Let's Play! Let's Play PS2: Conquering the Stadiums of Johto!

[M. Rock]

Hi there, Smogon! My name's M. Rock, and I have a thing for classic pokemon. Long story short, my old Gold Version and Transfer Pak still work perfectly, and I want to make a YouTube "Let's Play" series of Pokemon Stadium 2 with my gameboy mons! However, I can't do it alone. Based on what I have, I need ideas for a good team, as well as some good nicknames. This promises to be a fun project . I won't start until June because I have prom and graduation related stuff to square away, but I figure I'd get a head start on teambuilding. I'm going to use rentals for Little Cup, unless some one has a cool strategy I can make with GB Pokemon. Some quick notes:

• People will recieve credit for strategies and nicknames used in my LP
• After reading this thread (http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3467090), I'm much less motivated to raise Pokemon to lv. 100 for Prime Cup. I have a lot of things to do this summer, so I don't want to have to raise more than 6 lv. 100 Pokemon.
• No Crytal move tutor, so some pokes can't have Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Flamethrower
• No Ubers - I want a good challenge!
• No special egg moves for the starters like Swords Dance Meganium because no Crystal
• I can clone TMs
• I can't trade, so there are certain Pokemon I can't get (no Gengar ;_;)
• I used a glitch to get all three starters. I used a variant of the same glitch to get Thunder, Blizzard, and Fire Blast for the price of one. No GameSharks here :).
• No Silver exclusives, namely Donphan and Skarmory ;_;

So, on to team building. Pokemon that I have (I have more, but these are the only ones I think will be useful):

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· Abra lv. 5, "Mind Freak" (Psychic/Thunderpunch/Fire Punch/Ice Punch)
* Chansey lv. 5, "Fat Bitch" (Fire Blast/Toxic/Rest/Sleep Talk) (-> Blissey)
* Mareep (-> Ampharos)
· Dratini lv. 12 (M) (-> Dragonite)
* Eevee lv. 20 (M) (Now I can get the whole family)
* Entei lv. 40 (untrained)
· Exeggcute lv. 10 (M) (-> Exeggutor)
· Feraligatr lv. 53, “Gatorade” (M) (Bite/Scary Face/Strength/Surf)
· Pineco lv. 10 (M) (-> Forretress)
· Red Gyarados lv. 30, “Red”
· Heracross lv. 37, “BeetleJuce” (M) (Counter/Cut/Take Down/Endure)
· Jynx lv. 50 (Mean Look/Lovely Kiss/Ice Punch/Psychic)
· Magnemite (-> Magneton)
· Cubone lv. 5, "Boner" (M) (Earthquake/Rock Slide/Curse/Screech) (-> Marowak)
· Chikorita lv. 8 (-> Meganium) (NO SWORDS DANCE)
· Miltank lv. 15
· Nidoking lv. 52, “Neato King” (Earthquake/Fire Blast/Thunderpunch/Double Kick)
· Raikou lv. 48, “ThunderCat” (Rain Dance/Thunder/Roar/Quick Attack)
* Scyther (M) (LC)
· Shuckle (lol)
· Slowbro lv. 22
· Snorlax lv. 50, “DrFeelgood” (M) (Freshly caught!)
* Staryu lv. 40 (-> Starmie)
* Larvitar lv. 20 (-> Tyranitar)
· Tentacool lv. 36 (M) (-> Tentacruel)
· Typlosion lv. 52 (M) (Fire Punch/Earthquake/Swift/Thunderpunch)
· Teddiursa (M) (-> Ursaring)
· Wobbuffet lv. 22, “U MAD?” (M) (trololololol)

Pokemon I don't have but might need:

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· Cloyster
· Houndoom?
· Kangaskhan?
· Lapras?
· Misdreavus
· Quagsire?
· Rhydon (Trade a girl a Dragonair in Blackthorn City)
· Suicune (Find it then use Jynx to get it)
· Tauros (Found just outside Olivine City, very rare)

Items that I have:

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· 1 of every berry EXCEPT Miracle Berry
· Pink Bow
· Nevermeltice
· Hard Stone
· Miracle Seed
· LEFTOVERS x2
· Dragon Fang
· Charcoal
· Focus Band
· Sharp Beak
· Spell Tag
· Metal Coat
· Thick Club
* All evolution stones except Sun Stone (so I have Moon, Thunder, Leaf, Water, and Fire stones)

TMs:

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· I will go get all of them. At least I have multiple copies of the most important moves: Curse, Sleep Talk, Earthquake, Fire Blast, Thunder, Blizzard, Return, and Psychic, to name a few.

