Team Analysis: Mono-Teams (Beginners guide)

I made this because there's not a single article about mono teams. I might not be experienced, but i'll give the basics of a mono-team.

What is a mono-team?

A mono-team is a team which is made only of one type (Etc: water). Dual-types are allowed.

Why should you make a mono-team?

Fun, wanna test some different type of teams, the reasons are endless.

Is making a mono-team difficult?

It's quite difficult to make mono-teams due to that common weakness. There are a few exeptions however, the most notable being water.

How many types can you use to make a mono-team (without breaking species clause)?
If it's non-uber, 16. (Ghost can be used, just that your 6 pokemon are stuck)
If it's uber, 17.

What does *common (insert type) pokemon* means?
It means the common pokemons which you see in that specific mono-team.

So, without further ado, i'll go through all the types, and their pros/cons. In the order which is in the datadex...

1. Normal

Normal is a very fun team to used. It's only weakness is fighting, and that can be solved by placing a flying/normal.
Weaknesses: Fighting
Resistance to Normal: Rock, Steel.
Immunity to Normal: Ghost.

Common Normal Pokemon
A. Tauros (Opener, Deals Phy Dmg)
B. Slaking (Deals heavy Phy Dmg)
C. Snorlax (Last Poke. SB-> EQ)
D. Blissey (Sponge, Aroma)
E. Smeargle (Baton passer)
F. Porygon2 (Bolt-beam, recover, Tank)

Pros of Normal: Easy to use, quite stable.
Cons: Very, very weak to fighting, AND skarmory.

2. Fire

Fire is very hard to use, due to the amount of water types roaming the area. It's possible, but it's not recommended by new players.

Weaknesses: Water, Ground, Rock
Resistances: Fire, Water, Rock, Dragon

Common Fire Pokemon
A. Blaziken (Mixed Sweeper)
B. Charizard (DD/BD)
C. Houndoom (Mixed)
D. Moltres (Sunny Day)
E. Arcanine (Extremespeed)
F. Camerupt (EQ+Explosion)

Pros: Good combination of physical/special attackers, no problem against SkarmBliss teams.
Cons: Easily slaughtered by a water pokemon.

3. Water

Mono-water teams are very common. They are the easiest to play.

Weaknesses: Electric, Grass.
Resistances: Water, Grass, Dragon.

Common Water Pokemon
A. Swampert (Removes electric weakness, EQ)
B. Milotic (Good staple Water)
C. Suicune (Last poke)
D. Ludicolo (Removes all water weaknesses)
E. Starmie (Bolt Beamer, Sweeper)
F. Lanturn (Removes electric weakness, boltbeam)

Pros: Easy to use, the pokemons you can play counters their weaknesses.
Cons: None, really. (That i can think of currently)

4. Electric

Electric: Big big ground/blissey problems. (Think duggy) However, it's not that hard to use compared to others...

Weaknesses: Ground
Resistances: Electric, Grass, Dragon
Immune: Ground.

Common Electric Pokemon
A. Zapdos (Special, Resttalker)
B. Raikou (CM, Last Poke)
C. Electabuzz (Cross chop/Focus Punch)
D. Jolteon (Speedy, Sub BP)
E. Magneton (Metal sound/Normal Resist)
F. Lanturn (Bolt Beamer)

Pros: very nice array of special attacks, slaughters a lot of teams.
Cons: Big Big Duggy weakness.

5. Grass
Not much heavy pounding, but the statuses it inflicts is cool. However, with the amount of ice moves roaming the area... (It's possible to build a sunny day team using mono-grass, but Fire pokemons will own you)

Weaknesses: Ice, Flying, Fire, Posion, Bug
Resistances: Fire, Grass, Posion, Flying, Bug, Dragon, Steel.

Common Grass Pokemon (CP)
A. Sceptile (SubSeed/Sweeper)
B. Ludicolo (Staller/Sweeper)
C. Celebi (Staple)
D. Breloom (Spore FP)
E. Exeggutor (Sunnybeam)
F. Venusaur (Mixed)

Pros: Good status, has the very annoying Celebi
Cons: The amount of ice beams in pokenet makes grass hard to play.

