Alright, 3 more days till USUM, thought I might sign up on Smogon as well! Hello guys :)
For my team, I basically have 5 members figured out, but I really can't decide which should be the last one.
It's either:
Or:
- I started by choosing
Tyranitar and
Zoroark for the playthrough, because so far, we never had the chance to use those 2 early in a Pokemon playthrough. So these 2 will be on the team no matter what.
- The first big problem were Zoroark's and Tyranitar's glaring Fighting and Bug weaknesses. Fortunately I planned on using
Decidueye anyway, so the Ghost-typing helps compensating for this weak spot. Furthermore, Decidueye is an amazing partner for Zoroark because it attracts dark and ghost attacks, which Zoroark resists under its illusion.
- The Fighting and Bug weaknesses were still too big and I also wanted to build a fire-water-grass core, so the next team member should be a Fire type that hits both Fighting and Bug types hard. I ended up with 2 Fire-Flying types,
Talonflame and
Charizard. Talonflame was my initial choice but then I checked the movepool and noticed that it only gets Ember till level 39. That's not good, especially for someone who recently played Gold with Cyndaquil and had to deal with the same issue.
- To complete the core, I chose
Gyarados for multiple reasons. Flying as secondary type is just so good in this team because it's effective against Fighting AND Bug. And if USUM is even remotely like S&M, Gyarados will be a beast.
- Choosing the last team member is a pain. It has to be a Steel type, because so far, nothing resists Dragons and only one Pokemon resists Fairies. The 2 best contenders in my opinion are
Metagross and
Aegislash.
Metagross: Powerhouse and Tank in one package, Psychic so far not on the team, good synergy with Zoroark as it attracts Dark and Ghost types, but evolves slowly and becomes available late
Aegislash: Earlier available than Metagross, OP ability, also great synergy with Zoroark for the same reasons as above, but requires a Dusk Stone to evolve and is only available through Island Scan, also even slower than Metagross.
In either case, I think the team is pretty solid. The one thing that bothers me is that I don't have a Dragon or Ice type on my team, so dealing with Dragons will be tough. My strategy is to tank hits with my Steel type and use Gyarados's Ice Fang to beat them. That should be enough.
So, what do you think? Would you prefer Aegislash or Metagross for this team?