So, what should I use for pokemon/movesets? How many and what kind of vitamins should I give my pokemon? Who should get the coveted leftovers? Remember, this isn't GSC OU, so I don't have to worry about certain things (like Spikes or SleepTalkers).
I also need to figure out how I'm going to record this thing, probably need something better than a Flip Video camera on a tripod...

So, feel free to suggest strategies, nicknames, anything you want! :)

EDIT: There are some elementary things I already know, like replace Typhlosion's Fire Punch w/Fire Blast or level up Heracross to learn Megahorn. The ones with full movesets listed are ones I used in the in-game journey. I will eventually delete Cut from Heracross, obviously.

 

[Naix]

Little Cup back in the day, even in Round 1, was brutal. To beat it, I had to use Pokemon from my Silver Version.

The Set (WARNING: Outclassed by Scyther)

Eevee @ Polkadot Bow
Moves:
Return
Shadow Ball/Iron Tail
filler
filler
Strategy:
Raise Eevee's happiness up to max, so you can spam Return without much worry (unless you're facing a Magnemite/Geodude, but that's what teammates are for.

Pokemon I'd recommend:

recommended Pokes

Scyther @ anything, preferably Polkadot Bow
Moves:
Swords Dance
Normal-type attack
Double Team
filler

Standard SD Sweeper with incredible stats (imagine Arceus in OU, but walled by Rocks and Steels).

Chansey @ Gold Berry/Leftovers
Moves:
Rest
Sleep Talk
Toxic
Fire Blast

Toxic stalling Chansey. Fire Blast is there to roast Magnemite. Basic Strategy: come in on any special attacker that doesn't have any physical moves, and proceed to Toxic stall.

Abra @ Twistedspoon
Psychic
Thunderpunch
Fire Punch
Ice Punch

Basic coverage special attacker, not much to say about it.

Finally, I don't remember all of the rentals I used, but Voltorb and Tentacool stuck out for some reason.

 

[M. Rock]

That makes sense that Scyther and Chansey would be must-haves, considering that, stat-wise, they are fully evolved pokes compared to everything else (hell, at one point, they were fully evolved). The Abra set looks pretty nasty too, he's easily one of the fastest and strongest special attackers available.
I'll use those three, and I think Geodude would be a nice fit. He has almost as much defense as chansey has SpD, a resistance to common normal-type moves, STAB on Earthquake, and takes care of Houndour, who could pose a serious threat to Abra and Scyther.
I'll definitely give you credit on the strategies, they look badass. So training them just entails hatching them, than maxing them out on vitamins, right?

EDIT: Okay so Scyther cannot have Swords Dance because he does not learn it before level 5. The strongest spammable normal-type move he can legally have is Return, which is just fine. So Return/Double Team/Steel Wing/filler would work. Filler could constitute Counter, Reversal, Hyper Beam (as a finisher move), and Protect (for scouting).

 

[Naix]

Since most of the battles in the game are 3-on-3, strategies such as stall and bulky offense are inferior to all-out attacking, meaning fast Pokemon like Raikou, Jynx, and Tauros become more useful and ones like Snorlax and Ampharos less so. This being R1 however, bulky offensive pokes are still quite usable, and Status, especially sleep, has a great impact on the game. Also, because the matches are 3-on-3, Perish Song suddenly becomes much less gimmicky. Finally, because you can't trade, pokemon like Cloyster and Exeggutor become far from advisable for efficiency's sake, and would promote the use of others instead, like using Espeon instead of Jolteon, or Lapras over Starmie.
EDIT: I just remembered that the only way Chansey can learn Softboiled is by a Gen I TM. Removing from moveset. Removing any mentions of Brightpowder because it's not available without tradebacks. Also, Scyther learns Swords Dance at Lv. 42, so you can just raise 2 of them to Lv. 42 and breed them, but I'd only recommend that for R2.

For Poke Cup, a good in-game team will be enough to allow you to win most of it without much hassle. In fact, the team I beat Poke Cup with was my in-game team, and the only TMs I cloned were Earthquake and Psychic (said team was comprised of: 3 Starters, Togetic, Umbreon, Rental, in case you were wondering). You could probably just level Jynx and Typhlosion to 55, and have your 4 teammates cover their weaknesses/serve as mini-varians of Jynx or Typhlosion (Kadabra and Magmar/Houndoom come to mind) to be used alongside the other (Kadabra and Typhlosion, following the shown example).
TL;DR Use 2 good Pokemon, get them to Lv. 55, and your other 4 ones cover your weaknesses/add coverage/act as mini-(insert Lv. 55 Pokemon here).