6. Ice
Ice... lack of usable pokemons, common weaknesses, common resistances. And yet it's usable. However, it's sometimes better to use Ice attacks then Ice pokemon...

Weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, Rock, Steel
Resistances: Fire, Water, Ice, Steel.

C I P
A. Articuno (Resttalker)
B. Lapras (DDer)
C. Jynx (Sleeper)
D. Cloyster (Spiker)
E. Piloswine (Mixed sweeper)
F. Regiice (Sponge) (Thanks to Bologo for pointing out regiice for me)

Pros: Stabbed Ice beam.
Cons: Lack of usable pokemon, weak against fighting.

7.Fighting
O god. I've never seen a mono-fighting team before, and i probably won't unless it appears on the monomo tourney now. The weakness to psychic almost slaughters it.

Weaknesses: Psychic, Flying
Resistances: Posion, Flying, Psychic, Bug

C F P
A. Blaziken (Mixed)
B. Breloom (Spore FP)
C. Medicham (PP)
D. Heracross (Choice Banded/EndRev)
E. Primeape (Fastest fighting)
F. Poliwrath (Good water poke)

Pros: Very very strong physcial attacks
Cons: Choice banded HP Flying owns it.

8. Posion
Quite easy to play. This time, the psychic and ground weak doesn't really hinder it.

Weaknesses: Ground, Psychic
Resistances: Posion, Ground, Rock, Ghost
Immunity: Steel

C P P
A. Weezing (Wow,Sponge)
B. Gengar (Mixed Sweeper)
C. Nidoking (Physical Sweeper)
D. Crobat (Physical Sweeper)
E. Venusaur (Special)
F. Vileplume (Aromatherapy)

Pros: Easy to play, weakness to ground doesn't matter cause of levitate/flying
Cons: Nothing much.

9. Ground
Hi Duggy, Hi Swarmpert. Ground is good except for 1 if, but sadly, that's a huge IF. It's weak to water, grass and ice.

Weaknesses: Water, Grass, Ice
Resistance: Grass, Bug
Immune: Flying

C G P
A. Dugtrio (Arena trap)
B. Swampert (Mixed)
C. Claydol (Spinner)
D. Nidoking (Choice-banded)
E. Marowak (Thick Club)
F. Camerupt (Fire poke, removes Grass Weak)

Pros: Dugtrio. Great physcial attackers, special attacks come from swampert/claydol.
Cons: Weak to water, grass and ice.

10. Flying
Another easy one to play, flying has good pokemon. Sadly, it's weak to ice... (P.S : Levitators are not exactly flying)

Weaknesses: Electric, Ice, Rock
Resistances: Electric, Rock, Steel

C F P
A. Zapdos (Resttalker)
B. Articuno (Icebeamer, Phazer, Removes ice weak)
C. Gyrados (DDer)
D. Skarmory (Spiker, Tank)
E. Salamence (CB/DD)
F. Dragonite (Sub Punch Bolt Beam)

Pros: Good pokemon, not afraid of spikes
Cons: If skarmory dies, you're weak to Rock and ice.

11. Psychic
Now that i've ran over the team again, this team rocks. It has some of the strongest pokemons in the game.

Weaknesses: Dark, Bug, Ghost
Resistances: Psychic, Steel
Immune: Dark

C P P
A. Alakazam (Special Sweeper)
B. Claydol (Spinner)
C. Medicham (PP)
D. Celebi (Calm Mind, Baton pass, Recover)
E. Metagross (Physical Sweeper)
F. Jirachi (Mixed Sweeper)

Pros: Good Special attackers, Medicham and Metagross demolishes any physcial attackers, wish support. Wide selection of usable pokemon
Cons: Now that i've reworked it, none. It has a nice combination.

