
Sand-attack

Blastoise lv.39
Brine
Surf
Skull Bash
Aqua Tail

Happiny lv.15
Pound
Sweet Kiss
Copycat
Refresh

Metang lv.37
Take Down
Psychic
-
-

Forretress lv.35
Payback
Spikes
Mirror Shot
Rapid Spin



i will begin properly EV training these pokemon at lvl 40 (or in alakazam's case, 61) and will train them accordingly:

Metang: attack and speed: 50% and 50%

Forretress: HP, Defense and Sp.Def: 20%, 40% and 40%

Blastoise: HP and Defense: 50% and 50%

Espeon: Speed and Sp.Atk: 50% and 50% (Espeon is a sub pokemon but may get switched for 'Kazam occasionally)

Happiny: HP and ???: 50% and ?

Dratini: Attack and Speed: 50% and 50%


two questions remain: What should i EV train Happiny in? and Should i change Fire Punch for Draco Meteor? also, i'm not that bothered with nature's and ability's, but i have 2 problems. 1. my dratini is Serious and has Shed skin so... and 2. my Metang has not got levitate as its ability so it is susceptible to ground moves........ should i re-breed a beldum? thank you for your reviews and answers, but please keep sending your comments IN!!!

[EvilTyranitar]

EV train happiny in HP and defense.
If you're talking about trading in fire punch for draco meteor on dragonite, then no. It's a physical dragonite and draco meteor is a special attack. Dragon claw or outrage will be your STAB physical dragon attack. Fire punch is there mainly to deal with steel types (who resist dragon attacks).
All dratinis have shed skin ability. It changes when it evolves into dragonite. Same thing with your metang. When it becomes metagross, the only ability it can have is clear body, so don't worry about the abilities.
I said the same thing about not caring very much about natures, but someone on my team's thread made a good point about how they can help. So I say if you have the time and resources, invest in a jolly or adamant dratini. It will make your dragonite a more devastating sweeper in the long run. If you are completely unable to get another one, then don't worry about it too much, at least for now.

[Aura Sensai]

If you want to EV Train you'll need to start from Level 1 since your Pokemon get EV's through battling. Unless of course you're using Rare Candy's.

Use Fire Blast > Fire Punch ; it hits most Steel Types harder since many Steel Types have high Defense. I prefer using Fire Blast / Earthquake / Dragon Claw / Waterfall to go Mixed. It should suffice

[arceus03]

If you want to EV Train you'll need to start from Level 1 since your Pokemon get EV's through battling. Unless of course you're using Rare Candy's.

You can use the EV reducing berries to reset their EVs anytime.

[EvilTyranitar]

Don't use fire blast. It's a physical dragonite. No special attacks

[EvilTyranitar]

Plus fire blast has crap accuracy

[arceus03]

Don't use fire blast. It's a physical dragonite. No special attacks

It depends on whether you want a physical or mixed Nite. Aura specifically mentioned a MixedNite, so Fire Blast can work. And 85 isn't really crappy; below 80 is.

Also, edit button :p

[EvilTyranitar]

Sorry, I missed the mix part. That's my bad, and I apologize.
But, in my opinion, 85 compared to 100 is crap. Especially when dragonite's attack is naturally quite a bit higher than its special attack and it has a dragon dance under its belt. Like I said though, that's just my opinion.

[THEIRONDONUT]

ok i have a couple probs that need updating: 1st i kinda crapped up when coming to shards/ berries/ EV training etc, so i have two quick q's: should i continue training Espeon to stand in for Alakazam, as he's super fast and a pain to contend with, and two, do berries respwan as such on diamond? because i need to either find them or consult the berry master. any advice?

[THEIRONDONUT]

oh, and thanks again everyone for posting, but please, i need a proper discussion on this! i am really grateful for all advice, but if you know a friend who has an account, who is good at advising on this, and hasn't much to do, PLEASE by all means ask if they could check this thread. thanks again Tyranitar, Arceus and sensai, your help is much appreciated

[THEIRONDONUT]

Happy to give you some feedback.
I just wanted to make sure you were EV training. You didn't say anything about it, so I didn't know, but I'm glad you are.
I would keep alakazam as a special sweeper, he's one of the best there is. But I would say take out skarmory (since you already have a spiker) and replace it with dragonite. A physical dragonite with dragon dance will plow through teams. Maybe something like this?

Dragonite @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: Attack and Speed
Nature: Jolly or Adamant
-Dragon Dance
-EQ
-Dragon Claw/Outrage
-Fire Punch

And I've been done with the storyline of the game for a long time. I bought it the day it came out, and within a week I had beaten Red. But I had never made a team with the specific roles or EV training or any of that, so I wanted to give it a go

same, i didnt EV train in game or look at specific roles, i just packed my Typhlosion with as much power as possible. 50 minutes in games, Red dead, Kanto on its way

[EvilTyranitar]

As for espeon vs alakazam, I'd say alakazam is better, but you could probably make espeon work if you really wanted to. I'm still voting alakazam though

[THEIRONDONUT]

ok thanks, i have alakazam as my main