For Gym Leader Castle, every one of your Pokes has to be useful in more than just 1 battle (unless said battle is almost impossible otherwise) if you want to succeed, assuming you're just using 1 whole team for the whole thing. One thing to keep in mind is that some of the Gym Leaders (Bugsy, Jasmine, etc.) switch out if the Pokemon you have out is Super-Effective on them, even if said Pokemon have no STAB for whatever reason. With this in mind, Pokemon that offer wide Super-Effective coverage are generally recommended, and don't be afraid to stick a fairly bulky one on your team, in case you get overwhelmed offensively, or just to wear down particularly threatening Pokemon (Lance's Dragonite, for example).

 

[M. Rock]

Finally, because you can't trade, pokemon like Cloyster and Exeggutor become far from advisable for efficiency's sake, and would promote the use of others instead, like using Espeon instead of Jolteon, or Lapras over Starmie.

I don't entirely understand this logic. I have all the stones (except for sun), and can clone if I need more.
I'm also questioning how much more I would need to spend on this. I realize that my teambuilding opportunities will expand if I can trade and have access to RBY TMs (like having a Tauros with access to Double-Edge). I would need one Gen I game and one more transfer pak to carry this out. One TP ($2-5) + Red or Blue ($10 at a store I know) = $15ish (neglecting sales tax). Not bad, but then I need to get a Capture Card to record this, which could go for around $50-60 for a good one. All in all, the total is not too expensive, but I'd feel like an idiot spending $70-something to play and record an out-of-date Pokemon game. Also, I want to start playing pretty soon, instead of ordering a CCard in the mail, I can get good picture with my Flip Video camera. I just need to get it at a good angle.

EDIT: Current LC team, for use with R1 and R2. Almost done, advice would be cool:

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Abra @ Berry
- Psychic
- Thunderpunch
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
Special Sweeper, faster and more powerful than most things. Pretty much covers all special attacking needs. I wish I had the Twistedspoon...

Chansey @ Gold Berry
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
ToxicStall Chansey. Takes out special attackers I can't handle, and Toxic stall doesn't take too long in LC because of everything with small HP. Gold Berry has more immediate recovery than Leftovers.

Scyther @ Pink Bow
- Return (max happiness)
- Steel Wing
- Double Team
- Protect
Good physical sweeper. I didn't know how to get SD on it @lv. 5 until Naix told me, so I'll skip SD until R2.

Cubone @ Thick Club
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Curse
- Screech
Holy crap this thing is powerful. All he needs is one Curse to be a big threat. Handles whatever the rest of the team can't.

Chinchou @ Mystic Water/healing item
- Surf
- Thunder Wave
- Supersonic
- Aurora Beam (no Ice Beam tutor in Gold)
Haven't made it yet, but I'm running out of ideas. The first four seem to cover everything. I guess Parafusion would be fun if for support, but I feel that raw offense works better. Do I need this thing?

Filler @ anything
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Can't thing of anything else worth using.

 

[Naix]

For your Chinchou, I'd advise teaching it Thunder and Rain Dance, with the last move being filler, but I'd recommend Thunder Wave, which could help Cubone set up (or sweep, if you don't get the oppurtunity to set up). While Chinchou can't learn Aurora Beam or Icy Wind, you don't have to worry because the only Pokemon that resist Water and Electric are Grass-types, which Scyther has a x4 resistance to.

I noticed that since you're using Cubone instead of Geodude, you lack a Normal resist, which is very important in LC. After looking at the eligible Normal resists you can use, Gastly is your best choice, due to a usable movepool that includes Hypnosis.

Moveset

Item: whatever works, perhaps Miracle Seed..?
Moves:
Hypnosis
Psychic
Giga Drain
Curse/Confuse Ray/other filler
Hypnosis is self-explanatory, as is Psychic. Giga Drain is there to provide (semi)reliable healing. The rest is filler. Curse and Confuse Ray (which are learned at levels 16 and 28, respectively) are slashed because there's not much else that would see use.
Pros: The only Normal resist that could be placed on your team, because Geodude, Onix, and Larvitar are outclassed by Cubone, and Magnemite is genderless, meaning no level-up or egg moves, and its TM learnset is barren.
Cons: No STAB, poor defenses on both sides.

P.S. I just checked, and you unfortunately can't get a Twistedspoon without trading from a Gen I game.