12. Bug
Bug shares a common weakness to fire and flying. This makes it a bit hard to use, but not that bad.

Weaknesses: Fire, Flying, Rock (why the hell are bugs afraid of rock beats me)
Resistances: Fire, Fighting, Posion, Flying, Ghost, Steel

C B P
A. Heracross (CB/EndRev)
B. Ninjask (Bper)
C. Forretress (Spiker,Spinner,Exploder)
D. Shedinja (Tank)
E. Armaldo (Knock Off/Rock Blast)
F. Scyther (Physical Sweeper from Ninjask)

Pros: Good setting up pokemon, Ninjask - Heracross is quite unstopabble. It has a spiker too, Forry.
Cons: None. Armaldo takes away fire weakness, Scizor/Forry takes away flying weakness.

13. Rock
Errr... lots of tankers. But when it comes to sponges...

Weaknesses: Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel
Resistances: Fighting, Ground

C R P
A. Tyranitar (DDer/Boah)
B. Aerodactyl (Fastest Physical Sweeper)
C. Armaldo (Knock off/Rock Blast)
D. Omastar (Removes Skarmory weak)
E. Regirock (Curse/Rock Slide)
F. Kabutops (EndFlail)

Pros: Very strong physical attackers, Boah.
Cons: Even with both Boah/Omastar, skarmory is a huge problem.

14. Ghost
10 ghost-types in the game, and yet it's suprisingly strong. Eliminate Duskull, Shuppet, and Gastly, and u're down to 7 to choose from.

Weaknesses: Ghost, Dark
Resistances: Dark, Steel
Immune: Normal

C G P
A. Gengar (McGar, Mixed)
B. Dusclops (Tank,WoW)
C. Haunter (Mixed)
D. Shedinja (Tank, CB)
E. Sableye (Night shade, Hypnosis)
F. Misdreavus (Perish trapping)

Pros: Gengar, Nice wall/sponge, a pokemon without weaknesses, perish trapping.
Cons: Shedinja gets knocked off by Ttar. Maybe put sunny day/rain dance on sable?

15. Dragon
Eeew... weak to ice. Kingdra's a must have.

Weaknesses: Ice, Dragon
Resistances: Steel

C D P
1. Altaria (Perish Song, Natural Cure)
2. Salamence (DD/CB)
3. Kingdra (Special Sweeper, Removes ice weak)
4. Dragonite (SubpunchBoltBeam)
5. Flygon (Cber, Sweeper)
6. Shellgon (DD)

16. Dark
Dark's quite good. That weakness to fighting is easily countered by our favorite ghost. (Can someone suggest some better dark pokemon? I'm really bad at dark types)

Weaknesses: Fighting, Bug
Resistances: Fighting, Dark, Steel

C D P
A. TTar
B. Sableye
C. Houndoom
D. Sneasel

Pros: 2 mixed sweepers (Boah/Houndoom).
Cons: The rest of the dark pokemon are kinda useless.

17. Steel
Steel is one of the common mono teams out there. It's weakness to fire is easily shut down.

Weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, Ground
Resistances: Fire, Water, Electric, Steel
Moral of story: Do not use steel attacks.

C S P
1. Metagross
2. Skarmory
3. Registeel
4. Jirachi
5. Magneton
6. Steelix

Pros: Good all rounded pokemon, all the weaknesses are countered.
Cons: Opponents Magneton can kill choice-banded pokemon.


I've listed all the types and their Pros/Cons and their Common Pokemon. I hope with this you can make a better mono-team.

If there are any typos or suggestions or mistake, just tell me. Thanks!
 

monkfish

what are birds? we just don't know.
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Omastar for rock types, he deals easily with skarmory

Quite a few spelling mistakes/typos, also this line is wrong:

Is making a mono-team difficult?

Since every single one of your pokemon has a weakness to a single type, yes.

Actually they dont (for example Ludicolo in a water team eliminates both Water weaknesses)
 
Hey this was my first article, and i wanted to limit it to 6 pokemon per type. Only exception was phychic, it was so full until i couldn't even place celebi.

I've changed the bug section, my cousin told me that scizor and pinsir should be included.
Changed most of it based on your suggestions.

Edit: I need to fill in the list of pokemon, 6 per type. Can anyone give me suggestions?
 
I'd say this either needs to be fixed up a LOT or just rewritten by someone with more experience. Also, Fool Hi wrote an analysis about mono/theme teams, though I wasn't too satisfied about that one either.

Examples:
- you forgot Umbreon in the Dark section
- Haunter is pretty useful for a Ghost
- on a similiar note, Shelgon can make the Dragon mono uberless
- Forretress is not in the Bug mono while freaking Yanma is
- I'd say Rhydon should be over Golem for the Rock one though that's debatable
- No doubt Lanturn is much more useful in a Water mono than Lapras or even Starmie
- Piloswine kinda makes up for the Electric weakness in the Ice mono and should be mentioned because there's only four Pokemon
- Walrein could be there, it's not bad, especially since it can pack Earthquake for stupid Electrics
- Fighting has 5 filled slots, yet there's no mention of Primeape or Poliwrath
- Flying has 5 slots as well but I'm sure something like Mantine or Gyarados would be godsent. Or Charizard, or Gligar.
- Flying apparently resists and has a weakness against Electricity
- The Steel part needs more Steelix, especially since Aggron is up there who does nothing but compound Steel weaknesses. Forretress is awesome as well, if only for Explosion.

Either limit yourself to 6 Pokemon completely or don't because putting Psychic with 1000 examples and only listing 4 or 5 elsewhere doesn't make this look good.
-
 
I posted there *WITHOUT BREAKING SPECIES CLAUSE*.

Lol i'm gonna modify it a bit tommorow, and i'm just posting common pokemon used. I find out that more people use Aggron to remove weakness against fire, but well, guess that's me.
Changing a bit again, hope to get it finalized soon.
 
Aggron is still going to get 2HKOed by any Fire. Also I didn't suggest anything that would break Species Clause - using Pokemon of the same evolution line is allowed.
 

Toothache

Let the music play!
is a Community Leader Alumnus
Camerupt should be mentioned in the Ground types since it is neutral to Grass, and respond back with Fire attack/Explosion.
 
metal sound magneton/zapdos is extremely useful for mono electric

Edit:Where is Magneton lol. It's a staple in Mono electric as it is the only normal resister

nvm you mentioned it, my bad
 

Bologo

Have fun with birds and bees.
is a Contributor Alumnus
Umm...in mono-ice isn't regice really useful as well because of being able to take fire attacks with more than 50%, and also with a base 100 defense, he's not able to get OHKOed by fighting moves and rock moves either. Not to mention that he also has clear body as well, and is able to learn boltbeam. For mono-ground, I think Flygon is much better choice than Nidoking, because Flygon isn't weak to grass or water because of its part dragon type, and it's a faster, stronger choice bander than Nidoking who's immune to ground rather than being weak to it.
 
I use mono teams, though... have you noticed that?
Erm, No. I don't play every single player on netbattle.

Umm...in mono-ice isn't regice really useful as well because of being able to take fire attacks with more than 50%, and also with a base 100 defense, he's not able to get OHKOed by fighting moves and rock moves either. Not to mention that he also has clear body as well, and is able to learn boltbeam. For mono-ground, I think Flygon is much better choice than Nidoking, because Flygon isn't weak to grass or water because of its part dragon type, and it's a faster, stronger choice bander than Nidoking who's immune to ground rather than being weak to it.
Well, i'm not a good OU person, i normally play UU. So, nidoking strikes my mind first. But yeah, Flygon > Nidoking due to what you said, and levitate. But still weak to ice :)

Regiice edited inside.
 
You over looked Cradily in mono grass, which is needed to stop Mence. This is the grassers only saving grace, everything else would get sweeped after one Dragon Dance.
 
Yeah, one important thing is that you are going to have to use Pokemon in non-traditional ways on mono-type teams. For instance, mono-electric will seriously want to consider a mixed Zapdos set just because he's also the best physical sweeper you're going to get. Mono-electric, on that note, will like Amphy > Electabuzz for the meatier defenses which electric needs badly(anything that can not be OHKO'd by Duggy is nice).

Mono-normal isn't really Skarm weak; they can use p2/Clefable/Girafarig effectively as special sweepers.

CM Entei is really viable for a fire team since with a few CMs he might survive a surf. Perhaps even better is the ordinarily sucky and useless Ninetales. Basically, you use Ninetales as a sacrificial lamb and see if you can Grudge the enemy's surf. Since every fire type is weak to surf, this is well worth the loss of a Pokemon. Maintaining sun can also be important as it negates your water weakness while compounding your STAB attacks. It also opens up the option of Solarbeam which most of your Pokemon resist and that SE's water.

Yeah, mono-grass really needs Cradily. Shiftry is also important to mono-grass as he can blow up on things that were otherwise bad for you.

Mono-ice will be using Piloswine as full physical, not mixed. Sneasel is also worth considering as he can be used to actually physically attack as well. All mono-ice teams should probably run counter Regice so you can actually get rid of that thing that is OHKOing your whole team.

Fighting's real problem is indeed a dire lack of speed. A lot of your Pokemon on mono-fighting will probably want to carry HP Bug to help deal with the nasty stuff. Endure-Reversal is also viable as it lets you actually deal with something like a rampaging Aerodactyl.

Mono-ground can consider Pupitar because his ability to DD can make up for your general lack of fast sweepers.

Shedinja sucks on mono-teams as it tends to fear the same things the entire rest of the team did. Status Butterfree probably works better in the slot.

Mono-rock doesn't really far Skarm as Skarm really fears STAB Rock Slide. Cradily is a must have for the special defense.

Mono-ghost probably wants Haunter or even Duskull over Sheddy. Sheddy will just get killed by the same things the rest of them do...

Mono-dragon does really suck as a mono-team, but it can function. You'll probably want to run Kingdra as a heavy water with something like a resttalk set, and Shellgon would like a more defensive set as Sala/Draggy/Altaria all could DD better than it can.

Dark forgot Umbreon who is rather important. As per more darks, you really end up with 4 decent Pokemon(Tyranitar, Umbreon, Houndoom, Sableye) and are stuck choosing 2 things that won't do much. Personally, I would always run a high defense counter Mightyena/Crawdaunt on a mono-dark to see if I could manage to take out something that might stop the ttar sweep which is basically all you should ever play for. Absol is probably better than Sneasel due to base 130 attack also. Crawdaunt is a potentially neat option really. He gets counter and has decent defenses. He is really going to be the closest thing you'll get to a physical tank. Base 120 attack is solid too.

Mono-steel needs either endrev Scizor or Aggron so you don't get 6-0 by anything with Fire Blast.

Ok, I didn't put a lot of thought into each one, but I think that should help.
 
Ehm...
- Mono Water is EXTREMELY WEAK to Sceptile, since no water type outspeeds it. Also, EndReversalers and EndFlailers hurt a lot since the lack of decent Quick Attackers.
- Mono Ghost can use Banette as a CBer.
- A decent Mono Dragon team can only be Uber based.
- Mono Ground needs something like Gligar for speedy things and Quagsire for Water Absorb.
- Mono Dark appreciates the Sandstorm help, though Sun + Shiftry can be very useful.
 

norulz

excellent
Ehm...
- Mono Water is EXTREMELY WEAK to Sceptile
- Mono Ghost can use Banette as a CBer.
Kingdra and Rain Dance for Sceptile.

And Sableye is a must for ghosts.

-Toxic
-Knock Off
-Recover
-Seismic Toss/ Taunt - Taunt doesn't work all that great because he lacks speed.
 
Random mirror coat on max special defense and HP Pokemon might work, actually your best bet. This post used to be stupid since I thought Feraligatr got Mirror Coat.

Something like Swampert with a spread built to let it survive HP Grass will do a lot with EQ too, maybe even CBquake if you feel like it. It's not totally impossible to beat Raikou, just unreasonably difficult and reliant on prediction and trickery.
 
Mono bug needs Masquerain imo. Only way to remove Skarmory, since it's the best special sweeper out of bug. You do have Butterfree and Venomoth which are good for status but I prefer Masquerains bigger movepool.
 

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